Tideway – Blackfriars Bridge Foreshore – 13th February 2022
I took these pictures of the Tideway’s Blackfriars Bridge Foreshore site from the top of a 63 bus on Blackfriars Bridge.
Compare the pictures with those I took on the 4th September 2021.
Tideway – Blackfriars Bridge Foreshore – 4th September 2021
I passed Tideway’s Blackfriars Bridge Foreshore site on the way home and took these pictures.
This page on the Tideway web site, gives a visualisation of the project.
Now That’s What I Call A Growing Green Business!
I took this picture as I walked back from the bus stop to my house, this morning.
For the third of our three children, we used a nappy service, where every day or so, a guy would collect a bucket of soiled cotton nappies and return a pile of clean ones.
I have images in my mind of C unwrapping them and burying her face in the pile, as it was just one of those experiences she liked. Later in life, I saw her do it with towels in a five-star hotel in Hong Kong.
Our service was provided by a guy with a van, but surely a bicycle takes a nappy service to a new level.
So many of my generation, who used real nappies on their children, swear that the children preferred them.
Certainly, with a nappy service, they were a lot easier.
I have explored the sewers of London, which I wrote about in We’re Really In It Now. The flushers told me, that disposable nappies along with wet wipes and fat from fast food eateries, are the three major problems in the sewers
So disposable nappies might be convenient, but they have to be filtered out and go into landfill.
My best wishes for Nappy Ever After in the future!
Millicent And Ursula Prepare To Go Tunnelling
I went to the Tideway Open Day today to see Millicent and Ursula before they go tunnelling.
Other than the names on the sides, you will notice that Millicent has less teeth on the business end, than her friend.
This is because Millicent will be going West from the site near Battersea Power station and Ursula will be going East.
As the geology is more challenging to the East, Ursula has more teeth.
Some points to note!
- Millicent was named after Dame Millicent Fawcett.
- Ursula was named after Audrey ‘Ursula’ Smith.
- Both machines will have a statue of Saint Barbara, who is the patron saint of miners and tunnellers.
- These machines are larger than those of Crossrail.
- A documentary is being made for television about the tunnel.
There’s more on Millicent and Ursula on the Tideway web site.
Whitechapel’s Monster Fatberg
This article on the BBC is entitled ‘Monster’ fatberg found blocking east London sewer.
It has now been cleared up and Thames Water have turned the mess into enough fuel to power three hundred and fifty buses for a day.
We’ve had these fatbergs in London before as the Guardian reported in 2015.
It seems the big problem is fast food outlets with dubious hygiene practices, who just tip the fat down the drains.
I know of someone, who had a problem with a pub near where they lived, which wasn’t handling its rubbish properly. A call to the local Council got it sorted.
So perhaps, the solution is in part, getting the Council to check the hygiene practices of all food outlets better.
Also, just as a plastic bag tax has cut their use, perhaps we need a wet wipe and a nappy tax to cut use of these products, as they are another big problem.
The Victoria Embankment Work-Site Of The Thames Tideway Tunnel
As I walked along the Thames, signs of works for the Thames Tideway Tunnel are appearing.
These pictures were taken at the Victoria Embankment Work-Site.
There is not much to see at present, but most of it is so the Tattersall Castle can be moved.
When the tunnel is finished, the site will look like this.
The main purpose of the site, is to connect the Regent Street combined sewer overflow to the main tunnel.
Anybody fancy a coffee, a drink or a meal in the sun by the Thames on top of the sewer outfall in 2021?
Pudding Mill Lane Pumping Station
Pudding Mill Lane Pumping Station is explained in this press release from Thames Water, which is entitled Olympic sewage site’s ‘Pinky and Perky’ scoop architectural award.
This is said.
The Pudding Mill Lane pumping station, which will take away sewage from the Olympic Park, can deal with up to 1,000 litres of sewage per second.
These pictures show the pumping station.
Unfortunately, it is all rather hidden by either wire fences or hoarding for Crossrail.
Pinky and Perky can just be seen in some pictures.
Marshgate Lane Goes Under Northern Outfall Sewer
Marshgate Lane is one of the main routes to get heavy equipment into the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
The pictures don’t tell the full story.
Before the construction of the Olympics started, it was a lane under the Northern Outfall Sewer, the massive set of four Victorian pipes which take away an awful lot of North London’s waste water to the pumping station at Abbey Mills before it is pumped to the Beckton works for treatment.
For the Olympics, the lane was not going to be used, but afterwards, it needed to be upgraded to a full height underpass, so that HGVs could get into the site.
So before the Olympics, a contract was negotiated to dig the underpass, through as the name Marshgate Lane suggests, not the best of soils.
I heard rumours from Thames Water engineers, that British contractors were rather pleased that the difficult contract was awarded to a German construction company.
The rumours also said that the Germans lost considerable sums of money on what was one of the more expensive projects for the Olympics.
At least they didn’t make the mistake of damaging the sewer and dumping the proceeds from over a million or so toilets all over the Olympic site.
They’d have really been in the sh*t then!
Walking To The Eynsham Drive Bridge At Abbey Wood
My walk yesterday to take the pictures of Crossrail at Eynsham Drive and Abbey Wood station started at Plumstead station, where I crossed the High Street and then found the end of the Ridgeway, which is on top of the Southern Outfall Sewer. I took these pictures as I walked to Harrow Manor Way, that led into Abbey Wood, where I turned off into Eynsham Drive..
It is mostly, a typical estuarial industrial landscape with a quantity of uninspiring housing, although the space between the Ridgeway and the rail lines is going to be transformed, as Crossrail sidings are being built here.
You can understand why Stanley Kubrick shot Clockwork Orange in the area.
Thames Tideway Tunnel Site – Albert Embankment Foreshore
Index Thames Tideway Tunnel Sites Albert Embankment Foreshore
The Albert Embankment Foreshore site must have given the Secret Intelligence Service kittens, as it is going to be located across the front of their famous building. I also went to a lecture at University College London, which said that in the river at this point, there are prehistoric structures.
Thames Water say this on the Thames Tideway Tunnel web site.
Work will comprise construction of a new area of reclaimed land in the foreshore, in front of Camelford House for a shaft approximately 48 metres deep with an internal diameter of approximately 16 metres. Connection to the existing sewers will be made within a second new area of reclaimed land underneath Vauxhall Bridge and in front of the Vauxhall Cross building. These two areas will be connected under the foreshore. The shaft is required to transfer sewage flows from the combined sewer overflows to the main tunnel.
Once construction is complete there will be new public space extending into the foreshore providing a viewing platform to Central London, benches and intertidal terraces. The Thames Path will be widened to allow pedestrians to be diverted in front of (rather than underneath) Camelford House.
It is certainly a large set of works in the area, which they also say will link the Clapham Storm Relief and Brixton Storm Relief sewers to the new Thames Tideway Tunnel. This is a visualisation of how the completed site will look
Albert Embankment Foreshore
Joseph Bazalgette would be pleased at the expansion of his Albert Embankment. These are a few pictures I took around Vauxhall Bridge.
There is certainly scope to improve the river in this area.
The Anonymous Widower 