Is Molley The Runt Of The Litter?
I don’t know what the collective noun is for tunnel boring machines. But if it is litter, then surely Molley is the runt. According to this article in Construction Index she is the smallest machine used in the construction of Crossrail.
TBM Molley will build a new Thames Water sewer in west London. She is just 1.45m in diameter and 3.3m long. The main TBMs digging the train tunnels, by contrast, are 7.1m diameter and 150m long. Molley is too small to carry workers on board so is controlled remotely from the surface.
Molley is being used to build a new sewer, as the current one will be in the way of construction works for the tracks.
Thames Water Gets It Wrong Again
Thames Water has just announced that it is applying to put up water bills. It is reported here on the BBC. Here’s the first couple of paragraphs.
Thames Water has asked its regulator, Ofwat, for permission to raise prices.
It wants to put up bills by about £29 per household during 2014-15, but has asked Ofwat if it can spread the rise over more than one year.
I have been privileged to go on a Thames Water tour of the sewers a couple of years ago, so I know some of the problems they face in dealing with London’s sewage and delivering the city’s water.
But I can’t help comparing the way they handle their customers, with the way Crossrail deals with those who might use their new railway.
From the burst water mains in Herne Hill, Notting Hill and Regent Street recently to the timing of announcements of price rises, they either seem to be unlucky or have no sense of how to use positive information to get customers on their side in a small way. For instance, where is the parallel archaeology project to the Super Sewer, like Crossrail’s one with their new rail line?
We’ve also seen no report on what caused the fatberg in Kingston recently? This would appear to be something that was beyond their control. So why not be honest?
I have seen no reports too, about some of the superb water and sewage engineering, put in by Thames Water at the Olympic site. And where’s the sewer cam on the Internet, that can show the conditions that they have to deal with?
Thames Water seem to be going out of their way to attract bad publicity.
They Must Have A Lot Of Burger And Kebab Joints In Kingston
According to lots of reports, like this one in the Metro, the sewers in Kingston have been blocked by a fatberg which is the size of a London bus.
The last report of this type of blockage was in Leicester Square, which I was told on good authority, when I visited the sewers was close to McDonalds.
So I can only conclude that they have a lot of fast food restaurants in Kingston.
We’re Really In It Now
I was also given a tour of part of the Northern Outfall Sewer at Hackney Wick.
These pictures were not taken by me, as you can see I was rather protected again the effluent from half of London’s drains and toilets.
Note the quality of the brickwork, which is over a hundred years old, with some nearly fifty years older than that!
It should also be noted, that I was breathing a lot better in the sewer. I suppose there isn’t much pollen down there!
I also didn’t have any problems walking in the almost thigh high water. You have to feel your way with your feet, but then I was taught to do this in industrial environments that may be dangerous, by Health and Safety when I worked for ICI in the 1960s. The only problem I had was that when I first got down there it took a couple of minutes for my eyes to be able to see things properly.
But I survived it with ease and the only thing I couldn’t do was take the photos. The photos incidentally were taken by Daniel, who has his own blog called The Sewerman’s Log. It’s an excellent well-written insight into the day-to-day happenings in London’s sewers and what it is really like to work up-to-your-waist in things that polite society doesn’t talk about. This post is a good place to start in his blog, as it gives a good summary of the problems and also gives an insight into how Dan Snow was kitted up for his recent television series.
The Anonymous Widower 