The Mayor Calls in the Supersewer
I know it’s election time and there are votes to be won, but I’m pleased that Boris has called in Thames Water proposal for a super sewer under the Thames. As I said in a previous post.
Although I should say, that as someone who has spent a lot of time around project management and managers, I will say that what gets built in the end, will be quite unlike what was originally proposed. That’s what good project management is about. It makes a project better, cheaper and less disruptive.
Let’s hope the engineers prove me right. Unfortunately, some of the alternatives, like stopping householders from creating hard-staandings in their front garden, are sometimes more unpopular than the super sewer.
Abbey Mills Is Revealed
Abbey Mills Pumping station sits like a Moorish castle on the Greenway guarding the Olympic Park.
I’m pleased to see that the years of vegetation have been cleared and it now appears as the great Victorian building it was designed to be. Note that the signpost sits on the south-east corner of the pumping station site. You have good views towards Canary Wharf and the Olympic Park.
I carried on to West Ham, where they are building a lift to make it easier to get to the station.
Wot No Fountains!
It is always reckoned that if you want it to rain on your event, you ask the Queen, as she is renowned for bringing the rain.
But the current drought has even stopped the fountains in Trafalgar Square, as this article in the Telegraph outlines. Here’s two pictures I took today.
The visitors don’t seem too bothered. The Queen’s bad luck doesn’t seem to be having any effect. It will of course bucket down at the Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics
Around Chambers Wharf
Chambers Wharf has made the news recently, as Thames Water want to make it one of the sites from where London’s Thames Super Sewer is to be built. So I went and had a look round this lunchtime.
I couldn’t actually see much of the site as it is surrounded by blue fencing. But it strikes me that if they do any serious digging from here, that because the site is so close to the Thames, any serious engineer would take the spoil out that way. If Thames Water don’t do that it will probably cost them a lot more, as lorry journeys through a city like London are always delayed by traffic and only carry a few tonnes, whereas a proper barge can carry many times more. If we look at the Olympic site, a lot of materials like concrete and spoil were moved in and out by rail. Also go to Pudding Mill Lane and look at the portal for CrossRail, which is for two much larger tunnels, where the spoil will probably be removed by train. So opponents of the use of the Chambers Wharf site, who say there will be thousands of lorry journeys are not talking engineering sense. The site is also quite large and the hole is only going to be under thirty metres wide, so there should be quite a lot of space for machinery to move the spoil to the river.
I have no direct interest in whether the sewer is built, but I have a friend, who used to live in an area of London, that flooded badly every ten or so years. The sewer will hopefully stop all that.
Although I should say, that as someone who has spent a lot of time around project management and managers, I will say that what gets built in the end, will be quite unlike what was originally proposed. That’s what good project management is about. It makes a project better, cheaper and less disruptive. Hopefully, because of the sensitivity of this project, Thames Water will follow the example of Transport for London on the East London Line and hire the best people and contractors to build the sewer.
I was upset though to see the bench that had held Doctor Salter’s statue is now bare. A picture of it is in this set of pictures.
Abbey Road Station
In the next few days or so, cable thieves permitting, the new extension of the DLR will open to Stratford International.
This will mean there will be a new station called Abbey Road.
I wonder how long after it opens, the first tourists turn up looking for the famous recording studios, where the Beatles made most of their records.
Perhaps the station should have been called Abbey Mills or Bazalgette, in honour of the Northern Outfall Sewer and the Abbey Mills Pumping Station nearby.
Planning for the August Bank Holiday
As I’ve said before, I hate bank holidays.
For next Monday though I have a plan. Whilst I was travelling in Tottenham, I saw on the map a building named as Markfield Beam Engine and Museum.
I shall be going as it is in steam on the Monday.
I could even go to the football in the evening at Ipswich!
But the aim is to enjoy myself and judging by the way they are playing at the moment, a team made up of eleven fit men in the North Stand could do better.
Flooding in East Yorkshire
I’ve just been watching the flash floods in East Yorkshire and there is more here on the BBC web site.
It looked like a modern housing estate was flooded. Was it built on a flood plain as many are? If so surely, the stupid council, who gave planning permission, should pay for the damage. And what about the architect, who created beautiful brick car parking spaces that just prevent the water soaking into the ground and just channel it into the houses.
These little boxes should never be built without a proper flood assessment. After this, they’re probably uninsureable anyway.
In the same report on the web, it says that a Tesco in York had to close because the roof started to leak. If it had been a green roof with perhaps grass on it, the problem might not have happened. If Adnams can do it in silly Suffolk, surely everyone can. Here are the reasons for a green roof from the design brief.
To reduce the visual impact of the building.
To reduce heat transfer into the building and to regulate the buildings core temperature.
To reduce water run-off and burden on drainage.
That all seems logical to me.
The roof incidentally was built by Sky Garden Greenroofs. I wonder how many Tescos and other supermarkets have green roofs? I think in the UK, one Co-op does.
Thames Water Can’t Win
There is a big row brewing in London about the Super Sewer that will run down the middle of the Thames.
The problem isn’t about foul water, but mainly about heavy rain causing problems, when it overloads the current system, which then causes foul water to be forced out onto the streets and into the Thames.
When I went down the sewers, I was given a presentation on the Super Sewer and totally understand that something must be done.
The question is what.
Some things don’t help.
London had 55,000 sewage blockages last year. Many are caused by inappropriate things, like chip fat, disposable nappies and general rubbish being put down the toilet. I’ve been told and not by Thames Water, I should add, that in tower blocks some residents are too lazy to walk down with their rubbish and use the toilet instead. There was also the notorious fatberg in Leicester Square outside a fast food restaurant.
Thames Water has launched a Bin it – Don’t Block it campaign.
There are also lots of people who have concreted over their front garden, which means that the water now runs off immediately.
You could argue that if you have a concreted front garden, then you should pay an extra drainage rate. I have a small patio between my front door and the road and wouldn’t mind paying a charge on a pro-rata basis. I also have a mature tree, which I think is a hornbeam, between the patio and the road, which might be bad for my hay fever, but it soaks up an awful load of water.
My Roadside Tree – A Hornbeam?
On a similar tack, new buildings should have plenty of green space and trees. But often this restricts the places to park cars and other vehicles.
Those that object to the Super Sewer use two main arguments.
The first is that it might not work and the second is that it will cost too much.
But most of the opposition is just the usual Nimbys, who don’t want construction near them. How many of these peple use disposable nappies on their babies? We never did in London, as in those days of the 1970s, there was still an affordable nappy service, where clean nappies were delivered regularly and the dirty ones taken away. The trouble is today’s parents are seduced by advertising. They may be all for saving the whale and the tiger, but when it comes to stopping sewage blockages, then that is not their problem.
So what do I think should be done?
Obviously, we first need to stop the blockages. This is mainly a publicity problem to get people to change their bad habits. If they won’t then more draconian solutions like the banning of disposable nappies and extra water taxes on fast food restaurants will be pushed for and might have to come in.
One idea I’d like to see tried is a SewerCam on the Greenway, showing what was going on beneath their feet in the Northern Outfall Sewer.
Thames Water have the start of a private museum at the old Abbey Mills Pumping Station, but where is the London Museum of Water and Sewage?
New technology has a part to play too.
On the Olympic Park all of the toilets and grass watering is going to be fed from recycled water, in part taken from the Northern Outfall Sewer.
Are London’s many parks kept green in the same way. I suspect many just use mains water, which just adds to the problem.
Surely someone could come up with a small water purification plant, that uses water collected from say housing estates to water the nearby parks.
We should also stop the covering of gardens with concrete and decking and make sure that all new buildings reuse all of the water they collect on their roofs.
But I’m afraid that if we use all the tricks we have available, we will probably need to put a Super Sewer under the Thames.
Pictures of the London Wetland Centre
I took quite a few pictures and some are shown here.
Note the Nene or Hawaiian Goose, which is the state bird of Hawaii. It is the world’s rarest goose and was once down to about twenty individuals. But these were collected by Sir Peter Scott at WWT Slimbridge and now there is a healthy population that has been reintroduced to its original home.
Sir Peter was the son of the famous Antartic explorer, but in my view was the much greater person, as he excelled in so many different fields. Everyone should read more about this remarkable man. Start at Wikipedia.
Remember though that people of my age are biased about Sir Peter and Sir David Attenborough, as they were the people who did more to shape intelligent television about the planet and its wildlife in the 1950s than anybody else. People forget that there was only one channel and when the BBC started a second one to compete with ITV, Sir David was one of its first controllers.
A Visit to the London Wetland Centre
I’d been wanting to go for some time and felt that as this morning was hot, it might be a bit cooler to stand amongst the old reservoirs, that now make up the London Wetland Centre. So I took the North London Line to Gunnersbury, then a few stops back on the District line to Hammersmith and then a 283 bus to the centre.
283 Bus at the London Wetland Centre
It wasn’t a difficult ride and using the Overground to go from North East to South West London is preferable than the Underground, as the views are better and the trains are a lot more comfortable in hot weather.
The Peter Scott Visitor Centre
The centre is impressive and very much worth a visit. I stayed for a couple of hours and walked around the site observing the various birds. Not that I know much about what is what without a book and some binoculars, which I had forgot to take. Although the signage was good and very much in a style that Sir Peter would have approved of. Ponds are laid out by habitat and country or continent, with a large wild area that attracts all of the birds that either live in or visit London.
When it started to rain, I had a coffee in the excellent cafe, which I checked as to whther they knew their gluten-free or not! They did incidentally.
I then left on the bus to Hammersmith, before taking the Metropoitan line to King’s Cross to get the bus home.
Hammersmith Station on the Metropolitan line
The picture shows the Metropolitan line station at Hammersmith, which has been refurbished since the Undergound reorganised the Circle line. It certaining looked better than it did, when I went with my father from Wood Green to Earl’s Court avoiding the deep Tube lines. Anybody in their right mind would have used the Piccadilly line all the way. But my father had a phobia of deep lines, so went by steam train to King’s Cross, Metropolitan line to Hammersmith and then back to Earl’s Court on the District.
The Anonymous Widower 