It’s not often WJ are featured in the national press, however we very recently had the honour of appearing in articles on both the
Daily Mail and
London Evening Standard websites about the
Thames Tideway project currently underway through
central London.

Much of the current sewer network underneath London date back to the mid-19
th century when they were constructed under the guidance of the visionary engineer
Sir Joseph Bazalgette. Over this time the population of London has more than doubled, and therefore these Victorian Sewers lack the required capacity. To tackle this problem a new 25km
‘super sewer’ running along the tidal section of the
River Thames, through
Central London, is being constructed, with new
Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs) and
shafts being constructed at a number of iconic sites including
Blackfriars, along
Chelsea Embankment, along
Albert Embankment, along
Victoria Embankment and adjacent to
Battersea Power Station at
Kirtling Street.

The
Kirtling Street site, is one of a number where dewatering is required, and there are few companies more accustomed to the dewatering requirements in Central London than WJ! The challenges of dewatering in the
Battersea area are particularly well known to WJ having undertaken works for the nearby
Battersea Power Station redevelopment, the
New American Embassy in Nine Elms, and the
Northern Line extension, as well as
numerous smaller projects.

At the Kirtling Street site a 32m diameter shaft, over 60m deep, is being constructed as part of the
Tideway works. As the shaft is being constructed with a
diaphragm wall the groundwater in the upper aquifers of the
River Terrace Deposits will be cut-off, however it was necessary for WJ to install passive relief wells in to the
Lower Aquifers of the
Chalk to relieve groundwater pressures and to ensure that as the shaft was sunk, the
stability of its base was maintained. The purpose of the
shaft was to allow the construction of
Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) launch adits. To allow these
adits to be constructed
dewatering was required, predominantly installed from ground level, where 16 new wells were installed to dewatering the
Chalk and
Lambeth Group (in addition to existing wells). However access wasn’t always available from ground level, so WJ were required to use their experience of
in-tunnel drilling from
Crossrail to install over 60
inclined tunnel and shaft wells to again dewater the
Lambeth Group.

The Thames Tideway project is expected to play a major part of WJs near future with dewatering required at a number of sites throughout London prior to the expected completion date of 2023. You can read more about the projects at:
The Daily Mail The London Evening Standard Tideway
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