The Thames Tideway Project is a major new sewer, designed with the purpose of protecting the River Thames from pollution.

London’s Victorian sewerage system is no longer fit for purpose and under heavy flow conditions it can spill millions of tonnes of sewage into the river each year.

The Tideway project is building a tunnel to tackle the problem of overflows from London’s sewers for the next 100 years. The Tunnel will follow the path of the River Thames, deep below the river bed. It will have multiple connections into the existing Sewer system, which will aim to collect the “overflow” that would previously have been discharged into the River.

This will deliver a huge boost to the water quality of the River Thames.

Clear Route Involvement

To enable the design and successful construction of the connections to the Sewer, the precise position of the existing Outfalls has to be known.

To facilitate the location of these existing assets Clear Route Limited were engaged to carry out the 3D Mapping and Location of Several Storm Relief Sewers and their outfalls to enable the design and construction of accurate connections to the Thames Tideway “Super Sewer”.

Method

To gain accurate details of the location and exact shape of the existing Sewer Networks that Tideway will connect to Clear Route decided that the most appropriate method of Survey was a Laser Scanner (Leica P40). This enabled fast and accurate mapping of the Sewer Network, minimising time spent in a hazardous working environment as well as facilitating the production of highly detailed 3D models models and line and level data.