Sewer Cycling Below London

Sewer Cycling Below London

(Photo by South West News Service)

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Six cyclists recently had the opportunity to ride their bikes nearly 200 feet below the surface of London inside a 2.8-mile-long sewer.

The “super” sewer is being constructed by Tideway London for Thames Water. Construction began in 2016 and is on track to be completed in 2025. The large sewer will remove 95% of about 40 million tonnes of untreated wastewater that currently spills into the River Thames every year.

Tideway London employees working on the project were given an opportunity to buy raffle tickets to win a chance to take their bikes down into the new sewer. A total of 360 raffle tickets were bought, raising £1,535 for charity.

The winners were squeezed into a crate and lowered into the tunnel via a crane. It took two minutes to reach the sewer floor.

“The event went really well and everyone had a really good time. It’s a once in a lifetime experience,” Taylor Geall, media relations manager at Tideway London, told South West News Service.

Heather Glass, regulation manager for Tideway London, explained the experience to Cycling Weekly: “I've been on the project for seven years. But it was my first time down in the tunnel. It's not super-challenging. You need to ride a little way away from the bottom of the sewer because there is a little bit of just water that collects there. And every now and then you have to cycle a little bit up the side of the tunnel to avoid a bit of infrastructure but it's not like being in a velodrome — you're not on the side at a 45-degree angle. I feel really privileged to have been able to be one of the few people to do it.”



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