Repairs to the Northern Outfall Sewer in London UK

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Yes, Its true but i was on the outside of the sewer, not in it much to the delight of my other half, so whats involved? Well basically the bridges that go over the rivers that also carry the sewer pipes are in drastic need of repair, You need to remember we're looking at over 150 years ago, before the titanic, where everything was held together by a rivet. (Although the actual sewers are bolted??)Anyway heres a little history of what the Northern Outfall Sewer is all about.The Northern Outfall Sewer (NOS) is a major gravity sewer which runs from Wick Lane in Hackney to Beckton sewage treatment works in east London (east of Stratford); most of it was designed by Joseph Bazalgette after an outbreak of cholera in 1853 and "The Big Stink" of 1858.Prior to this work, central London's drains were built primarily to cope with rain water, and the growing use of flush toilets frequently meant that they became overloaded, flushing mud, shingle, sewage and industrial effluent into the River Thames. Bazalgette's London sewerage system project included the construction of intercepting sewers north and south of the Thames; the Southern Outfall Sewer network diverts flows away from the Thames south of the river.In total five interceptor sewers were constructed north of the Thames; three were built by Bazalgette, two were added 30 years later:The northernmost (High Level Sewer) begins on Hampstead Hill and is routed past Kentish Town and Stoke Newington and under Victoria Park to the start of the Northern Outfall Sewer at Wick Lane.Two middle level sewers serve parts of central London and also join the Northern Outfall Sewer at Wick lane:One begins close to Kilburn and runs along Edgware Road, Euston Road and past King's Cross, through Islington to Wick Lane.The other runs from Kensal Green, under Bayswater and along Oxford Street, then via Clerkenwell and Bethnal Green to Wick lane.Two low-level sewers stretch from west London:One starts from near Ravenscourt Park, passes under Hammersmith and Kensington, Piccadilly, the Strand, Aldwych, the City and Aldgate to Abbey Mills.The second begins in Hammersmith, crosses under Fulham and then runs along the Kings Road and Cheyne Walk from where it becomes an integral part of the Thames Embankment. Western pumping station near Chelsea Bridge helps maintain the necessary gravity flow, taking sewage on along Millbank, the Victoria Embankment and Tower Hill, then north-east under Whitechapel, Stepney and Bow to Abbey Mills.[1]The flows from the two low level sewers are raised by some 40 feet (12.2 m) into the Northern Outfall Sewer at Abbey Mills Pumping Station to join the flows from the High and Middle Level sewers.The remaining sections of the NOS carry the sewage from Abbey Mills to the treatment plant at Beckton. The creation of the NOS was a massive undertaking, and involved the construction of both huge embankments and several bridges.The GreenwayToday, the eastern end of the Northern Outfall Sewer, running some 4.5 miles (7.2 km) from Wick Lane, Bow to Beckton has been landscaped to form a public footpath/cycleway called The Greenway with access points along its length. Signage is made from old sewerage pipes.Building the original sewers, its amazing that were looking at something which has lasted and is still in use today!Ok the above shows the road surfaced moved away exposing the sewer (under the Blue tarpaulin) The contract involved adding steel beams to the bridge to support it whilst repairs are carried out but a specialist company.this is the point where it comes out the ground and exits over the river.Nice a gloomy, A typical UK summer scene, notice the Old Olympic stadium in the backround, now home to West Ham Football Club
Reply:The steelwork being transported to the siteThere is no road only a footpath, so we had to be careful about pedestrians The first of the support steels going downOne of the tubular braces going downThe First Stage now Finished....
Reply:The new concrete bridge and the old   ;DEven more steelwork coming down the footpath, look at my little ford van in the background!Bit of a job to squeeze through in some places, the bridge has these concrete structures left over from world war 2 in in case the Germans came over the bridge, god knows why we still have them!The Main frame assembledOld steel work cut out to accept connectionsYou can see by all the crap in the picture below we had our work cut outA picture of the Shear Bolt connection, those bolts are so toughThis is how they work, you need a special shear bold wrench which has an amazing torque, it tightens up the bolts and then snaps off the end when its reached the right torque.
Reply:OK, Now where on the second phase, you can see in the picture below the first part is covered with plywood  just to offer some protection and to stop people falling in between the pipesThe second part is much largerSee the actual sewer pipes, Cast iron and about 150 years old, amazingThe edges of the bridge are badly rusted as you can see in the picture below This is the part of the bridge thats getting repaired...never seen so much rust as well as pigeon nests and loads of POOP!Heres one of the end connections that secure the steelwork to the bridge, we couldn't weld or drill into the steelwork, so using shear bolts are the next strongest thing to use to get a super tight connection between new and oldLast edited by Gerry1964; 06-09-2014 at 02:04 PM.
Reply:You get all the fun jobs.......zap!I am not completely insane..Some parts are missing Professional Driver on a closed course....Do not attempt.Just because I'm a  dumbass don't mean that you can be too.So DON'T try any of this **** l do at home.
Reply:Nice to see the river was still busy despite the work that was going onUnderneath the bridge you can see the original sewer pipes, The pipes are about 10ft  round and pretty heavyThe steels going downand Basically thats it, for this section of the sewer, Theres more to do, but on this particular stretch, in 1976 the IRA tried to blow it up thinking it was the main water mains to central London, lol, even i could smell the difference and i'm standing on top of it, Anyway they cocked up and the sewer was quickly repaired, Them poor old boys must of stunk for weeks afterwards.Its a great feeling to be repairing a structure which is older than the Titanic, and an important part of our History in the UK.
Reply:Originally Posted by zapsterYou get all the fun jobs.......zap!
Reply:That is really cool work. Thanks for posting the pictures.TOO MANY TOOLS & NO MORE SPACE
Reply:Wow! "Big  job", would be an understatement!  Great pictures!
Reply:Originally Posted by 7A749Nice to see you around bro!Glad you're staying busy Gerry!
Reply:Originally Posted by BrianCWow! "Big  job", would be an understatement!  Great pictures!
Reply:Thanks for sharing Jerry.  Must be fun working with historical projects such as that.Weld like a "WELDOR", not a wel-"DERR" MillerDynasty700DX,Dynasty350DX4ea,Dynasty200DX,Li  ncolnSW200-2ea.,MillerMatic350P,MillerMatic200w/spoolgun,MKCobraMig260,Lincoln SP-170T,PlasmaCam/Hypertherm1250,HFProTig2ea,MigMax1ea.
Reply:Originally Posted by shovelonThanks for sharing Jerry.  Must be fun working with historical projects such as that.
Reply:Thanks for sharing those pics. And especially the old photos. I love seeing pics from way back in the day.  Originally Posted by zapsterYou get all the fun jobs.......zap!
Reply:Originally Posted by Mick120Sh!t said the King, and 30,000 arseholes strained in unison.....  Gerry, I've watched a couple of documentaries on the building of those lines.....amazing for their day and, even still amazing they're still in use and will be for many years to come.Some of the old steam pumps were bloody huge.Thanks for sharing the pics mate....