WET News

APRIL 2014 WET NEWS 3 T hames Water is seeking in- vestment backers in a bid to fund its controversial super-sewer in London. The water company, which is setting up a new company that will own the Thames Tideway Tunnel, is expected to formally advertise for international back- ers in May. The process is being led by investment bank UBS, and is understood that investors will be repaid with interest from increased water bills paid by Thames' customers. Thames is owned by a myr- iad of international investors from Australia, China, Abu Dhabi and even BT's pension fund Hermes. Some of these could be tempted to invest in the 15-mile sewer, which will run west to east across the capital. "We are creating a separate business, a special-purpose vehicle, to deliver the tunnel, but at the same time our cus- tomers will be paying for that A sset International is pro- viding a bespoke pipe- line system to the £220M upgrade at Thames Water's Crossness sewerage treatment works in south-east London. Thames Water, in consultation with Laing O'Rourke and Imtech Process joint venture Tamesis, chose Weholite, the high densi- Investment backers sought to nd Tideway Tunnel • Thames Water sets up new company that will own London's 'super sewer' Weholite selected for Crossness ty polyethylene (HDPE) pipe, to help reduce pollution and over- flow as part of a sewer improve- ment at the treatment works. More than 4,000m of Weho- lite HDPE pipe is being used in the project, with variations in diameters ranging from 700mm up to 2,600mm internal diame- ter. The upgraded pipeline sys- tem is designed to reduce the number of overflows and their environmental impact from the sewers and treatment systems serving London, and to limit pollution from the sewers and treatment systems connected to Beckton and Crossness STWs. 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The scheme has so far run into problems over concerns about the environmental impact of digging a new tunnel. Prelim- inary work on the tunnel, which Thames Water has insisted is needed to provide additional capacity to London's ageing sewer network, is due to start in 2015 a˜er it gets permission from the planning authorities. The Development Consent Application has been consid- ered by the Planning Inspector- ate and, subject to consent being granted, construction on the project is due to start in 2016. A decision on planning is expected in December. If approaved the project will involve 24 construction sites. Thames Water is one of the 16 water utilities required to submit new or improved busi- ness plans to Ofwat. Thames submitted plans in December last year to increase water bills by 11% for its 14 million custom- ers between 2015 and 2020 to fund the sewer. The £2.3B Thames Tideway Tunnel will help tackle the prob- lem of overflows from the capi- tal's Victorian sewers and will protect the tidal River Thames from increasing pollution for at least the next 100 years. Mike Gerrard, Thames Tide- way Tunnel managing director, said: "We are building for 22nd Century London to create a cleaner, healthier River Thames. The Thames Tideway Tunnel is needed to tackle the tens of mil- lions of tonnes of raw sewage which discharge into the tidal River Thames every year. "The river needs cleaning up and it needs to be cleaned up now." "And, as well as producing benefits in itself, the industry is currently worth about £15 billion a year to the UK economy and supports directly or indirectly more than 120,000 jobs" Pamela Taylor, chief executive, Water UK You WHAT? "AMP6 is getting exciting" Malcolm Horne, asset creation general manager, Severn Trent Water NEED To KNoW Professor Chris Binnie, who led a study group recommend- ing that the tunnel be built, believes the tunnel should be scrapped Eight joint ventures have been shortlisted for the three contracts – East, Central and West – that are worth £1.6B in total Up to 9,000 jobs are expected to be created by the scheme Construction on the project is due to start in 2015 The Planning Inspectorate completed its examination into the project last month The pipeline will reduce the number of overflows at the site "Our process aimed to encour- age high quality, customer- focused plans. South West and Affinity's plans really stood out" Sonia Brown, chief regulation officer, Ofwat "It all sounds great. A bed of roses? It's not, actually. We're at the very start of our journey" Keith Wishart, head of technology and innovation, eight 2 O

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