The 17.5 metre-high shed was built to contain noise and dust pollution at Tideway’s Greenwich pumping station site to enable tunnelling to carry on 24 hours a day.

Insulated acoustic panelling meant that work on a 4.5km connection tunnel linking Greenwich to the main super sewer could continue with minimal disruption to local residents.

Now, after nearly five years of underground work and the completion of the tunnelling work, the shed – 20 metres wide and 60 metres long – is being dismantled.

Antoine Cheval, the project manager overseeing the works for Tideway, said: “Removing this giant shed from site is a major milestone for our work at Greenwich pumping station. Every single pre-cast concrete segment to create the tunnel as well as every inch of excavated spoil has come through this structure over the past few years.

“So to be finally taking it down is a huge achievement and brings the project and London closer than ever to its ultimate goal of protecting the River Thames from sewage pollution.”

The £4.5bn Thames Tideway project is now more than 90% complete and in line with the 2023/24 business plan. This includes the completion of the tunnel secondary lining works, other civils work at 95% complete, and architecture and landscaping at 49% complete.

The project remains on track for system commissioning (testing) to start in 2024, diverting live storm flows of untreated sewage away from the River Thames for the first time. Full handover to Thames Water is scheduled for 2025.

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