Utility Scottish Water is to build a 3.1 mile-long wastewater tunnel in the south of Glasgow as part of the biggest upgrade of the city’s wastewater network in more than a century.
The £100 million tunnel, which will be the biggest storm water storage tunnel in Scotland, is hoped to help resolve water quality and reduce flooding issues at key locations in the area served by the Shieldhall Wastewater Treatment Works (WWTW).
It will be a major part of Scottish Water’s £250 million, five-year programme of work announced in February to upgrade the wastewater network in the Glasgow area.
The biggest investment in the network since Victorian times, Scottish Water said the upgrade will improve river water quality and the natural environment of the River Clyde and its tributaries.
The tunnel will be 4.65 m in diameter, big enough to fit a double-decker bus inside and more than five times as long as the Clyde Tunnel.
Work is expected to start in mid-2014 and take three and a half years to complete, including preparatory work, mine working consolidation and utility diversion work.
The new wastewater tunnel will transfer combined sewer flows (surface water such as rainfall and waste water from properties) and provide storm storage (of heavy rainfall).
Elsewhere in the country, London utility Thames Water is in the stages of implementing a £4.1 billion Thames Tunnel – a giant sewer tunnel constructed nearly 70 meters below ground and connecting over 30 polluting sewer overflows currently spilling into the Thames after heavy rainfall (see WWi story).
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