Series 5a, Manchester

Another example of UU cleaning up it's act...

This age old sewer overflow has been modified in recent years to include a modern screening chamber and an offline detention tank and pumping system.

Evidence of which can be seen both above and below ground.

When the system is at capacity, the trunk sewer dumps it's load via the CSO, processing machinery filters the solids, and any discharge fills a large detention tank downstream.

As well as gracing the Irwell with some of Manchesters finest nuggets.

There is also a large Penstock which is operated manually from a split lid in the UU compound above.

My assumption is this is closed off when they come and pump the contents of the tank back into the sewer (this I concluded after having seen some plans for the place).

Once again I was in the area trying to locate something else I have had my eye on, and decided to take a look at this as it's been on my list of leads for a while now.

Imagine my surprise again when I instantly recognised it as being something that concreteJungle had previously discovered, haha :)

Still it was worth a look and good to finally see what lay below those grids, and despite the rain setting in I decided to press on as I'd already gone to the trouble to slide down the steep riverbank!

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Hidden amongst the now overgrown bank of the Irwell is an age old 4ft Brick Egg, the top section looked to be stone, but had been rendered in recent years and was dense with foliage.

A tree has also taken root, which has blown out some of the brickwork within the last 2ft or so of the outfall

Clambering across I soon got a whiff of fresh, a good sign that my man flu was lifting, so I decided to head on in and give my lungs a quick blast.

The Egg shaped overflow

Stoopy, and a misty cloud of p00p lingering within

Luckily it was only a short distance before it joined the first inspection chamber.

I stopped briefly to stretch my back & grab a quick shot before crawling up the stoopy 1m RCP.

(as seen on the right in the below pic)

Approx 20m up of the stoopy RCP is another inspection chamber, which incorporates a smaller overflow.

Having climbed over the filth, a 'curved weir' connects 2 x 4ft pipes.

The right hand one leads to a dropshaft marked by a Warning sign, and the left hand one connects to the screened CSO via a 3m stretch of concrete pipe.

Once inside the CSO air quality wasn't great, also there is a huge Penstock hanging above the overflow, both which would make for a brown underpants moment if things went wrong :D

I climbed up onto the escalator of crap to take a look at the trunk sewer beyond, which flows peacfully from right to left.

For the 10 minutes or so spent in here grabbing a few shots I wasn't feeling it at all, and was glad to be finally back out for a gulp of fresh air.

Which begs the question, why do I do this ?