Hulme Flume (Upgraded), Manchester 2013/14

Ojay/Nickindroy...

A recent overhaul has seen the Irwell Storm Relief Culvert (a.k.a Hulme Flume) intersected near to it's existing outfall, with a large screening chamber/detention tank retro fitted.

The proposed solution is quite straight forward here, addressing 3 Unsatisfactory Intermittent Discharges from the Work 9, Outfall A & B sewers within the Hulme area.

A sizeable below ground screening chamber has been constructed, consisting of 3 x 3m escalated screens to remove solids in excess of 6mm from the flow prior to discharge into the River Irwell.

These screened solids are retained and returned by gravity to the adjacent sewer.

The chosen site location was largely down to sufficient land available to screen the combined flows from the 3 UID's at one location.

And also minimising disruption looking at some of the early proposals that weren't rubber stamped.

It was good to finally see this project completed, although I didn't find it anywhere near as aesthetically pleasing as the similar setup over at SSSI.

See below, How to flush £7 million quid down the toilet

Residents of "The Rainy City" know all about the Irwell and the Manchester Ship Canal, but there's a secret watercourse buried under the heart of Manchester that is all set for a massive makeover.

The brick-lined drain under Chester Road carries up to 12 tonnes of rainwater a second away from the city centre.

Dating back to the turn of the last century, prevents roads, homes and businesses from being flooded, United Utilities says it needs £7m to bring it up to date.

The water company plans to build an underground chamber the size of a warehouse around the brick structure.

It will house 3 metre tall screens to strain out the rubbish and sanitary litter that would otherwise end up in the Manchester Ship Canal.

Work finally started mid 2013 and was supposed to be finished by December 2014..

What a surprise they still haven't completed the work above ground (landscaping and such).

These lads sure know how to "work hard behind the scenes".

Every time I've poked my head in they've been busy enjoying a safety brew, and no wonder the project ran beyond it's deadline.

Maybe UU ought to stick pics of cranes & excavators on their hoarding instead of a brew, as it appears these lads have had more breaks than Steve Davis!

I've had a few out of hours strolls of my own here whilst it was under construction too.

The site has been a bone of contention for me, namely adverse weather.. Welcome to Manchester twinned with precipitation!!

If 12 tonnes of rainwater coming at you doesn't sound like sport, neither does having to swiftly leave the site empty handed :(

In fairness, there wasn't a great deal to see until the project was coming to a close on this one, they didn't 'break into' the existing overflow until lastminute.com.


Work, Rain, Work and a metric fuck tonne of Rain later...

One afternoon whilst on my commute home, I decided to take a detour and have another sniff in.

A temporary shaft had appeared just off Chester road and dropped right into the flume.

Conveniently, it was just outside the compound and was a doddle, as quick as you could say Lickety Split I was back in town under the cover of darkness.

The heavens once again decided to open, and now secca had clocked me FFS!

Not to be deterred, I returned a couple of nights later from another piece of the system and re-united myself once more with the downstream stretch of filth.

Pikey sewer, by Nickindroy

Winding down towards St. George's, the levels started to rise, knee deep in arse soup I had to somehow remain silent as I trudged on below the compound.

The previous 48 hours had seen it belt down, the temporary pumps appeared to be working here unlike SSSI, and was about as fresh as it could possibly get.

Obtaining pics on follow up trips as work progressed proved a struggle as the place had more steam than Ivor the engine!

A short while later I checked in again to see what's what.

The screening chamber was now covered and the escalated screens had since been installed

Along with the associated plumbing to return screened debris back to the nearby sewer.

Also, the temporary dam had now been removed, leaving the original overflow almost dry again.

The primary overflow chamber
 downstream of the first dissection of the flume

Beyond which, the escalated screens and a smaller penstock on the right allow excess spill flows at capacity to enter the detention tank and continuation of the existing relief culvert.

On follow up trips, the upstream penstocks had been isolated independently during commissioning of the system.

The screens were doing a grand job of holding the rags & lady plasters back

Beyond the relief penstock, you can see evidence of the original brick invert

This leads to the secondary overflow chamber behind the screens, which also doubles up as a detention tank.

Equipped with duty/standby launder pumps located within a small sump (far right), allowing waste water to be retained and pumped back to the nearby sewer.

Each screening channel contains a single 3m escalator screen rated @ over 4,000 l/sec capacity, together with upstream penstocks to enable the screens to be isolated independently.

Outlet to Irwell/Ship Canal

We decided it wasn't a good idea poking about on the upper level on earlier trips here and throwing lumen's about.

It was a while later before we returned to look in on the *completed system.

*(All that remained was some finishing of the cofferdam and remedial work with some of the upper GRP and a general sweep up).

That, and the above ground landscaping the system has now been run up, I decided to take one last look in before I pissed off..

Inlet

Automated penstocks (left) regulate the forward flow through the bifurcation chamber

One of the 3m escalated screens, used to filter the solids

The upper gantry allows access for inspection and maintenance of the screens and associated ancillaries.

The stepped walkways allow further access between the upper reaches of the pentocks/screens and associated gubbins.

And finally the sump..

Untouched and the final encounter with the flume before it outfalls a good 140m submerged below a point where the River Irwell becomes the Manchester Ship Canal.

Grim Resistor, Bolton

Ojay, Nickindroy, ViralEye, Snake Oil, Kenni...

Grim is an understatement!

Essentially a 2m x 300m sewer/in-line storage tunnel constructed to alleviate flood risk and take strain off the nearby trunk.

Much of Bolton's drainage is fairly small and stoopy and I imagine struggled during heavy periods of rainfall until they stuck this and a few other tanks in during AMP3.

After an earlier evening re-visit fail I'd organised, I felt kinda guilty the lads would end up going empty handed so I decided to go and hunt this place down as we were in the area..

I had an approximate idea where it was and narrowed it down to a plot near the river

Our 3 car convoy lapped the outskirts of Bolton whilst I fiddled with Google maps, parking ? No problem lads.. follow me

..Straight into the yard of the Police HQ.

A few U-turns later and we were back on the trail of fresh, it had also been a few weeks since I'd had time to venture into the sewers and had to make do with sniffing manholes for a quick fix.

"I think were here lads"

After some past disagreeable outings, it's took a while to get kenni back into drains, this probably wasn't the best place for him with hindsight.

Still it was a good laugh from start to finish, and despite the filth we all managed a few safety snaps of the place before calling it.

A 12m laddered dropshaft with a couple of landings drops into the filth.

Once down, I spent what seemed like an age faffing about with the p00p covered chain, whilst the others looked down from the landing above with amusement.

A short set of rungs beyond leads to the sewer tunnel, and as you can see in the below pic, it's not somewhere you'd choose to eat your dinner!

Barely a 1ft sewer is routed through the drop shaft and exits via this shit hole.

I waited for the others to head down before going for a wander.

I'm surprised the meter didn't sing in here as it stunk to high heaven, and although H2S was present, it was a safe level and was pretty well ventilated as I kept my eye on on the readings with every step.

Infact, the only real noise was the sound of kenni gipping to every footstep.

Grim

At the far end, and somewhere amongst this mess, below the bottom of another manhole shaft the sewer exits via a 2ft pipe.

Shouts to all that attended and persevering with this one, we won't be going back here in a hurry!

King’s Scholars’ Pond Sewer (River Tyburn), LON

Ojay,GAJ,Adders...

In the 1600's, the three main rivers that carried London's shyte into the Thames were the Westbourne, Tyburn, and the Fleet

The Tyburn drains the middle part of the city, starting at Hampstead Heath then south through Belsize Park and St John's Wood to Regent's Park where it crosses through an Aqueduct over Regents Canal

It then cuts across Oxford Street and heads through short stretch of District line tunnel near to Baker Street station and heading down to the West End

The course takes it via Green Park and Constitution Hill before it finds itself at Buckingham Palace..

From Here it runs through Victoria and down to Pimlico before outfalling at old father Thames near Vauxhall Bridge

The River Tyburn in it's purest existence has long gone, instead becoming a CSO known as the King’s Scholars’ Pond Sewer.

Allegedly it was once a prime fishing stream..

It's hard to visualise nowadays, as it's generally a combined sewer filled with brown trout and any sign of the Tyburn long being sucked off down the Mid Level No.2 Interceptor.

In order to see it properly, involved a number of trips over a few months, mainly separated by adverse weather and working between two Cities.

To read the rest of it >>CLICK HERE<<

Paul's Pasta Steamer, London

Ojay/Adders...

The main event being Paul's Wharf Sewer here..

First off thanks to JD for giving me a heads up on this one a couple of years ago now having ventured down here with Stoop.

Having walked the route above ground a couple of times, I was reluctant to push my luck solo on this one, add to that the shortage of breathers and manholes which was also a concern.

In the end, finding a suitable victim proved just as difficult, cue Adders.

It goes without saying the place was pretty grim, I only managed a few pics and they are mostly crap because of the steamy conditions down there.

I guess packin' more glass than a leading glazing wholesaler was always going to present problems..

The pics will have to do, I WON'T EVER be going back down, it was pretty grim and juggling 3-4ft pipes filled with stagnant water, stale turds and H2S to see the main spectacle wasn't my idea of fun!

By the time we hit the streets we were both covered in that much filth it was an embarrassment, I tip my hat to Adders for enduring this shit fest.


I took the advice originally given and stayed away from the "dodgy cover" and instead opted for the same convoluted trip up from the Fleet.

The journey begins in a less than 4ft side pipe from the Fleet mainline, as the original Ludgate Hill connection appears to have been severed by the tube at some point in the distant past.

50m of what I can only describe as scraping along on our knees was our first contender, luckily the flow was minimal and Adders wasn't too far behind.

A cheeky screen grab from Adders' video clip

Respite came in the form of a slightly larger concrete diversion with a much newer drop shaft having been installed for access/inspection.

We parked our arses for a minute, at which point I noticed some rather fresh looking tyre tracks heading upstream, so much so the track marks on the upper invert looked no more than a few hours old.

You can just about make out the tunnel in the distance as it heads right, it was just around here it changed back to 3/4ft brick egg :(

The pipe twisted slightly as we once again scraped our way through, this time a number of smaller connecting sewers join which just makes it all the more fun.

Eventually it straightened, with a short stretch of a taller brick construction allowing us to stand up for a quick rest.

*Note the smaller VC pipe in the foreground, I was just about to take another pic and it let rip, splashing it's load everywhere and resulted in me getting soaking No.1.

Off to the left (looking downstream was a slightly bigger stepped brick pipe, this is a croucher for around 150m as it heads down Old Bailey and connects with the Ludgate Hill sewer.

Sadly I didn't get any pics here as we needed to move fast before the restaurants and bars closed up shop and started dumping their left-overs.

The flow was minimal and it was quite tall, yet narrow, around 160m and we landed underneath the West entrance of St. Paul's Cathedral.

This was it, the dreaded 'Rat Run' we had read about.. As the two 4ft pipes bear left and right and circle St. Paul's we already knew we needed to take the right-hand branch.

We both did a double take and looked at each other both lost for words momentarily.

I can't vouch for Adders at that point but as if the less than 4ft brick crawl pipe wasn't bad enough it was made worse by the fact it was rotten to the core.

With at least 6 inches of festering shyte and visible foul connections again, along with heaps of rotting food & stale turds and bog roll left stranded.

I'll be honest I wasn't keen and we debated fucking it off and finding the nearest lid out, which would have been another challenge had we accepted it.

I decided to head up 10m and see what the meter was saying, not a murmur despite the terrible smell.

Having walked it above ground it doesn't appear to be that much of a distance before it joins Paul's Wharf sewer, so we agreed I'd attempt to crawl/scrape through.

As I neared the first bend there were rats, and then more, they were running in all directions, frantically trying to escape the light.

The majority scurried off quick with a number of them running back at me which was far from ideal as there was barely room for myself.

More foul connections, the flow hampered by the amount of silt and food waste and turds backed up..

Rice, Pasta and rotting vegetables mixed with p00p certainly made for some kind of sick broth!

Every now and then Adders called to see how I was getting on, I wasn't, progress was slow and H2S was now present.

I soldiered on, as if nothing else I was determined to find a lid out in case we decided to sack it.

Eventually I made it through and further round I could stand up in a shaft with a manky ladder, a good 20ft down was Paul's Wharf sewer, above at least another 15ft to a split lid in the road.

Having shouted back to Adders to crack on I descended the ladder into Paul's Wharf, which was a sizeable Oval/Egg affair.

I headed on down to a stepped section passing a number of side pipes along the way, and could hear the interceptor in the distance.

I'd left my gear upstream at this point and I decided I best head back and wait for him.

A while later he was descending the ladder, we unpacked our gear in a small recess to a laddered manhole and went about taking some pics.

As I headed down I noticed the first side pipe which was previously dry had started going some, conscious of the time and the source we proceeded with caution.

Sorry the pics are wank, it was just too slippery and steamy and I'd lost the will to live by this point.

Paul's Wharf Sewer constructed circa 1690/1700

Stepped Tunnel

Now this was the last pic I took...

As I went to set-up another shot the side pipe went mental, I quickly moved my camera out of the way as it got much worse and knocked me off my feet and into the sewer I went.

It was filled with cleaning materials and was far from a pleasant experience, having picked myself up the meter was indicating rapid levels of H2S.

I now noticed the other 2 side pipes further down started going mental, so I headed back upstream to Adders to inform him we probably need to get out at this point as it would probably get worse.

I wasn't wrong, as we were packing up the flow picked up further and it went from reasonably chilled to me being very anxious and keen to GTFO, which we promptly did!

We exited via the nearest lid, it was far from ideal but no way was I repeating the journey back the way we came, flow or no flow.

Sadly pics of the section beneath the District & Circle line and the Low Level Interceptor No.1 as the sewer was diverted some 100m before the Thames I don't have.

Luckily Adders had the GoPro rolling for much of it, and looking forward to seeing that and his pics, as they surely can't be as piss poor as mine.

Thanks for looking.

London Bridge Sewer

Ojay/Adders...

It was the back end of summer and we decided to take a look in London Bridge Sewer.

Siologen had always recommended this place, so one evening with adders I did just that.

The two significant explored bits of this system are known as st00ps limit, and Last Bastion.

It was a steamy, turdy affair and difficult to traverse at times, however it didn't disappoint.


Having looked at the main drainage map I managed to locate a lid upstream in the Moorgate area.

It was far from discreet night or day, but the best of a bad bunch.

So, without hesitation we descended into the bowels of London once again.

We dropped into barely a 5ft egg.

I decided it was a good idea to head upstream where it shrinks to 4ft; Here a junction where 3 local sewers converge.

Siologen did once warn me that anything beyond London Wall was stoopy.

LBS has many connections and this just being one of them on the Western branch.

We decided to head downstream in search of the LBS main line, via this slippery 5ft egg.

To read the rest of it >>CLICK HERE<<

Fat of The Land, Bradford

Ojay/Squirrell_911...

(City of Bradford-Shipley Western & Eastern Sewage Systems)

Myself and Squiz have been covered in poo for the last 3 years on this lot.

Some say he's retired, turns out he's a massive drain weapon :)

It's been a labour of love, complete with many frustrating fails & dead ends along the way.

Not to mention adverse weather and a couple of close calls where we have had to abort and promptly GTFO.

The system just kept giving which prompted more reccies, lid lifting and traipsing through scrub land and sewage alike in order to find moar stuff.

In fact it's took us that long, Squiz has managed to go through 4 cars and 3 houses, true story!

Sadly the day's of driving around Bradford popping lids in the trusty Micra will never be the same again, proper wagon that was (RIP) :D

For the rest of it  >>CLICK HERE<<

Lucky Charms, London

Ojay/Adders...

Essentially the Clapham Storm Relief and a CSO which serves the Southern High Level No.1/Putney & Clapham extension & Balham Sewers.

Originally I had set out with Adders to look at something else, but we weren't suitably equipped and the next lid was a fair walk and time was against us.

We opted for a quick look in here instead as we were nearby.

One thing I've noticed, as soon as you mention drains to anyone, even fellow explorers it's an instant gurn.

Once facial features usually return to normal most people just walk away leaving one muttering to ones self.

Whatever opinion you have about them, you can't deny the epic over-engineering by the Board of Works that exists in London.

There is something about Victorian brickwork that is hard to ignore, this place is no exception and simply stunning!


You would be forgiven that dropping into this rather small 8ft x 4ft egg overflow and traipsing about would reveal anything decent..

WRONG... slip & slide upstream and throw down some lumens and you might have a different opinion of sewers.

Of course my pics don't really do the place justice and there are much better examples kicking around, none-the-less it was good to finally drop into this one.

Split

Here the 8ft egg quickly turns to around 12ft ahead of the overflow

Junction

Here the Southern High Level No.1 enters on the far left,

 Putney & Clapham extension on the right, with the Balham sewer in the foreground

Here the Southern High Level exits via a smaller diameter arch as it eventually heads on down to the Southern Outfall Works, (Crossness).

Looking a bit closer upstream you can see one of the original carts/bogey's used during the original construction, since discarded between the converging sewers.

Overflow - Southern High Level

Putney & Clapham extension

A single sided weir/oak dam boards serve as an overflow, passing underneath a now defunct penstock before droppping into a pit of soup beyond which is the Clapham Relief.

Adders mentioned something about a beer garden..

This wasn't it, but a couple of cold ones and a spot of World Cup at the nearby boozer shortly afterwards was a welcome sight.

Mind the Fresh

Thanks for looking.