The official opening of London’s new multi-million pound ‘super sewer’ has triggered the installation of perimeter protection for its main access points.
The former Mayor of London Boris Johnson opened Thames Water’s extension to the Lee Tunnel by flushing a toilet in an underground ceremony, declaring the £678m project ‘an amazing achievement for British engineering’.
The 4.3 mile-long Lee Tunnel extension took four years to build and is designed to stop sewage flushing into the River Thames and River Lee. An even larger sewer, the Thames Tideway Tunnel, will follow later this year.
The access points are being secured by perimeter security product company Zaun, with its most intruder-resistant product, ArmaWeave, with double leaf gates. The installer is Zaun subsidiary Binns Fencing, who are working with the main contractor MVB, a joint venture comprising Morgan Sindall, VINCI Construction Grands Projets and Bachy Soletanche.
The fencing company says that ArmaWeave’s properties add substantial resistance to cutting attacks with hand, powered and non-contact tools. The tight mesh pattern provides no climbing aids, again limiting the potential for intrusion.
The Lee Tunnel connects the Abbey Mills Water Treatment Centre to Beckton Sewage Treatment Works, Europe’s largest such site, each also secured by Zaun fencing.
