We'll never grow tired of stuff like this. The most incredible infrastructure projects are the ones that enable us to live our lives - from the most fundamental of levels - while being completely out of sight, out of mind and largely taken for granted 👌🏗
Great Video! A Video about the "Emscher-Umbau" in Germany wuld be great, it was completet last year and with 5.5 Billion Euros the biggest environmental project in Europe. A whole river system was cleaned from raw sewage by building massive underground tunnels and new WWTPs!
Reminds me of that classic story of the man hired to make London’s new Victorian Era sewer pipes. He wisely made them several times the diameter they needed, anticipating growth. He alone saved untold millions in future money. Edit: oh, was it Joeseph Bazalgette?
Yes, indeed it was. I believe his father was a French military engineer. The story of his fight to get this sewage system built is a truly amazing one. He is worthy of the highest honour. A most extraordinary gift to the UK.
@@chrismoyler we’re covering him in history now (I’m 16!) and the fight to create hygienic conditions for the general public was truly impossible seeming at times - something that never occurred to me before. Bearing in mind only a handful of people believed in germs when it was first built, the Bazalgette Sewer is really a miracle.
We could incorporate the principle of future-proofing into infrastructure designs as a basic standard... but we don't, because there seems to be a mentality of "make work" for the future, where we consider it more important to have jobs for people to do and to keep ourselves more consistent in pace of the economy or of growth... than to future proof things so they don't have to be worked on again for a long time. The daily cycle of jobs and money-flow keeps it so that we don't want to solve things on a long-term basis. We want a reason to keep the money flowing and the employment motivated, much like Apple scheduling the rollout of certain features over a number of years, so they have a reason to release a new version every year... or like Republicans wanting to campaign on the "border crisis", but not wanting to actually vote for a bill that solves it, because they want to have that issue to campaign on for as long as possible... we often see major projects broken up into "phases" or done in a "bare minimum for now, expanded in a few years when we need to" approach, to keep projects providing work and reason for funding for years to come. It's the same mentality that has created our disposable consumerist society, with everything designed to make you have to buy a new one again and again. We could just spend more money now (but less money overall in the long term, which capitalists will see as a long-term bad) and get it all done in one phase by hiring a lot of people to work on it at once, etc... but then what after? All those extra people hired to get it done faster are left without work afterwards, and there isn't always gonna be a major infrastructure project going on if we don't stagger ourselves and pace things out, so they might not have any projects to move onto. And now the money is spent, so how do we keep a consistent and/or ever-increasing amount of money flowing over a long-term period if it all gets spent in one lump-sum at once and then comparatively little-to-nothing for years in-between major projects? Under the current system, we seem to gravitate more towards doing things slower with smaller crews that can provide employment over a longer period and keep the flow of money more consistent and increasing over the long-term... time spent waiting for important projects to finish, be damned. A lot could be different if we didn't set up our entire economy/society around needing to be employed, or always allowing the money men to make the decisions.
I can never stop admiring the intelligence and planning skills of the 19th century (and Pre-WWII 20th century) engineers and architects. Almost every B1M video shows the incredible computer systems and massive databases used today for big projects. Bazelgette and his peers only had pen and paper.
They also didn’t waste time on the TikTok 😅 We need those programs, otherwise, nothing will be done bc of distractions. Also, projects are bigger, there is more law restrictions, and variables to account for, like already built bridges, subway, etc
Unlike the governmentsvresponse to the original M25 planning.mits too big they screamed, so now what happens, we have to put up with building the extra lanes that should have been done originally.
@@jamesardron Oh for goodness sake's, grow a brain. Combined sewerage outflows (CSOs) are in no way the product of privatised water management. We had 100+ years of nationalised water industry management that pumped so much raw sewage straight into the sea that the EEC prosecuted the UK; the nationalised industry didn't bother repairing or replacing the old Victorian cast iron pipes, even after 1976 when your bath water was restricted to 4 inches & standpipes in the street became a thing, hose pipe bans were a regular feature of an English summer; CSOs were common & normal, no-one ever gave a damn. Many EU countries don't even bother to measure the amount of sewage that is released in CSOs. It is only because the industry is privatised that it has become a topic. Note the phrase "since 2020". If they were to be truly representative they would measure from, say, 1970. But they can't, since no-one bothered measuring CSOs in the 70's. The privatised industry fixed the raw sewage into the sea problem that they inherited from the nationalised industry. The privatised industry have replaced enough of the old leaking pipes that hose pipe bans are now rare and localised. This video shows that it is the privatised industry that is fixing the CSO problem that was again inherited from the nationalised industry. Governments have far too many other ways to bribe voters with other people's money, basic infrastructure gets to be neglected.
Never apologize for covering not-so-glamorous topics like this. Every now and then people need reminding, that there are awesome people in the world, dealing with the stuff that most people wouldn't.
I worked on the Thames Tideway Tunnel helping to put the hand drawn diagrams of sections of the Thames wall into a computer system. It was for 1 week of work experience. The sections where next to all the vertical holes to be made as we needed to make sure the wall would not collapse and flood the project!
Due to EPA mandate, Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) projects are being implemented all over the USA for all sizes of cities. In Indiana, communities with CSOs were required to develop and implement what is referred to as a Long Term Control Plan, or LTCP. Control strategies that are aimed to significantly reduce or eliminate raw sewage discharge to the rivers and streams primarily include either reduction strategies (e.g. separating sanitary sewers from storm sewers, installing green infrastructure, etc) or storage/treatment strategies (e.g. inline or offline storage followed by wastewater treatment). The ecological, recreational and cultural benefits over the next 100 years are going to be quite impressive.
Portland OR did a smaller scale version of this and the results have been spectacular with the river now safe for swimming and recreation. This project will greatly benefit London for decades.
That was interesting to watch. That topic is so important to the life of a city and it's occupants. At least there is work going on to take care of it.
Yes, and long over due but to be fair it is a huge project. Thank God now it rains hard it won’t cause this environmental damage. @b1m what is being done to treat the water and refuge?
The production quality of your videos is always stellar. I never thought I'd be glued to my screen for an explanation of the upgrade of the sewer system of London! I always love the animations, they help visualizing the projects and their details. But I also appreciate the views, camera angles, the editing, the presentation, everything! You always have a great project to present. Even this one lol
Excellent video and amazing insights into what's in London (we were on holiday there in Feb 2024). Amazing to see Esri being used this way too; I was an early product user, a long time ago. It's a software package that's come a long way.
This has been going on for decades, over a century. It is so normal that many countries, even in Europe, don't even bother to measure combined sewage overflows (CSOs).. The nationalised water industry pumped so much raw sewage straight out to sea that the UK was prosecuted by the EEC (as was). The only reason that people care so much is simply because the UK water industry is privatised. The nationalised water industry never bothered to replace the Victorian cast iron pipes, even as your bath water was restricted to 4 inches in 1976 & hose pipe bans were a regular feature of an English summer. The nationalised water industry didn't care about CSOs. It is the privatised industry that has fixed the raw sewage out to sea problem; it is the privatised industry that fixed leaking Victorian pipes, hose pipe bans are now rare & localised; it will be the privatised industry that will fix the CSO problem. Governments will never spend enough money to fix CSOs, there are far too many other ways to spend someone else's money to buy votes.
So much information to absorb and so many things felt like they were barely mentioned. This is NOT a negative, but a mention that I could easily sit through a good 30 mins of details on this masterworks. A request for longer episodes when the content is juicy? (maybe a poor use of words given the nature of this story ;)
I love the coverage of water and wastewater projects - absolutely critical infrastructure that doesn't get nearly enough attention relative to its importance
It's really not that surprising or difficult to handle - just need to keep it in mind when escavating and call specialists to disarm the explosives when needed.
Huge project a lot of the people in London it serves will never hear of, but sorely needed - well done to all involved, 25km 7m tunnels!!👏👏(with the Thames, the colour has always been brown, not a sign of pollution itself, carries a huge amount of sediment on its silt riverbed)
You should do a video on Houston and Harris County’s Drainage Tunnel project. They’re doing a study on adding over 100 miles of 40’ drainage pipes under our rivers
Mail Rail is no more. It was built in the era when most mail was transported by rail. It linked six sorting offices with the two mainline stations, Paddington and Liverpool St and had driverless trains.
Tideway will also dramatically change the landscape on the Thames foreshore, providing acres of new recreational space furthermore, The Blackfriars site will also contribute to extending the city of London “square mile”.
Very interesting. But one question it raised -- what happens to the "feculant" at the end of this tunnel, now 60 m underground? Is it somehow released into the channel? If so, before or after processing? How do you process sewage at such a depth? Would have loved to hear more about this.
@@matmul4850 "The Thames is considered to be the cleanest river in the world that flows through a major city. The Thames is home to 125 species of fish and more than 400 invertebrates." The brown colour is caused by sediment constantly stirred up because the Thames is a tidal river:- "Because the Thames is connected to the North Sea, each day it is affected by two low tides and two high tides. Thanks to this non-stop movement of the water, the sediment is continuously suspended in the water column giving it its trademark brown colour. This brown colour is the sign of well-mixed nutrients in the water which makes the tidal Thames a rich feeding ground for aquatic species including two species of seals and also porpoises."
Thanks for the image at timestamp 0:46. Perhaps you could explain how embankments are built. Was the Thymes embankment differently constructed than the Seine embankments? Also, could the Thymes be temporarily rerouted so that the poisons and explosives could be cleaned out all at once?
A fun implementation of arcgis for casual viewers to play with is Lancashire County Council's "MARIO" Map. All sorts of layers and I can waste hours playing around in it!
This was carefully investigated when the original sewers were designed. Bazalgette worked out the rate of flow that would enable the sewers to self clean. He also ensured that many quality checks were in place during the construction, and he insisted that inferior materials were removed from site. I believe that the quality of cement was the very first standard.
@@chrismoyler I was joking but that is a fascinating reply. I do somewhat pity the researchers that were tasked with calculating the viscosity experimentally.
@@jmchez- Compared to the newer toilets that use less water like with the half flush types the pipes now actually need a steeper grade due to less initial flow, this is also why there are more frequent backups and blockages in older systems as not all the feculent moves away with the shorter flush flows as they were originally designed for a higher volume of water to assist with the flow
To learn about Joseph Bazalgette, the civil engineer who designed the current London sanitary system, read The Great Stink of London: Sir Joseph Bazalgette and the Cleansing of the Victorian Metropolis, by Steven Halliday. It may be at your local library.
You are a very good presenter. You are very nicely spoken and have an excellent narrating voice. Aside from your own expertise you could be presenting programmes on mainstream telly
Do they have some sort of mole to traverse the entire length to break up any obstructions? Seems like if you had a somewhat simple and possibly smallish model you could run it on a regular basis to keep everything flowing nicely. Maybe send a couple of “Spots” down there to check it out. Or have built in cameras that can be monitored.
One the best subject matter's on You Tube. Always interesting, the amazing technologies that I didn't know existed and the video to back it up. Topped off ahost/man that KNOWS his "stuff"!
Oh perfect to watch this for dinner! 😁 However feels like this is overdue at least 50 years. London likes to swim in sewage? Stockholm was fixed in the 60-70s. But there is a new huge tbm sewage tunnel being build here as well at the moment.
I didn't know about this addition to the waste collection system in London. I would actually watch a more in depth video about it. Infrastructure is very interesting sometimes.
Great video as always, it makes me so angry our government has allowed our waterways to get into such a state in the first place! We need many more projects like this to save our waterways. Plus we need a massive upgrade in our water pipes the amount of water we loose to leaks yearly is astonishing.
Chicago has an almost identical problem decades ago. The "Chicago Deep Tunnel Project" started in 1975 and the tunnel (176 km long, up to 10 m in diameter and up to 110 m deep) was completed and in service in 2006.....31 years! But the entirety of that project is not slated to be complete until 2029 (the planning started in 1972....so 57 years to completion!)
I am in the energy construction industry and have worked on massive oil and gas projects like the greater Gorgon project where we had to preserve the wildlife on an island by sterilising massive cranes before shrink wrapping them before shipping to the island. Humans can really do almost anything if we try , that’s why I am so sad that we have been so slow at stopping Climate change. It’s always been the case that the will and the return on investment has always been the driver in most projects. Great channel.
You have to admire the Engineering both today and past. Sounds like the UK is far ahead of us here over the pond, where our infrastructure was "new", back in the 50s and 60's. Since then very little has been done.
I've been waiting for you guys to make a video about this! It's so much easier to get my construction news fed to me in such a palatable way by this channel then reading boring articles and underdeveloped videos about it 🤣
Talking about sewerage may have "icky" overtones, but this kind of project is probably more important than any other that a city faces. More important than food, health, education, transportation, power, water or housing. Just my opinion.
"Mates in construction" sicker on the host hard hat is so important.. if u struggle with mental health while working in construction, don't hesitate to call for help.. It ain't weak to speak about your problems ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
6:50 Didn't know that the Fleet is to be used to flush through the Tideway sewer. Don't know what I think about that. I suppose that it's an ahem confluence of geography and fluid dynamics. About halfway along the new pipe which presumably needs to house a constant flow in order to avoid the famous fatbergs and other blockages.
