Developers have reached a landmark milestone on the development of London's new super sewer.

Joint venture partners Balfour Beatty, BAM Nuttall and Morgan Sindall are delivering the project, which will see a 1.1km tunnel built to take sewage overflows from King George's Park into the main 25km super sewer at Fulham, where it will be transferred to east London for treatment instead of polluting the River Thames.

The first of two tunnelling boring machines has broke ground on the Frogmore Connection Tunnel from Wandsworth to Fulham as part of the Thames Tideway Tunnel project.

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The 500m southern section of the Frogmore Connection Tunnel, from Dormay Street to King George's Park, is now complete. The TBM, named after suffragist Charlotte Despard, will now be lifted from the shaft, taken back to Dormay Street and placed back into the ground to tunnel 600 metres north to Fulham.

Sally Cox, Project Director for the joint venture, said: "This breakthrough, the first on the Tideway project, marks another key step toward a cleaner, healthier River Thames.

"Despite being the smallest TBM on the Tideway project, Charlotte is creating vital infrastructure that will benefit Londoners and their river for many years to come.

"Our tunnelling team has done a fantastic job getting this machine to King George's Park and will now focus on completing the northern section of the Frogmore Connection Tunnel."

Once complete in 2024, the tunnel will help stop tens of millions of tonnes of raw sewage pouring into the river every year.

(CM/MH)