The Thames Tideway Tunnel team is expecting to have presented their project to interested investors by the end of February, according to new press reports.

They are also expected to have selected three contracting groups by that to time to carry out the main civils works on the £4.2 billion 25km long, 7.2m diameter tunnel.

Andrew Mitchell, Chief Executive Officer of Thames Tideway Tunnel Ltd, told Infrastructure Intelligence that the financing structure for the new company could include sterling bond issuance, bank lending and loans potentially from the European Investment Bank.

Around £2.8 billion of the costs of the Tunnel will be financed by a new infrastructure provider, with  Thames Water financing a further £1.4 billion.

Commenting on the four judicial reviews Thames Water currently faces as a result of objections to the Tunnel, Mitchell said:

"…. we are confident ...this will end in a satisfactory way.”

“What is disappointing is that discussion has become polarised between tunnel or blue/green options like sustainable urban drainage. It shouldn’t be an either or.”

“Retrofitting for blue/green solutions is not practical in the city now – it doesn’t make sense to rip up hard standing and you can’t dig a hole (for underground storage tanks) without encountering lots of underground utilities. But I do believe that we need to change the planning rules so future development has greater blue green elements and we need to campaign for that.”

Andrew Mitchell took on the role as Chief Executive Officer after leaving his post as Programme Director and Board Member at Crossrail in Summer 2014.