Two huge temporary cofferdams, a western twin wall cofferdam and an eastern combi-wall cofferdam built in the Thames near Blackfriars as part of the super sewer project have now been removed.

The structures were built out into the river to give Tideway, the company behind the project, space to undertake its works.

With the new public land now taking shape, including the installation of the final piece of new granite river wall, the temporary cofferdam has now been completely removed.

Blackfriars Project Manager Peter Rouzel said:

“These two enormous temporary cofferdams were among the first things we built at this site, so to see it now fully removed demonstrates the progress being made on this vital infrastructure.

“The new public space is now taking shape, and our teams are working hard toward completing the work and opening this beautiful new piece of foreshore for public use.

Tideway's work at the Blackfriars site intercepts two old sewers – the 'low level 1', and the Fleet combined sewer overflow (CSO), which spills half a million tonnes of storm sewage into the Thames in a typical year.

The site was also home to one of the most innovative engineering challenges implemented across the project – when a 3,700-tonne concrete culvert (essentially a 100m long trapezoidal pipe built to channel sewage flows) was literally floated from its Blackfriars Bridge Foreshore site to site beneath the Blackfriars Bridge and positioned on a prepared river bed, where it intercepts the Fleet Sewer outfall during a hugely complex operation.

Blackfriars also features a large series of public artworks, consisting of five different artwork black ‘Stages’, one of which is a 8.8m tall waterwall, together with more than 70 trees set for planting at the site.

Blackfriars is one of most important sites on the Tideway project, with its new public realm accounting for half of the total of three acres of new land reclaimed from the Thames across the programme.