Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Thames Tunnel

It seems that they have just discovered that the Thames Tunnel is under water.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-67846863

Perhaps this should be in Monday Smiles, except it is not really a joke.

I feel sorry for all the people whose holiday plans have been ruined.

I laugh that the UK press is showing this as Eurostar is cancelled due to a leak in the tunnel. It makes it sound like the channel tunnel. Why let a bad fact get in the way of a good clickbait headline.....

And why can't they bus them to a station south of the river? Just shows what a mess we are in.

Yup. Muppets are as muppets be.

The incarcerated Muppets will be free to travel tomorrow it has just been announced when normal service will be resumed - they have stopped the broken water pipe which was to firefight with

I felt sorry for the kids travelling on a budget that have had their breaks wrecked.

Presumably they will have pumps on the site now.

This lack of basic contingency planning beggars belief.

What are the consequences if the water pipe were to break? Can the location be swiftly identified and isolated? If not, what are the contingency arrangements?

Will heads roll for this glaring ommission? Unlikely - as the operating company will doubtless confirm " We remain committed to providing the best service possible" etc etc.

Supposedly it was a fire suppression system. Were there no isolator valves?

I wonder if the original design included isolator valves which were then removed in the “value engineering” phase of the project?


At one time, I worked in the Building Controls Industry (control systems for heating & ventilation). One story that went the rounds in the industry was about a public sector project which included a lot of powerful cooling systems to keep motors and computers cool. The inverters and motor control systems where “value engineered” out of the project. The contractor was asked to go back 6-9 months after handover and retrofit them - at a much greater cost than if they had been installed originally. Once they were in and working, their payback in energy savings was around 6 weeks. All on the public purse.

Don't get me started on the inadequacy of public sector procurement process. Could write a book.

The private sector are just as bad. Anything to get the initial cost down.