Phil Stride, Head of London Tideway Tunnels, explains why 2010 will be a busy year for the teams working to deliver the two tunnels, in line with the 2020 deadline.

Lee Tunnel

In December 2009 we announced our preferred bidder for the contract to construct the Lee Tunnel, the first of the two tunnels to go ahead.

Our chosen partner is MVB, a joint venture between Morgan Est, VINCI Construction Grands Projets and Bachy Soletanche.

Before making our decision, we completed a rigorous tendering process to ensure our customers get the best deal from the £400m contract, the biggest ever awarded in the UK water industry since privatisation.

Construction work will begin in the spring, after the completion of vital preparatory work at Beckton Sewage Treatment Works by MVB.

Thames Tunnel

Later this year we will launch our public consultation on our proposed route for the Thames Tunnel and the sites we think we will need to for its construction and operation.

Work is in progress to identify the best route and most suitable available sites.

We must stress that at this stage we have not made any decisions.

A key initial task for us in 2010 is to progress our work with the relevant local authorities and other technical pan-London stakeholders to explore in greater detail the most viable options. Our discussions with them on this started in 2008.

Our challenge is to identify the optimum route that collects the sewage from the most polluting overflow points (known as 'Combined Sewer Overflows', or CSOs) in the most cost-effective way, whilst also keeping disruption to a minimum.

To do this, our technical teams need to comprehensively survey all the most potentially suitable sites. We also need to begin discussions with the owners of land that we may need to utilise.

We anticipate submitting our formal planning application(s) for approval in late 2011.

The Government is currently considering the options for how the planning applications process for the Thames Tunnel will be managed.

We are 100 per cent clear that, whatever planning approval process we are required to follow, we will work hard to provide all interested parties with meaningful opportunities to have their say.

For example, we are already working on a tailor-made consultation website, which will allow people to send us online feedback on our proposals.

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