Cambridge Collapsed Sewer

19 October 2010, 13:58 | Updated: 19 October 2010, 14:06

Engineers working to fix a collapsed sewer in Cambridge have found a large concrete chamber underneath a road in the middle of the city.

Anglian Water contractors dug down underneath St Andrew's Street to repair what they thought was a collapsed sewer, but discovered a large concrete chamber that had been built straight through the sewer, cutting the pipe in half.

It means part of the road will remain closed, possibly for several weeks, while underground repairs continue.

The water company has no idea what the chamber is or who built it.

Ciaran Nelson from Anglian Water said: "Sadly, this means work will go on for longer than we thought.

Two weeks would have been enough if this had been a simple sewer collapse. Instead, we no longer even have a sewer to repair.

One possibility may be to divert the sewer somewhere else, but there is a maze of utilities under the centre of Cambridge and we simply don’t know if it will be possible or how long it will take.
 
Investigations are continuing right now and there is a meeting planned with the city and county councils on Wednesday. After that we may have a better idea what’s possible – and how this concrete chamber got there in the first place."