King visits Thames Tideway Tunnel 'super sewer'

King Charles has told workers at the Thames Tideway Tunnel a "humongous horror" of rain is bound to fall.

He was responding to the information the "super sewer" worked better when it rained, as he marked the completion of the 10-year work.

The tunnel has been fully connected since August last year and prevents half a million tonnes of sewage from entering the river every year.

Tideway - the firm behind the project - said the it would reduce sewage pollution into the river by 95%.

The King met construction workers and storemen in Embankment, central London, to see the technology in action.

The 25km long sewer will intercept, store and ultimately transfer sewage waste away from the Thames.

The project took 20,000 people eight years to build, cost £4.5bn and - stretching from Acton to Beckton - is one of the largest engineering projects the capital has seen.

The tunnel is 7.2m in diameter, the equivalent of three London double-decker buses, and needed four giant tunnelling machines to excavate the main pipe.

During his visit, Charles met poet Dorothea Smartt, whose poetry about the Thames is printed on the site's ventilation columns.