Thames Water's tunnel vision is put out to tender

Thames Water has fired the starting pistol on the race to select builders for up to £1.6bn of contracts to construct the biggest tunnelling project in the UK water industry's history – the super sewer project under the River Thames.

Builders such as Balfour Beatty, Morgan Sindall and Laing O'Rourke are expected to compete for contracts to construct the 16-mile, £4.1bn, tunnel from Acton in West London to Abbey Mills in the East.

Thames is dishing out three contracts for the Thames Tideway Tunnel, which will be about 7 metres wide and 66 metres below ground at its deepest point.

Mike Gerrard, managing director of the Thames Tideway Tunnel project, said: "It will be the biggest tunnelling project ever undertaken in the UK's water industry."