real time web analytics
Report - - Minotaur’s Lair / Cavern CSO Detention Tank Works – Accrington – August 2023 | UK Draining Forum | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - Minotaur’s Lair / Cavern CSO Detention Tank Works – Accrington – August 2023

Hide this ad by donating or subscribing !

TheVicar

Loyal to the Drain
Regular User
Minotaur’s Lair explored with concreteJungle.

There’s not a great deal to say about this culvert. It’s relatively short at probably no more than 300 metres long but it feels longer due to the fact that it’s pretty hard going in parts due to deep water, potholes, very slippery rocks and general rubble.

Part of it resembles more of a cave than a culvert and it must have taken a while to pick and blast through some of the rock here when this was being built.

After heading downstream for about a third of the overall length, the rock section gives way to the more traditional brick and stone construction which opens up into a quite a large arched tunnel.

Photos are in the order of the infall upstream to the outfall. Apologies for the water droplet on the lens in some of the pics, next time I will check the lens before taking the next photo.


a.jpg


b.jpg


c.jpg


d.jpg


e.jpg


f.jpg


g.jpg


h.jpg


j.jpg


k.jpg


l.jpg


m.jpg


n.jpg


Carved into a stone at the top of the arch to the outfall is the construction date of 1893.

The M65 motorway can be seen high above the valley as you emerge from the culvert.





After saying goodbye to concreteJungle, I went for a wander over to the Cavern CSO where I had previously been 4 years ago to look at the new powered screens, which at the time, had been relatively recently installed.

It was no longer possible to access the CSO as the outfall gate was now padlocked, but it was nonetheless interesting to see the new civil engineering work, which had been added to the outfall to further reduce sewage spills during wet weather.

Here a wall had been constructed to redirect storm overflows from the outfall down a (strangely mismatched diameter) pair of tunnels to a large 7500 cubic metre open-air detention tank in the middle of a nearly field. The ‘water’ in this tank would then by pumped back into the sewer once the flow levels had returned to normal. This particular piece of engineering must have made quite an improvement to the water quality of the river during wet weather.



p.jpg


q.jpg



Some local scally’s had bent a couple of the metal guard bars at the top of the wall, which I took advantage of to see inside what had been built.

The two tunnels lead approximately 80m to a pair of penstocks that open when sewer overflows are detected.

Despite the huge size of this detention tank, there are clearly exceptional circumstances when the tank is filled to capacity.
The tell-tale sign is that wall dividing the sewer overflows from the river has signs of sewer related litter decorating the metal guards on the top.


r.jpg


s.jpg


t.jpg


u.jpg


v.jpg


w.jpg


x.jpg



It was a pleasant few hours of mooching about in the Lancashire countryside. Thanks for looking.

 

Calamity Jane

i see beauty in the unloved, places & things
Regular User
Great images even in those bad conditions. The water looks like its moving quite quickly at times.
 

Parky

The Devil Is in the Details
Regular User
that cave like section is serious unique! closest thing ive seen to anything like that is old worsley but that was for a tiny section!! great photos :<3
 

Alley

Conspicuous Loiterer
Regular User
That's really cool. When you say it's a culvert do you mean a previously open stream was redirected into a tunnel through rock? I'm wondering why, that seems like a lot of work. It kind of looks like a mine. Are there remains of door / sluice gate in pics 6-7?
 

Who has read this thread (Total: 183) View details

Top