Unique 3, Lancs
Essentially a deep level interceptor sewer (some 50ft below ground) which serves a town North of Oldham
(Apologies for the shit pics, as it was misty as hell in here and the camera refused to work on more than one occasion)
Despite a couple of setbacks, I finally managed locate and nail another one off a 2 year old list of research leads..
Finding a safe way into this place proved difficult, yet despite the weather, the human traffic and the fact I knew only too well it was going to be sketch as fuck I persevered
Rewind two weeks, and with bad weather and a Police chopper about, I had to abort the 2 previous excursions
Still a decent recce gave me the confidence that this COULD be done, all I needed now was a break in the weather
It's understandable really why all the lids were locked here, but with some patience, managed to budge some weighty ironwork
Having removed said liddage, a huge cloud of festering shite billowed out, and in the end had to wait over 30 mins before it felt safe to head on down
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Here a 3 tier, laddered 50ft maintenance shaft which also doubled up as a detention tank/combined storm overflow for the deep level sewer below
Initially I climbed down for a quick look and shot straight back up as I wasn't feeling it, despite it looking cool as fuck!
With hindsight I really need to get my gas meter fixed
16ft down, this ladder to an inspection landing stage within the 50ft chamber
An initial look down revealed the sewer below, however there was more to come
Another long ladder down allowed us to stand above the CSO, revealing more ladders to the overflow and 4m trunk sewer below
2 more sets of ladders (a good 20 ft down) lead to both the sewer and overflow, which indeed was a unique setup as far as I have seen so far
The ladders to the left of the above shot ^^ take you to the interceptor sewer below
Despite the air quality in here, the silted excrement and heavy flow prevented further upsteam access so I settled on the following pic looking down
The sewer enters through a 10ft RCP, and exits via a concrete barrier through a 2ft slot to the chamber beyond
Having braved the climb down I managed to grab this quick shot before the camera finally packed in AGAIN!
Lastly, from the level above (as seen in pic 5) the first set of ladders on the right take you down to a smaller overflow chamber
(Here any discharge exits through the 'square window' from the sewer behind and via a deep sump outfalls a through a 1.2m RCP a good 40m to the river below)
The overflow chamber is infact split into two, with the far ladders taking you to the other half of the detention system with additional overflow being carried via a 2ft channel from the sewer (as seen in pic 7)
Finally, the outfall into the river further downstream
I conclude, the Nikon D7000, if nothing else fails big time in sewers, a suitable replacement is required immediately following this thread...
