The Great Escape Underground As Road Reopens After Tunnel Challenge

A busy road in Glasgow city centre has reopened nearly five months after heavy rain saw a large sinkhole form in the middle of the carriageway.

Repairs were needed on a Victorian egg brick sewer running beneath Elmbank Street, but engineers were also faced with the challenge of installing a new pipe to connect to it, replacing the section that had collapsed.

Scottish Water Project Manager Brian Dalton said: “Being in the city centre and surrounded by buildings and businesses it was no surprise that we found many other utilities in the ground.

“In particular, high voltage cables exactly where we needed to run the new pipe meant we couldn’t simply dig a trench, so we had to look at doing something a little bit different.

“You can’t just use any Tom, Dick, or Harry for a project like this so like the Great Escape we brought in specialist tunnellers to excavate a 20-metre-long shaft with timber shoring to get below the cables and other utilities.

“The new pipe was then run along the length of the tunnel, tied into the existing egg brick sewer and the channel filled in with a lightweight type of concrete.

“It has been anything but straightforward but thanks to great teamwork and the cooperation and patience of customers, road users and local businesses we can make our ‘escape’ from site and reopen the road.”

A section of the footpath running past the former Glasgow Academy building remains closed to allow work to rebuild one of the listed status stone pillars by registered stonemason conservationists.

Work was carried out by George Leslie and the specialist tunnellers were JOS Engineering.