Telford sewer blockage cause by . . . an abandoned car
Engineers discovered an unusual cause for a sewer flood next to the M54 in Telford – car parts clogging it up.
The team which discovered the unusual blockage said it was a first for them, despite having encountered tennis balls and pants in their efforts to clear other sewers.
It took 24 hours to clear the blocked sewer on wasteland next to the motorway on Wednesday and Thursday last week.
Joe Plimmer from Severn Trent said their team had spent several hours trying to jet the sewer out but had no luck.
Getting nowhere fast they decided to start digging in an effort to find out exactly what was causing the problem.
Once they got further in, they were shocked to find that a car bumper and car battery, along with a number of other car-related items, were blocking the sewer.
They then found the remains of an old car nearby.
Mr Plimmer from Severn Trent said: “This was a new one for everyone involved in the dig – I know other teams have found some strange things but, when we pulled out the car bumper, we were all a bit gobsmacked and then, when we pulled the battery out, we started to wonder what else we might find down there.
“It’s not unusual to have problems clearing drains but none of us have had a situation where someone’s clearly been stripping a car and putting bits down one of our manholes.”
Severn Trent teams, along with contractors Amey, took more than 24 hours to clear the sewer.
Along with the car parts they also found parts of a toilet and a wooden pallet.
Mr Plimmer said that fortunately the flooded sewer was away from residential properties but that more work will be needed to repair the damage.
He said: "On a more serious note, putting all of these inappropriate things down the manhole has damaged our sewer pipe so we’ll need to go out again to fix it.
“Thankfully, the area where we’re working is wasteland so no customers have been affected but, had this been nearer to houses, it could easily have led to someone’s home or garden being flooded.”
Mr Plimmer also urged people to do their own bit to avoid sewers flooding.
He said: “Flooding can have horrible consequences for our customers, but it’s something that’s easily avoidable.
“By remembering the 3-P’s – paper, pee and poo – we can keep the sewers up to speed and problem free for all of our customers.”
