Forum Topic

Burst water main at Chalkers Corner

Just seen on 'nextdoor':Just witnessed a water mains bursting at Chalkers Corner at about 3pm - really bad, part of the road lifted up and cracked like an earthquake, water gushing everywhere. The staff at Medivet were reporting it but I expect there will be traffic disruption in the area for a while.

Les Wilson ● 1374d16 Comments

I came past this yesterday about 4.30 avoid if possible ..

Sue Iriarte ● 1374d

Any updates? Sadly we need to go in this direction 🥺🥺🥺

Jayne Thorburn ● 1373d

Still bad husband came back via Putney and said that was worse 😂😂🥺

Jayne Thorburn ● 1373d

It's pretty bad everywhere at the moment as the train strike has affecting some of the tube stations.    It's possible that more people are driving.  Thames Water are having to deal with burst water pipes across London which must be a nightmare scheduling wise.

Nora Watkins ● 1373d

Thank goodness for a car

Jayne Thorburn ● 1373d

Thames Water was privatised in 1989 yet in December 2022, some 34 years later, they are running expensive advertising campaigns telling us that while customers are watching the world cup, their staff are working hard to fix water leaks to make us ready for “the 21st century”.  Duh!  Do the morons not realise that we are already almost a quarter of a century into the 21st century?And they expect us to be grateful while they still waste millions of gallons of water and repeatedly dump millions of litres of raw sewage into our rivers!

Steve Taylor ● 1373d

Can anyone advise if the Chalkers Corner problem has been resolved yet please, or is it still traffic chaos?

Steve Taylor ● 1372d

I drove south over Chiswick Bridge today intending to go to Manor Road Sainsbury's, but the traffic heading over the bridge was at a standstill. In  the end I did a u-turn and went elsewhere. I don't know whether this was because of the Chalker's Corner problem, but I suspect it probably was.

Colin Jordan ● 1372d

Thanks for the info, Colin. I will avoid this afternoon and take another route.

Steve Taylor ● 1372d

Thames Water wrote to me last April saying that they thought there was a leak somewhere on my property and it was my responsibility to sort it out. I called in some water engineers who tracked the leak down to where my pipe work meets that of Thames Water under the pavement. They said they thought it was TW's responsibility.I wrote to TW with a copy of the engineer's report, at which point they decided that the leak wasn't big enough to bother about. Six months later they wrote saying that there was no longer any sign of a leak.They are utter muppets.

Susan Kelly ● 1372d

Well who thought it was a great idea to privatise something so important to us all?Well here's something from the BMJ:https://www.bmj.com/content/378/bmj.o2076Interestingly Water UK wasn't set up until about 10 years later.A bit late now but Thames Water has info on how to prepare your home for cold weather.  Maybe you can learn something for the next time the weather suddenly gets much colder:https://www.thameswater.co.uk/help/home-improvements/prepare-your-home-for-winterhttps://www.water.org.uk/rivers/

Philippa Bond ● 1372d

There were reduced lanes and no right turn from the A316 into Mortlake Road this morning which was causing considerable inconvenience.

Peter Evans ● 1372d

“ a bit late now but Thames Water has info on how to prepare your home for cold weather”Yup, Thames Water are late in EVERYTHING they do except paying massive dividends to shareholders and huge bonuses to directors.

Steve Taylor ● 1371d

I didn't say and didn't mean that Thames Water was late with the information on cold weather.  I suppose you realised that.  It is we British who are always seem to be surprised and whinge when our lives don't go to routine or plan.  How many people prepared and have been preparing their homes AND their wardrobes for a freeze?When you have  perfected the art of snapping your fingers and magicking away all problems eg broken water mains, do let us know.  At present it takes several different groups to work out what and where the problem is, where the services are and marking out the road for digging out with digger and by shovel, suck out soggy ground, mend pipe, backfill, tarmac, roll, re-paint white lines in mending both the pipe and the road.  And then there are all the road signs and council notifications.  Quite a lot of sequenced scheduling and activity and I've probably missed some out.  The works that upset and inconvenience your trip will just be one of those needing assessment as to severity, urgency and work!  It is much worse for anyone whose home or business has been flooded.Strangely both heavy traffic and extremes in temperature cause damage to the roads.

Philippa Bond ● 1371d

Well, you're obviously not old enough to recall the inefficiencies and inertia of the old nationalised industries including the regional water companies. No investment, no drive of any sort. Thames Water, however, should lose its franchise or be taken over temporarily by the state. It simply doesn't care.

Robin Knight ● 1368d

Privatisation was supposed to be bring in lots of investment with the idea of the renewal of our Victorian water infrastructure which had been starved of money and desperately needed updating.  Only of course the idea of privatisation is also to earn money for the shareholders.We still have a great deal of the Victorian infrastructure and as one bit is mended it tends to put pressure on another bit which then fails so they often seem to end up back again to make mend another bit of pipe.  Just one hole causes a lot of fuss so just imagine the fuss and bother when the pipes down a whole main road are are being replaced.When it was state owned the Govt put restrictions on the Water Board borrowing to improve the infrastructure.As it is it would be better if we had separate rainwater and sewage pipes so that there weren't problems with sudden excessive rainfall we are now experiencing.For several years I also don't believe there were any dividends paid to Thames Water shareholders but then if they keep on being fined they will be having to find that money from somewhere too.

Philippa Bond ● 1366d