Dreadnought a.k.a. The Malago Stormwater Interceptor
A recce by Drainrat and Oggy
turned up access to the Malago Stormwater Interceptor, another one of Bristols bigger storm relief
systems that has long been known of but not much sought out, until now. A couple of weeks later the
Urbanunderworld boys were kind
enough to invite us along for the first exploration of this behemoth drain, we didn't need to be asked twice.
We met up on a glorious Bristol morning, took some time out to chat drains over a bacon butty
and fuel up for the explore ahead. We drove over to our access point, kitted up and headed out
excited at what lay ahead! On reaching the infall we found that things had been made somewhat easier for us
in the access stakes, so we were in and going much sooner than we'd anticipated.
The drain is 3Km of mostly concrete arch pipe with a few interesting features along that length, features such
as entrance grilles and scary sewage flaps of doom, beware! The grille rooms are likely the most impressive
features, particularly the second one with its towering stepped waterfall. Heading downstream
there are various points where overflow pipes from the sewer which runs parallel enter Dreadnought, only one
was actually overflowing, and only very slightly, but it was enough to inject a niff into the air of what
had been a fresh tunnel, never the less the only worry of anything triggering Drainrat's gas detector
were emmissions from Drainrat himself!
Just prior to the outfall the sewer makes another appearance, a major overflow chamber is entered via a set of
hanging plastic flaps in the main tunnel, beyond them the chamber simply has a retaining wall which would be overflowed
in extreme circumstances sending untreated sewage direct into the River Avon. The outfall itself is an impressive
concrete creation,
the main tunnel splits to outfall into the river Avon via two circular pipes, barred and locked, so no getting out here!
The fresh tide marks on the walls of the outfall were way, way above head height, not surprising considering Bristols tides,
we were fortunate to have timed reaching the outfalls at relatively low tide. All that remained now was the walk back out, no one likes the walk out!
