Apparently sugar in cement is a thing: <a href="https://duckduckgo.com/?q=sugar+concrete" rel="nofollow">https://duckduckgo.com/?q=sugar+concrete</a><p>Sugar retards the setting process. Of course people who work with concrete would know this.<p>I think we've just been given a glimpse into the lore and practices of a foreign profession.
I took the tube instead of cycling that day and was kicking myself because I so rarely take the tube. When I saw the pictures I thought 10 to 1 they don't have it open by morning, but they did. They deserve credit for getting it cleaned up (or at least operational) in < 14 hours.
For those like myself wondering why sugar was used and how it helped this situation then I found this URL most enlightening:-<p><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/10594718/Why-sugar-helped-remove-Victoria-Line-concrete-flood.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/10594718/Why...</a><p>"Concrete is made using cement, which is a combination of crushed and heated limestone, clay and gypsum; aggregate, such as gravel and sand; and water.
Adding water causes a chemical reaction called hydration, where hydrogen from the water combines with calcium, sulphate, aluminium and silicon from the cement.
This releases heat and depending on the proportions of each of these minerals, which hydrate at different rates, can set at varying speeds.
Sugar, however, is composed of carbon, oxygen and hydrogen atoms which can interfere with the hydration process by binding with the minerals and slow down the reaction."
The best bit of this is that the story of the cement flood was broken by viral clickbait site UsVsTh3m (a commercial thing from the people who run b3ta). They actually scooped everyone, and everyone used their photos.<p><a href="http://usvsth3m.com/post/74285062011/you-wont-believe-why-the-victoria-line-is-currently" rel="nofollow">http://usvsth3m.com/post/74285062011/you-wont-believe-why-th...</a><p>(My loved one used to work for the Tube. She says those photos would have been the actual incident report photos.)
That is pretty intense. I am not sure how you would know that your forms were going to leak that badly, but if you're pumping concrete from the street above its going to be under a lot of pressure when it gets down to the bottom.<p>If they hadn't caught it (and I assume it was actually a flood alarm that went off in the cabinet) you would have been faced with carving the equipment out of a solid block of concrete and <i>that</i> would have been bloody expensive and slow.
<i>"TfL today came under fire for initially informing commuters the line closure was due to “flooding”"</i><p>Technically they weren't lying, they just didn't say what material was doing the flooding.
> The only word for it is a f∗∗∗ up of major proportions. Everyone was f-ing and blinding when they realised what had happened.<p>It's certainly more fuck up than farce, but what does what does "f-ing" and "blinding" mean? (Australian here)<p>But the key issue - in everything - is not whether you make mistakes, but whether you fix them. This one was fixed.
I'd imagine this works similarly to how a slice of bread in a bag of cookies keeps the cookies chewy, as the sugar attracts and holds the water from the bread, and keeps the cookies from drying out. Something to do with sugar being hygroscopic.
What technology are they using for signaling? From the photos, it looks like a bunch of relays connected with a bunch of red wires, but it must be more advanced than that.
<i>"It's stupid more than anything. I guess stupidity has ruled the day here."</i><p>Gotta love people weighing in with their expert opinion.
Luckily it wasn't racks of digital gear with fans.<p>I can imagine someone thinking they had underestimated the quantity of cement needed as it drained into this room.