BUILDERS are diverting a Victorian sewer pipe away from the site of Brighton and Hove’s under- construction viewing tower.

The team behind Brighton’s i360 has been working with Southern Water to build a 120m pipe to connect to the sewer and ensure the base of the new construction is clear.

Eleanor Harris, the project’s chief executive,  said: “We have been building a new sewer pipe to divert wastewater flows which run through a Victorian sewer under the site.

“The next step will be to connect the new pipe, which is away from our foundations, to the old sewer. This is being carefully managed by our team in partnership with Southern Water, who have been very supportive throughout.”

Ms Harris said building work on Brighton beach by the West Pier was making good progress after power cables were also rerouted.

She said: “We have met with a few surprises along the way. We were expecting to find nine major power cables under there, with no clear maps of exactly where to find them. We in fact found 12 and, as they are old power lines and some of them are big and supplying around a third of Brighton and Hove’s power, we had to apply archaeological dig methodology, by hand, to extricate them and run them through a new, safe piping that can be easily accessed in the future.”

She said one of the most fascinating finds was discovering the beach is higher than in the Victorian era after unearthing a sea wall believed to have been built in the 1890s.

Ms Harris said: “This is all preparation work for the excavation of foundations next year so we can pour 4,000 tonnes of concrete into a huge hole, which will become the counter balance for the 162m tower.”

The £46.2 million structure is set to open in 2016.