tunnelling-journal (1)
tunnelling-journal (1)
  • Home
  • Print
    • Subscribe
    • Tunnelling Journal
    • Breakthrough
    • ITA Activity Report
    • A&NZ Journal
    • WTC Preview
    • Media Kit
  • Digital
    • Newsletter
    • E-Shots
    • TJ Digital edition
    • Products Page
    • Media Kit
  • Conferences
    • BTS Conference and Exhibition
    • Cutting Edge 2022
  • Buyer’s Guide
  • Events Diary
  • Jobs
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Podcast

Home > Crossrail East launch shafts near completion

Crossrail East launch shafts near completion

Tris Thomas

Written by Tris Thomas on 25/07/2012 in News

Tagged:

Crossrail workers have now reached the temporary bottom of the two huge launch shafts at Limmo Peninsular in London where the eastern drive TBMs will be lowered into ahead of tunnelling commencing this winter. The larger of the two shafts is 30m in diameter and will be 44m deep when completed. Construction has now commenced on two mined tunnels that will connect the two shafts.

Assembly of Crossrail’s third TBM, Elizabeth, is now well underway with the large blue cutterhead installed earlier this week. During the coming months, the 150m machine will be fully assembled and tested before being lowered in sections into the two shafts.

Crossrail’s eastern tunnels will run for 8.3km from Docklands to Farringdon where they will join with the western tunnels from Paddington. When complete, Crossrail will transform rail transport in east London with areas such as Whitechapel, Ilford and Romford gaining direct links to the capital’s major employment areas.

Construction of a new jetty began this week at Instone Wharf and will enable excavated material to be transported by ship rather than road, removing 30,000 lorries from east London roads. Around 1.2 million tonnes of excavated material will be transported by boat.

Construction of a 100 x 9m muck pit has also begun this week. The pit will store excavated material when the tide is too low or there is no ship at the jetty.

Crossrail’s Eastern Tunnels Project Manager Peter Main said: “We are now gearing up for the start of Crossrail tunnelling in east London. Work to construct two large launch shafts is now complete with assembly of the first of our tunnel boring machines now well underway. We understand how critical it is to limit the impact of Crossrail’s construction on local communities and have planned to transport the excavated material from the eastern tunnels by boat from Instone Wharf, removing the need for more than 30,000 lorry journeys in east London. We will also deliver 120,000 concrete tunnel segments by boat from Chatham Dockyard to further reduce our local impact.”

Excavated material will be extracted from the eastern tunnels via a high angle conveyer, traveling up the shaft and under the Lower Lee Crossing to the new jetty at Instone Wharf. The material will then be loaded directly onto ships and transported to Wallasea Island in Essex where it be used to create a new 1,500 acre RSPB nature reserve.

Comments:

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Search

Digital Edition

More Like This

01/03/2022

Sydney Metro awards Western Tunnelling contract

Sydney Metro awards Western Tunnelling contract

Sydney Metro has awarded a $2.16bn contract to deliver the next stage of tunnelling on the mega Sydney Metro West…

03/03/2022

West Gate Tunnel’s first mega-TBM gets going

West Gate Tunnel’s first mega-TBM gets going

The largest TBM in the Southern Hemisphere has started digging Melbourne’s A$6.7bn West Gate Tunnel Project. The massive 15.6m diameter Herrenknecht…

19/05/2022

Nominations open for 8th Edition of the ITA Tunnelling Awards

Nominations open for 8th Edition of the ITA Tunnelling Awards

The 8th edition of the ITA Tunnelling and Underground Space Awards has been officially launched with the issue of a…

  • Contact Us
  • Media Kit
  • Magazine Archive

Newsletter

The latest from the Tunneling Journal direct to your inbox.

Social



Enquiries

TGS Media Ltd
The Old Library
Webster House
Dudley Road
Tunbridge Wells
TN1 1LE
United Kingdom

© Tunnelling Journal. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy / Terms & Conditions. Admin

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.OkRead more