Thames Tideway Press release – ON the 12th December
2018 the giant machine that will dig a 4.5km tunnel through south-east London was
assembled and made ready to begin work underground.
‘Annie’, named after Annie Maunder, the first female
astronomer to work at the Greenwich observatory, was put through her paces at
the factory this week and will soon make the journey from Germany to Greenwich
ready to start tunnelling next year.
As wide as a pair of London buses, this huge machine will
create the ‘Greenwich Connection Tunnel’ – linking much of south-east London to
the main super sewer tunnel beneath the Thames.
Tideway, the company building London’s new 25km ‘super
sewer’, has been busy preparing the site in Greenwich, one of 24 sites on the
project, for the past two years.
Gareth Howells, Project Manager at Greenwich Pumping
Station, said: “Believe it or not, Annie is actually smaller than the machines
digging the main tunnel, but it’s still an enormous piece of kit.
“At over six metres in diameter and more than 100 metres
long it really is amazing to think that this machine will soon be tunnelling
away beneath south-east London.”
When tunnelling starts from the site in Greenwich, it will
be a 24-hour operation. So, to ensure disruption to local residents is minimal,
Tideway is building an ‘acoustic enclosure’ around the work to trap the noise.
Gareth explained: “Because we’re investing in this acoustic
enclosure, noise from the tunnelling will be contained so the impact on our
neighbours will be limited by as much as possible.”
Once tunnelling is in full flow at Greenwich, much of the
spoil removed from the ground will be taken from site by barge – keeping
thousands of lorries off the local roads.
Tideway is investing in new infrastructure in Deptford Creek
to facilitate this river transport.
Click here https://tunnelbuilder.com/News/Thames-Tideway-press-release.aspx
and uk/54 https://tunnelbuilder.com/Archive/Projects.aspx?&projectcode=uk%2f54
for tunnelbuilder archive. Visit https://www.tideway.london
and
https://www.tideway.london/news/press-releases/2018/december/annie-gets-ready-to-build-london-s-super-sewer-from-greenwich/#sub-nav
