Going Underground: Tideway’s first tunnelling machines
lowered 53 metres into the ground
- First
two tunnelling machines have been lowered underground
- Tunnelling
to start on the 25 km tunnel later this year
- Super
sewer will prevent tens of millions of untreated sewage entering London’s
iconic River Thames
Tideway, the company building London’s super sewer, has
marked a major milestone with the lowering of its first two Tunnel Boring
Machines (TBMs) at its Kirtling Street site near Battersea Power Station.
The two TBMs, Millicent and Ursula, named after pioneering
women who lived and worked in London close to Tideway’s sites, will be used to
dig the central section of the Thames Tideway Tunnel, a 25km super sewer tunnel
being constructed to tackle the problem of sewage pollution in the River
Thames.
Millicent, named after Dame Millicent Fawcett, an
English suffragist, will tunnel 5km from Kirtling Street to Carnwath Road
in Fulham. While Ursula, named after Audrey ‘Ursula’ Smith, a British
cryobiologist at King’s College Hospital, will tunnel 7km from Kirtling
Street to Chambers Wharf in Bermondsey.
Mark Sneesby, Tideway’s Chief Operating Officer, said: “The
lowering of our first two Tunnel Boring Machines marks a significant milestone
for the project before tunnelling gets underway later this year.
“London’s new super sewer will prevent tens of millions
of tonnes of sewage from entering London’s iconic River Thames, the vein that
runs through London, and will protect it for the next hundred years and future
generations to come.”
The lowering of the two TBM cutterheads - which weigh in at
over 850 tonnes each- was a lengthy and complex process and took approximately
eight hours to lower each TBM.
Once lowered the machines were placed into launch adits,
otherwise known as starter tunnels, before work to complete the build of the
TBMs, which will be over 100 metres long when fully built, begins in
earnest.
When fully assembled, each TBM will weigh in at 1300 tonnes,
and will be the project’s largest, of six, tunnelling machines. The TBMs will
remain underground for almost two years as they dig the tunnels.
The Kirtling Street is in the central section of the
Tideway project which is being delivered by the Ferrovial
Agroman UK and Laing O’Rourke joint venture. Visit https://www.tideway.london/ for further information. Also visit tunnelbuilder news page
http://tunnelbuilder.com/News/Assembly-of-Millicent-and-Ursula-nearing-completion.aspx
And the archive http://tunnelbuilder.com/Archive/Projects.aspx?&projectcode=uk%2f54 . 27/18.
