What a boring job!
2,000-ton drill starts work carving out tunnels for £106bn HS2
The largest tunnelling machine ever used on a British rail project got to work yesterday.
The giant 558ft-long drill will dig a ten-mile tunnel through chalk under the Chiltern hills for the controversial £106billion hs2 project.
The 2,000-ton beast, which began work near West hyde in Buckinghamshire, will be in operation 24 hours a day, seven days a week until the tunnel is completed in about three-and-a-half years.
Crews of up to 17 will work from inside the machine and swap over in shifts so it works non-stop. it is expected to cover around 50ft a day at depths as low as 295ft.
its drill head is 33ft wide, although the tunnel trains will pass through will be 30ft wide once concrete walls have been fitted.
Named Florence after Florence Nightingale, it is the first of ten tunnel-boring machines (TBMs) which will dig 64 miles of tunnels between London and the West Midlands for phase one of the high-speed rail project.
in about a month’s time a second identical giant drill, called Cecilia, will begin work on an adjacent tunnel for trains travelling in the opposite direction. it is named after Cecilia Payne- Gaposchkin, the astronomer and astrophysicist born in Buckinghamshire.
The patron saint of tunnelling is saint Barbara and all tunnel machines tend to be named after famous women as a superstition by those in the industry.
Florence had to be transported to the uK from its factory in Germany in 330 shipments containing more than 1,000 parts, which were then assembled.
The hs2 drills are larger than the ones used to burrow underneath London as part of Crossrail, the biggest railway infrastructure project in europe.
Transport secretary Grant shapps hailed yesterday’s development as a ‘ground-breaking’ moment for the Government’s levelling up agenda.
he said: ‘ The tunnels these machines dig will ensure the benefits of our new high- capacity, high- speed railway run to the great cities of the North and Midlands, forging stronger connections in our country, boosting connectivity and skills opportunities and transforming our transport links.’ hs2 trains will operate at up to 225mph, reducing the journey time between Birmingham and London from one hour and 21 minutes to 45 minutes.
Phase one was due to open in 2026, but it may not be until the end of the decade before full services operate. The second phase, to Manchester and Leeds, is planned for 2035-2040.
The project has been plagued by delays and spiralling costs. in 2015 hs2 was estimated to cost £56billion. But last year a leaked Governmentcommissioned review suggested the total could actually reach £106billion.