GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING
Crossrail’s ‘Elizabeth’ TBM ready for assembly
The first tunnel boring machine (TBM) components have arrived for assembly at Crossrail’s eastern tunnels in Limmo Peninsula. Kate Ashley reports.
‘Elizabeth’, one of Crossrail’s TBMs, will be transported to the Limmo worksite from Tilbury Docks, where the machine will be reassembled before tunnelling begins between Docklands and central London. Elizabeth weighs 1,000 tonnes and is 150 metres long.
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The first of two eastern tunnels is part of the largest tunnel section, running 8.3km to Farringdon Station via Canary Wharf, Whitechapel and Liverpool Street.
Crossrail is also set to build a new dock and conveyor system at Limmo to transport the excavated material to Wallasea Island in Essex, to create Europe’s largest manmade inter- tidal nature reserve.
The dock will also receive over 120,000 concrete segments that will line the tunnels.
Crossrail’s Eastern Tunnels project manager Peter Main said: “Work is now underway to assemble the tunnel boring machines for Crossrail’s eastern tunnels between Docklands
Crossrail freight link to Northfleet opened
The new £13.5m freight link between the North Kent Line and Northfleet has been officially opened by Bob Neill, the minister with responsibility for the Thames Gateway.
The link will be used to transport excavated material from the construction of Crossrail’s tunnels in London to a new nature reserve at Wallasea Island in Essex. The material will be transferred to ship for the final part of this journey at the former Lafarge Cement Works at Northfleet.
The line includes 4.75km of new track and at the peak of tunnelling,
ver the next four months the components that make up
and central London.
“These machines will carve some 1.2 million tonnes of excavated material from under London and help build a rail line that will transform rail transport in the capital.
“When Crossrail opens, passengers will be able to travel from Abbey Wood to Farringdon station in just 20 minutes or between Stratford and Heathrow in less than 45 minutes.”
Four of the eight TBMs have now been manufactured for Crossrail, while in mid-May, the first trainload of excavated material from the western tunnels was delivered to Northfleet in a 13-wagon train. Since then, two return trains a week have been making the run, and eventually it will be five a week. More than a million tonnes of earth will be excavated during the western tunnelling alone, with the total for the entire project, including station construction, likely to come in at six million tonnes – almost all of which is expected to be uncontaminated and reusable.
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up to five freight trains a day will be operated by GB Railfreight.
Neill said: “Infrastructure this such
as this is essential in allowing businesses to move goods and will help propel growth in
area.
This project is now going to provide support for the building of Crossrail, proving that the Thames Gateway is well and truly open for business.”
Chris Dulake, Crossrail’s chief engineer said: “Transporting excavated material by train will remove at least 50,000 lorry journeys from central London as well as ensuring its use for environmental
improvement
including a major new RSPB nature reserve in Essex.”
rail technology magazine Jun/Jul 12 | 67
All images © Crossrail Ltd
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