INSIGHT | MUCKING OUT, LOGISTICS


The concrete segments are transported through the


Atlas Road Logistics Tunnel on MSVs to reach the TBMs. The tunnel is wide enough only for a single lane and a traffic-light signalling system is used. Some 1.5 million tonnes of spoil will be excavated


from the two tunnels. The spoil will be carried by long conveyor back to the Old Oak Common cavern, and then, also by conveyor, through the Atlas Road Logistics Tunnel and out to the London Logistics Centre, operated by SCS JV at the Euro Terminal Depot in Willesden, north-west London. There, the material is transferred to rail wagons for transport, in up to seven trains a day, to sites in Kent, Cambridgeshire, and Warwickshire. This approach to spoil transport logistics will remove the equivalent of more than 135,000 truck-loads from the roads.


Final steps For TBM assembly the components were lowered into the Old Oak Common cavern through its then-open roof. The roof openings have now been reduced in size; so, upon completion of the tunnel drives, the TBM parts cannot be extracted by that route. Instead, they will be transported farther back underground, beyond the cavern, for removal via the Atlas Road tunnel. However, there is a challenge: the Atlas Road tunnel


is narrower than the Euston Tunnel. The plan is to strip the gantries and machinery into smaller pieces, load them onto flatbeds and drive them out to the surface. However, the shield sections are to remain in place, underground, and grouted in behind the concrete tunnel lining. The erected concrete segmental lining, at the


entrance to the Old Oak Common box, gives way to shotcrete lining. “We are hoping to tunnel for about a year and a half,


Above: Segment erector As noted, the TBMs were delivered to the cavern over


the surface. The remaining access problems were solved by excavating a temporary tunnel under the surface rail lines. Known as the Atlas Road Logistics Tunnel and completed in January 2024, it is 853m-long and allows access to the cavern and to both TBMs. It is also the supply route for all the construction materials, including the segment linings, and the exit route for the muck, by means of a conveyor that runs through it.


Segments and Spoil The tunnels will be lined with precast concrete rings – requiring 48,294 segments in total and each weighing six tonnes. The segments are manufactured by Strabag at a specially-built casting facility in Hartlepool, County Durham, in the North England, and transported 415km (260 miles) to site by rail. Edmonds says: “They don’t touch the roads at all. We


have 20 rings a day coming in and currently hold around 400 on the site, so we have a good supply even if we run into some challenges with external logistics.” Installation is expected to be at a rate of about 10


rings per day. 22 | May 2026


followed by the invert concreting; and then we shall do the cross passages,” says Nithiananthan. “That is a slightly different sequence of work compared to the other assets, where they were doing the cross passages and then the invert, but we decided to do it sequentially.” There are 18 cross passages between the two parallel


tunnels, which is about one every 250m; they will be built using traditional hand-mining techniques, with steel outer linings and secondary linings within them. Ventilation shafts are also located along the tunnels –


at Coventry Road and Adelaide Road, respectively. Much has been achieved already elsewhere on HS2’s


first phase tunnelling works with some 37km of tunnel already completed, after the final TBM constructing the Bromford Tunnel (5.8km-long) in Warwickshire finished its journey in October 2025. Other major tunnel sections on the rail line are at Northolt (13.5 km-long), Chiltern (16km), and Long Itchington Wood (1.6km). When construction is complete, the high-speed


railway is to be opened in stages, with the first services running between Old Oak Common and Birmingham Curzon Street stations. HS2 is to open all the way to Euston at a later date.


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