Six TBMs to be used under London for the central section of the mega-Crossrail project are to be built and delivered by Herrenknecht. Germany. Contractors for the central C300 and C305 contracts for 17km of 6m diameter i.d. twin tube running tunnels have confirmed orders with the leading TBM supplier.
Six Herrenknecht TBMs for central Crossrail
BAM Nuttall, Ferrovial Agroman, Kier Construction JV has ordered two EPBMs for the 6.1km of running tunnels of the Western Running Tunnels C300 contract from Royal Oak to Farringdon and Dragados-John Sisk & Son JV has ordered four machines for the 11km of twin running tunnels for two of the three drives of the Eastern Running Tunnels contract C305 from Limmo Peninsula to Farringdon (8.3km), and Stepney Green to Pudding Mill Lane (2.7km). One more TBM, and perhaps an additional two, are needed for the short C300 tunnel section between Limmo Peninsula and Victoria Dock Portal. The type of machine needed for these 1km long twin drives, heading into the waterbearing sand and gravels deposits to the east of London are still under discussion for confirmation of a future machine order. An order for the proposed one TBM and two cutterheads for the 2.6km long C3010 Thames Tunnel drives under the river by the Hochtief, J Murphy JV is also yet to be confirmed.
The six machines ordered are all of the EPBM design and will be manufactured at the Herrenknecht workshops at Schwanau in Germany where they will be fully assembled and factory tested before being dismantled into components for shipping.
Crossrail today also confirmed that the concrete segments for the western running tunnels between Royal Oak and Farringdon will be manufactured at Old Oak Common and transported to the TBM by rail. Crossrail is currently finalising arrangements with the tunnelling contractors for location of the other concrete segment manufacturing sites.
The first two TBMs are scheduled to arrive in London in early 2012 ahead of being launched from Royal Oak in spring 2012. The next two for the eastern running tunnels from Limmo Peninsula to Farringdon will arrive in mid 2012 and the next set for the drives from Stepney Green to Pudding Mill Lane will come to site later in 2012.
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson said: "There is nothing boring about the leviathan machines that will soon be burrowing their way through the earth way below our streets. These monsters of the deep will create the tunnels that will make it easier for millions of people to whizz east to west across our city."
Rail Minister Theresa Villiers said: “This is an exciting step forward for the capital, which will create thousands of new jobs and deliver real benefits to the London and UK economies.”
Rob Holden, Crossrail Chief Executive said: “In less than a year, the first tunnel boring machines will have arrived and begun their journey from Royal Oak to Farringdon. Even though the start of tunnelling is still about nine months away, work has been ongoing since early 2010 to construct the tunnel portal at Royal Oak from where the first TBM will launch.”
The TBMs will run nearly 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
Such is the scale of Crossrail that up to 14,000 people will be employed at the peak of construction between 2013 and 2015 giving Londoners the chance to build and benefit from Crossrail. Currently 3,000 people are employed on the Crossrail project.
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Major engineering and contracting companies engaged on the Crossrail project to December 2010
