During the next four months, components for the 150m long machine, Elizabeth, will be transported to the Limmo worksite from Tilbury Docks and reassembled before being lowered in sections into two shafts. Once fully assembled below ground the TBM will begin constructing the first of Crossrail’s two eastern running tunnels between Docklands and central London.
Workers have reached the temporary bottom of the two launch shafts and have commenced work on sprayed concrete lined tunnels to connect the two shafts. The larger of the two shafts is 30m in diameter and will be 44m deep when completed.
Elizabeth and TBM Victoria will be launched from Limmo Peninsula. The machines will construct Crossrail’s longest tunnel section running 8.3 km to Farringdon station via Canary Wharf, Whitechapel and Liverpool Street. Victoria is due to commence tunnelling later this year.
"Work is now underway to assemble the TBMs for Crossrail’s eastern tunnels between Docklands and central London," said Peter Main, Crossrail’s eastern tunnels project manager. "These machines will carve some 1.2 million tons 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."
Crossrail will build a new dock and conveyer system at Limmo to take the excavated material from the eastern tunnels to Wallasea Island in Essex by ship. The excavated material will be used to create Europe’s largest manmade inter-tidal nature reserve.
The dock will also be used to receive more than 120,000 concrete segments that will line the tunnels. The concrete segments will be transported by ship to Limmo Peninsula from a pre-cast concrete segment factory at Chatham in Kent.
