On 7 May, contractor J Murphy & Sons launched its seventh and final drive for the Lower Lea Cable Tunnels, in East London. ‘Michelle’ a 3.5m diameter backhoe shield, which was designed and built by Murphy, will bore a short 52m long section of tunnel from the project’s West Ham portal to National Grid’s substation.
The Lower Lea project, which is on the critical path for preparation of the London 2012 games site, primarily consists of two 5.95km long tunnels (one each for EDF Energy and National Grid cables) driven in two directions from central shafts at Carpenter’s Road, in Stratford.
One week before Michelle’s launch, ‘Helen’ a 2.82m diameter refurbished Lovat EPBM that had previously been at work on the southern leg of the main EDF tunnel, was re-launched for the 835m EDF tunnel spur to Bow.
Elsewhere on the project, ‘Sonia’ a 4.15m diameter Lovat EPBM has just 390m left to bore on the southern leg of the main National Grid tunnel and ‘Fionnuala’ another 2.82m diameter Lovat has just 200m left to go on the northern drive of the main EDF tunnel.
A short 60m long Iseki pipejack was the first drive to be completed for the project, with ‘Lucile’, the other 4.15m diameter Lovat used on the project, and Helen breaking through in March (T&TI April p11).
All tunnelling works for the project are expected to be complete by the end of July, by which time M&E installations for the tunnels will be underway.
Launch of the final LLCT drive using a 3.5m diameter Murphy backhoe shield
