United Living Infrastructure Services (ULIS) has completed the tunnelling stage of the Saltley Viaduct Gas Diversion project.
The TBM, named Lorena by the project team, has finished boring the 106m-long, 1.5m-diameter tunnel which runs from east to west beneath the Derby to Birmingham railway. The tunnel will house a replacement gas pipeline to maintain gas supplies to the Birmingham. It is also needed to facilitate a large infrastructure scheme.
The tunnel was delivered by ULIS, a subsidiary of United Living Group, and tunnelling subcontractor HB Tunnelling on behalf of Cadent.
The segmental shafts are 14m deep and up to 7.5m in diameter and were installed in challenging wet ground conditions in a constrained site between the River Rea and the Grand Union Canal.
The spoil generated from the shaft excavations will be transported to a local materials management facility for reuse.
With the main tunnelling work completed, ULIS will now proceed with the gas pipe installation and connections to the existing gas network before removing the redundant pipeline. Work is scheduled to be completed in April next year.
Cadent director of capital delivery Neil Bethell praised the completion of tunnelling.
“This was and continues to be a challenging project from the start, with significant risks to be assessed and managed within very tight timescales. The successful construction of the tunnel is a fantastic achievement by all involved and was only made possible by all parties working closely together,” he said.
ULIS managing director Conor Bray said it was a significant milestone and displayed the hard work and close collaboration of everyone working on the project.
