Tunnelling work is now under way on High Speed 2 following the launch of the project’s first boring machine – known as Florence – to carve a route for the railway beneath the Chilterns in Buckinghamshire.
Join other savvy professionals just like you at CIHT. We are committed to fulfilling your professional development needs throughout your career
Weighing 2000t, the 170m long machine is thought to be the largest used to date on a UK rail project.
It will bore the first of a pair of 16km tunnels under the Chiltern hills, operating around the clock over the next three years, and is set to be joined next month by an identical second machine named Cecilia to excavate the second tube.
In total, over 10 such machines will be used to dig 100km of tunnel between London and the Midlands for High Speed 2’s first phase.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps welcomed Florence’s launch as a “landmark moment” for the project, which he said promises to forge “stronger connections in our country, boosting connectivity and skills opportunities and transforming our transport links”.
Florence and Cecilia will be operated by construction joint venture Align and are designed specifically to carve through the mix of chalk and flints under the Chilterns.
Each machine operates by digging the tunnel, lining it with concrete wall segments and grouting them into place at a speed of around 15m a day.
Align project director Daniel Altier commented: “The TBMs include a number of innovations to improve efficiency and the safety of the environment in which the crew will be working, that have never before been introduced on any previous TBMs worldwide.”
The TBMs were built by Herrenknecht in Germany and transported to the UK in more than 300 separate shipments last year, before being reassembled, tested and commissioned at the Chilterns tunnel south portal site, near the M25 to the north west of London.
Launch of Florence comes after a suggestion that major transport infrastructure projects such as High Speed 2 should be paused due to uncertainty around post-Covid travel habits was rejected by the head of the Infrastructure & Projects Authority.
At a Transport Select Committee evidence session last week, the Authority’s chief executive Nick Smallwood was asked by Buckingham MP Greg Smith whether “for the infrastructure projects that are being built today, shouldn’t we press the pause button until we can be certain of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on demand?”
But Nick Smallwood responded: “My personal view on that as a project delivery professional would be no. It will cost far more taxpayers’ money and really destroy value for money to pause a project rather than continue and look for opportunities to take out cost and add value.
“That challenge has been put to HS2 phase one, and we have plenty of time I think to scrutinise anything else that is of major consequence in the infrastructure space going forward,” he said.
Nick also highlighted that in the case of High Speed 2’s later phases, which are “many years away”, there is an opportunity to “see what the recovery from the pandemic looks like”.
He predicted that road transport will return quickly to pre-pandemic levels, but added: “In the fullness of time I would wholly expect, given the challenges on net zero, that people will realise rail traffic is one solution to that.”
(Photograph: High Speed 2)
#StepForward
Propose a colleague who successfully becomes a CIHT member and you’ll be automatically be entered into our free monthly prize draw where one lucky winner will receive a £50 John Lewis Gift Card.
Join other savvy professionals just like you at CIHT. We are committed to fulfilling your professional development needs throughout your career
{{item.AuthorName}} {{item.AuthorName}} says on {{item.DateFormattedString}}: