Cecilia shows up!
Having actually triggered from near Maple Cross in June 2021, TBM Cecilia has actually now finished her 10-mile drive and reunited with her twin sis maker, Florencewho reached the website near Wendover on 27th February after finishing her nearby tunnel drive.
In between them, the 2 2,000-tonne devices have actually constructed the twin bore tunnel at depths of as much as 80 metres and excavated 3 million cubic metres of chalk. They have actually each set up 56,000 pre-cast concrete tunnel sections, grouting them into location and moving on at a typical speed of 16 metres daily.
HS2 Ltd’s head of civil works for this area of the path, Mark Clapp, stated: “Cecilia’s arrival finishes excavation of HS2’s 10-mile twin-bore tunnel, however it’s just completion of the very first chapter in the story of structure Britain’s high-speed train under the Chiltern Hills. A number of years of extensive, world class engineering lie ahead of us to finish the tunnels’ 4 ventilation shafts plus headhouses; set up the mechanical and electrical plant and equipment, piece track and overhead electrical wires before trains start going through at 200mph.”
The Herrenknecht TBMs were run by HS2’s primary works specialist, Align– a joint endeavor of Bouygues, Sir Robert McAlpine, and VolkerFitzpatrick.
Align’s underground building director, Didier Jacques, stated: “Ten miles is a long drive for a TBM, with a normal average being around 3 miles. The intricacy and technically difficulties of finishing such a long drive for both our TBMs has actually been considerable. I am thrilled that as a group, we have actually increased to the obstacle.
“Both TBMs were created in collaboration with Herrenknecht and integrate developments and innovations that have actually been presented on TBMs in the UK for the very first time, to improve efficiency and security. This consists of ‘semi-continuous boring’, enabling our TBMs to construct the rings that line the tunnels without stopping briefly.”
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