Posted 11th September 2014 | No Comments

Work starts on short but complex Crossrail tunnel

THE boring of the last Crossrail tunnel to be dug in east London has begun. Tunnel machine Ellie has started her 900 metre journey from Limmo Peninsula near Canning Town towards the Victoria Dock Portal in east London.

Over the next three months the 1,000 tonne machine, named after four-time Paralympic champion Ellie Simmonds OBE, will complete one of Crossrail’s shortest but most complex tunnels, which is close to the Jubilee line, Docklands Light Railway, River Thames and River Lea.

The drive will complete tunnelling on Crossrail’s southeast spur, which stretches from Stepney Green to Abbey Wood. Ellie’s sister tunnelling machine, Jessica, completed the first of the two twin-tunnels from Limmo to Victoria Dock earlier this summer.

Ellie has already successfully completed a tunnel from Pudding Mill Lane near Stratford, to Stepney Green. The tunnel machine is 150 metres long and 7.1 metres in diameter and is staffed by teams of 20 people. The concrete and steel tunnel segments are made in Chatham and transported to Limmo by river barge.

Crossrail will complete its tunnels next year when tunnel machines Elizabeth and Victoria, currently in Whitechapel, reach Farringdon in central London. Crossrail said its tunnels are 83 per cent complete "and the project remains on time and within budget".

Chief executive Andrew Wolstenholme said: “Huge amounts of planning go into every tunnel drive, and this one is no different. We are deploying some of the world’s best engineering talent and machinery to safely build these new tunnels.”

Joint Venture Dragados Sisk is constructing the eastern tunnels between Pudding Mill Lane and Stepney Green, Limmo Peninsula and Farringdon, and Victoria Dock Portal and Limmo.

Crossrail services are due to run through central London in 2018, and the Department for Transport is currently investigating a proposal to extend some services along the West Coast Main Line, via a new connection at Old Oak Common, to serve Watford, Hemel Hempstead and Tring. Such services could take Hertfordshire commuters to the heart of central London and Docklands, relieving some of the pressure on Euston at a time when that station is being rebuilt for HS2.