By rosebell
Considering that TBM Anne with 1,700-tonne weight and 150m length is due to be lifted out of the shaft in sections using a giant gantry crane, the first part of, including the 9.11m-diameter cutterhead, was lifted out of a shaft at Green Park Way in Greenford, west London on Sunday 24 August.
Completing boring of the 13.5km-long Northolt twin tunnels between West Ruislip and the new station at Old Oak Common, this machine is one of four TBMs operated by HS2’s London tunnels contractor Skanska Costain Strabag JV (SCS JV). Anne, the last of the four to complete excavation, arrived at Green Park Way in June after boring a 5.5km tunnel on the eastern section.
The commissioning location of this machines was West Ruislip and Old Oak Common and met in the middle and together they excavated more than 4 million tonnes of London clay and installed around 100,000 concrete segments.
TBM Anne was named after Lady Anne Byron, an educational reformer and philanthropist who established Ealing Grove School in 1834 – England’s first co-operative school which provided education for working class children in west London.
