Contract C300 / 410 Crossrail Westbourne Park London

Project Details

Crossrail tunnelling Project
Eight tunnel boring machines burrowed below the streets of London to  construct42km of new rail tunnels.

Each tunnelling machine weighed in at 1,000 tonnes,  each being a 150 metre long underground factory with 20 person ‘tunnel gangs’ working in shifts.

At peak, the tunnel boring machines aimed for around 100 metres of tunnelling progress per week - as the tunnelling machines move forward, precast concrete segments were built in rings behind - 250,000 tunnel segments were used to line the 42 kilometres of tunnels.

4.5 million tonnes of excavated material from the tunnels has been shipped to Wallasea Island in Essex where it has been used to create a new 1,500 acre RSPB nature reserve.

RFS utilised  Volvo L150G, Liebherr L566, CAT 966K wheeled loaders and a CAT 320E excavator to ensure spoil from the tunnelling operation remained clear of the discharge conveyor, was stockpiled efficiently and then loaded to rail box wagons to ensure the tunnelling operation remained on schedule.

Train loading  consisted of 5 to 6No 1200t payload trains per day along with placing materials to stockpiles, production peaked at 7200t per day.