Another in the long sequence of milestones for Crossrail was achieved today as one of its Tunnel Boring Machines broke through the side wall and entered the huge cavern dug underneath Stepney.
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The TBM — called Elizabeth — departed from the Limmo Peninsula near Canning Town, passed through the Canary Wharf station and has now reached the crossover point at Stepney.
The huge cavern some 40 metres underground is where the Crossrail lines will split, heading either northwards, or towards the South-East of London. The Stepney Green caverns are some of the largest mined caverns ever built in Europe using a tunnelling technique called Sprayed Concrete Lining.
I was able to see the cavern when it was under early construction just over a year ago.
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The TBM will now undergo maintenance inside Stepney Green’s westbound cavern before resuming tunnelling towards Whitechapel, Liverpool Street and Farringdon.
The breakthrough is the first of four that will take place at Stepney Green. Another TBM, also coming from Limmo is due to breakthrough into the site in the next few weeks.
Photos supplied by Crossrail.
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Good headline. Like many, I clicked hoping that they’d discovered a new cavern no one had known about before, even though I know perfectly well we don’t sit on the right type of rock for that to be a possibility.
Actually, I never thought about that aspect of the headline.
Genius by accident 😉
Yup, definitely was hoping that’s what the headline meant!
Love the first shot, the 2 figures look like inch high plastic models. Great to see how this project is progressing
That place is huge!
I was initially curious about them launching the one from Pudding Mill Lane because it looked like it would arrive at Stepney Green while the other one was still being supported from there. But it’s clear now there is room for both.