The first TBM to breakthrough on HS2’s Bromford Tunnel is being stripped down to prepare for its next tunnelling mission.
TBM Mary Ann completed the 5.6km drive between North Warwickshire and Birmingham in May.
In the first stage in the process to disassemble the 1,600-tonne machine the TBM’s 8.62m diameter cutterhead was lifted out of the shaft in Birmingham by a 700-tonne crawler crane.
The cutterhead, which weighs 120 tonnes, was lifted out of the 22m-deep tunnel portal at Washwood Heath in north Birmingham in 90 minutes. The operation took place on Friday, May 30.
A team of 15 engineers working for HS2’s construction partner, Balfour Beatty Vinci, will spend the next three months dismantling the 125m-long machine, next to the portal in Washwood Heath, before it is returned to the manufacturer, Herrenknecht.
The TBM, which spent 652 days and nights working underground to excavate the first bore of the Bromford Tunnel, is expected to be refurbished and adapted to meet the technical requirements of its next tunnelling job.
TBM Elizabeth is currently boring the second section of the Bromford Tunnel and is expected to break through later this year.
