The British Tunnelling Society’s September lecture tomorrow evening will focus on National Grid’s Grain to Tilbury Tunnel and the vertical shaft sinking machine (VSM) used on the project.
Chris Holt from National Grid and Mikel Goirigolzarri from Ferrovial BEMO JV will provide an overview of the project in Kent, its construction, associated challenges and the solutions, the VSM and lessons learnt.
The project – part of the Great Grid Upgrade – is delivering a new 2.2km, 400 kV cable tunnel beneath the River Thames between Tilbury and Gravesend. It replaces the 1960s Thames Cable Tunnel and reinforces electricity transmission between Kent and Essex.
The 15m-diameter Herrenknecht VSM – the largest in Europe – sank the 48m-deep launch shaft in Tilbury and the retrieval shaft in Gravesend.
Last month TBM Caroline, a 4.7m-diameter Herrenknecht mixshield machine, reached the halfway mark on the tunnel drive.
The lecture will be held at the Institution of Civil Engineers, One Great George St,
London, SW1P 3AA at 18:00 (GMT+1) of for the live streaming click here.
