HS2’s West Midlands contractor Balfour Beatty Vinci is just days away from completing the first section of the Bromford Tunnel linking North Warwickshire and Birmingham.
TBM Mary Ann has been advancing at around 30m a day to complete the 5.6km drive between the North Warwickshire village of Water Orton and the north-east Birmingham suburb, Washwood Heath.
The drive has involved navigating the 1,600-tonne, 125m-long TBM under the M6 motorway, past key National Grid infrastructure and beneath the River Tame.
The tunnelling team has spent 649 days and nights onboard Mary Ann, working up to 40m below ground.
As TBM Mary Ann approaches the next milestone, HS2 has been hailing the achievements of the 450 people, from 45 countries, who have played a role in one of the most complex tunnelling operations on the entire HS2 network. Among them is tunnelling director Jules Arlaud, who has led the teams constructing two of the five twin-bore tunnels on the HS2 network, and newcomer, 21-year-old Dylan Kehoe
Kehoe and his father, Greg, moved from South Wales to Minworth to work on HS2. After an initial stint as a labourer on the treatment plant, Dylan achieved his Level 3 Supervisor NVQ, enabling him to become a treatment plant operative. He hopes to progress to mining so he can work on the TBM.
Along with new recruit Edward East – who quit a career in the RAF to retrain and work on HS2 – the trio monitors the network of machinery that controls the pressing, dilution and pump process, and are in constant contact with the TBM team underground.
A team of 16 work the TBM, led by 61-year-old pit boss Steve Rocke. It is his last job after 43 years in the industry.
Jevon Lynch is a Tunnelcraft apprentice recruited at a HS2 careers fair. He has a permanent job running the grout batching plant after passing his Tunnelling NVQ. “I’ve done a bit of everything in my two-year apprenticeship, from helping to build the TBM to working with the crew onboard. Getting a permanent job sets me up for a career in the industry,” he said.
Bromford Tunnel will be the longest railway tunnel in the West Midlands. TBM Elizabeth, which is excavating the second drive, is expected to break through later this year.
