June and early July saw the launch of all four Lovat TBMs on the Lower Lea Valley Powerline Undergrounding (PLUG) project in the UK, (T&TI, June, p15).
The project in part of the preparatory works for the London 2012 Olympics and will relocate existing overhead powerlines carried by pylons underground to allow development of the Olympic facilities in east London.
T&TI was told that all were approximately 30m into their drives and had been stopped to reconfigure the pitbottoms and shaft bank for installation of vertical conveyors and hoists. Both surface conveyors cross a public highway that meant they had to be installed with weekend road closures.
Terry McDonald, project director for client the London Development Agency (LDA), told T&TI that the project’s shafts were roughly 50% complete, the four launch shaft are bottomed out and the remaining six were “in various stages of construction” and going to plan.
