The third HS2 TBM to complete its drive beneath London has been lifted from the ground.
On Saturday July 26, TBM Emily’s 9.11m-diameter cutterhead, front and middle shield, weighing 880 tonnes, were lifted from below ground at the Green Park Way site in Greenford, west London.
TBM Emily completed a 5.5km drive for the Northolt Tunnel in June. After being launched from Victoria Road in Ealing, the TBM excavated 775,000 tonnes of London clay and installed 17,514 concrete tunnel segments.
The machine was named after Emily Sophia Taylor who helped establish the Perivale Maternity Hospital in 1937 before becoming Ealing’s first female mayor in 1938.
TBM Emily was one of four machines used to construct part of the Northolt Tunnel – a 13.5km tunnel which will take HS2 trains from Old Oak Common Station to the outskirts of the capital. The fourth machine, TBM Anne, finished last month and will be removed later this summer.
Northolt Tunnel is being constructed by HS2’s London Tunnels contractor, Skanska Costain Strabag JV (SCS JV).
