On Tuesday, those involved in the HS2 high-speed rail project in Britain celebrated their first tunneling success.A 2,000-ton tunnel boring machine (TBM) dubbed "Dorothy" finished its one-mile excavation under Long Itchington Wood in Warwickshire while engineers working on Europe's largest infrastructure project watched. Dorothy was given her name in honor of Dorothy Hodgkin, the first British woman to receive the Chemistry Nobel Prize in 1964.
The wall of the reception box at the South Portal site was breached on Friday, July 22, by the massive 125-meter-long TBM, which began its trip at the North Portal of the tunnel in December 2021.For seven months, a team of more than 400 skilled tunnelers has worked nonstop in shifts to run the TBM, which has laid down 790 rings of concrete, each made up of eight two-meter-long segments.The tunnel protects the old forest above, which has been designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and has developed a complex ecosystem over many centuries.
CEO of HS2 Ltd. Mark Thurston praised the accomplishment and said: "I'd like to thank everyone who helped make the HS2 project possible since this is a historic time. To reach this remarkable milestone, the 400-person team—which consists of tunneling engineers, TBM operators, and construction workers at both portal sites—has worked tirelessly."
The TBM will be carried back through the tunnel over the course of the following four months while the cutterhead and front section are taken apart and moved back to the north portal. It will be put back together and prepared for launch for the second tunnel bore.
[zombify_post]
0 Comments