Giant tunnel boring machine (TBM) ‘Rachel’ has completed its journey at London’s new super sewer
The giant tunnel boring machine has now finished tunnelling the western 7km section of the main tunnel after breaking into the shaft at Tideway’s site in Acton.
Around 725,000 tonnes of spoil was excavated as part of the drive – equivalent to almost 60 times the weight of the UK’s tallest building, the Shard.
Teamwork to clean up the River Thames
Neil Binns, senior project manager, commented: “Having broken through at Acton Storm Tanks, it’s easy to forget the time and effort that goes into making all this possible.
“From designing and manufacturing the TBM, to providing logistics support for its delivery by river, to the above-ground operation, as well as the skill of the tunnelling team – this is a fantastic achievement and a wonderful example of the teamwork required to clean up the River Thames.”
TBM Rachel first arrived in London in November 2017 – having travelled 750km by river from the port of Kehl in Germany.
TBM Rachel was named after Rachel Parsons, who was the founding president of the Women’s Engineering Society and a former Fulham resident.
After assembly, the 1,350-tonne giant tunnel boring machine was lowered 35 metres into the ground and began tunnelling in May 2019.
Working a total of nearly 1,100 shifts, around 200 staff have worked on the western section of the tunnel, with Tideway’s use of the river to remove spoil and bring in concrete segment keeping around 25,000 lorries off the road.
Shirley Rodrigues, deputy mayor for environment and energy, added: “This is a welcome milestone in London’s Tideway project.
“With recent reports that just 14% of England’s rivers meet good status for water quality, this brings us a major step closer to a cleaner River Thames, hugely reducing the chances of sewage overflowing into the river.
“It will modernise our ageing sewage system and dramatically improve the environment.”
