Our Skanska Costain STRABAG joint venture (SCS JV) engineers have begun assembling two giant tunnelling machines that will dig the final 4.5 miles of underground high-speed railway – carrying HS2 trains into the heart of London. This follows the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves funding commitment for the final part of the HS2 London tunnelling contract.
Weighing an incredible 1,250 tonnes, each of the tunnel boring machines (TBMs) will launch from an underground box at one end of the project’s Old Oak Common station. They are expected to take around a year and a half to reach the railway’s final southern terminus at London Euston.
As well as taking passengers closer to central London, the extension to Euston will create additional capacity on the new high-speed line, allowing more services to run to a greater number of destinations across the Midlands and the North.