21km of new twin-bored tunnels under central London...

Crossrail tunnel boring machine, December 2011

The Crossrail route will link existing Network Rail services from Maidenhead and Heathrow in the west, and Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east with new underground stations at Paddington, Bond Street, Tottenham Court Road, Farringdon, Liverpool Street and Whitechapel.

A total of 21kms of twin-bore tunnels are required to be constructed to deliver Crossrail. The five tunnels to be constructed are:

Royal Oak to Farringdon west (Drive X) - length of drive approximately 6.4 km
Limmo to Farringdon east (Drive Y) - length of drive approximately 8.3 km
Pudding Mill Lane to Stepney Green (Drive Z) - length of drive approximately 2.7 km
Limmo to Victoria Dock Portal (Drive G) - length of drive approximately 0.9 km
Plumstead to North Woolwich (Drive H) - length of drive approximately 2.6 km

All of this adds up to 42km of bored tunnels located below the busy streets of London.

The tunnels will weave their way between existing underground lines, sewers, utility tunnels and building foundations from station to station at depths of up to 40m.

In the second quarter of 2012, the first two tunnel boring machines (TBMs) will start out on their journey from Royal Oak towards the west of Farringdon station.

This will be followed later in the year by the launch of two further tunnel boring machines in Docklands that will head under central London towards the east of Farringdon. Further shorter tunnel drives will take place in the Royal Docks and east London.

Teams of dedicated construction workers will be working 24 hours a day to complete the tunnels for Europe's largest civil engineering project with thousands of others employed to upgrade the existing rail network and build major new stations along the central section of the route.

Tunnel portals will be constructed at Royal Oak, Pudding Mill Lane, North Woolwich, Victoria Dock, and Plumstead.

Use the links below to open the tunnelling sequence diagrams.

Major tunnel contract awards:

A total of 6 tunnelling contracts have been awarded by Crossrail. These are:

Western Running Tunnels (Royal Oak to Farringdon): Joint venture comprising: BAM Nuttall Ltd, Ferrovial Agroman (UK) Ltd, Kier Construction Ltd.
Eastern Running Tunnels (Limmo Peninsula to Farringdon; Limmo Peninsula to Victoria Dock; Stepney Green to Pudding Mill Lane): Joint venture comprising: Dragados S.A., John Sisk & Son (Holdings) Ltd.
Early Access Shafts and Sprayed Concrete Lining Works for Bond Street and Tottenham Court Road stations tunnels: Joint venture comprising: BAM Nuttall Ltd, Ferrovial Agroman (UK) Ltd, Kier Construction Ltd.
Early Access Shafts and Sprayed Concrete Lining Works for Whitechapel and Liverpool Street stations tunnels: Joint venture comprising: Alpine BeMo Tunnelling GmbH, Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering Ltd, Morgan Sindall (Infrastructure) plc, VINCI Construction Grands Projects.
Thames Tunnel construction (Plumstead to North Woolwich): Joint Venture comprising: Hochtief Construction AG, J Murphy & Sons Ltd.
Connaught Tunnel refurbishment: Vinci Construction UK Ltd;

Investing in tunnelling skills in the UK

Crossrail is overseeing the development of a Tunnelling and Underground Construction Academy in Ilford and will invest up to £7.5m, while £5m in funding has been provided by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills via the Skills Funding Agency. Further sponsorship has been provided by industry and more is pledged.

The Academy will eventually operate as an independent organisation and will become a long-term provider of underground construction skills for other major infrastructure projects. The Academy will also act as the London centre for the National Skills Academy for Railway Engineering (NSARE).

The training offered at TUCA will include:

Pre-employment training to help local people access construction jobs;
Tunnel Safety Card (mandatory requirement for Crossrail);
NVQ Level 2 Tunnel Operations (mandatory requirement for Crossrail);
NVQ Level 3 Supervisory Management;
Working at heights and in confined spaces;
Construction Plant Competence Scheme loco driver training;
ConstructionSkills Health and Safety Test;
Sprayed concrete applications;
Laboratory Technician training in materials testing; and
Apprenticeships in a range of tunnelling and construction related occupations.

A dedicated website for the Tunnelling and Underground Construction Academy - www.tuca.ac.uk - contains further information about TUCA’s training programmes and facilities.