BORING JOB MAKES EXCITING START

摘要

HS2 has released details about the Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs) Cecilia, and Florence,which have commenced work excavating the Chilterns to create the Up and Down lines respectively.Florence began operations on May 7 as Cecilia was still being assembled for a planned start date later in June. They will create two parallel 10-mile (16km) tunnels from the south portal at West Hyde, which is on the Hertfordshire/Buckinghamshire border north of Denham.The tunnels are also just to the north of the two-mile (3.3km) Colne Valley Viaduct that is contained within the same worksite.Together, this part of the HS2 project is known as Area Cl, and is being worked by a joint venture between Bouygues Travaux Publics, Volker Fitzpatrick and Sir Robert McAlpine that totals 13.5 miles (21.6km) of high speed rail infrastructure.The 136-acre Area Cl worksite has its own slip roads to and from the adjacent M25 motorway, which avoid the need to use local roads, and this is how many of the TBMs' component parts were delivered to site.