HS2 tunnelling machines complete first of 10 miles under the Chilterns
Meet Florence and Cecilia: The 2,000-ton 555ft-long HS2 tunnelling machines that will dig 50 feet a day for three years as they complete first of 10 miles under the Chilterns for £100bn high-speed rail line
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HS2’s huge Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs) have continued to rip through stunning English countryside as they plough yet more concrete into the earth.
The £100billion high-speed network’s latest phase tore two enormous holes for 10 miles under the Chilterns at the picturesque village of West Hyde, Rickmansworth, in Hertfordshire.
Aerial pictures showed the devastation caused by the 557ft TBMs – called Cecilia after astronomer Payne-Gaposchkin and Florence after nurse Nightingale – as acres of greenery were turned into a building site.
Furious campaigners argued HS2 – which will run between London and Birmingham – poses ‘a grave threat to the UK’s ancient woods, with 108 at risk of loss or damage’.
But the firm blasted back that only 0.29 square kilometres (0.11 square miles) of ancient woodland will be lost during the first phase.
Meanwhile the rail industry is bracing for a downsizing of a major section of HS2 due to the project’s ballooning price tag amid the economic impact of the pandemic.
HS2’s huge Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs) have continued to rip through stunning English countryside as they plough yet more concrete into the earth
Is there light at the end of the tunnel? The £100billion high-speed network’s latest phase tore enormous holes for 10 miles under the much-loved Chilterns near the village of West Hyde in Hertfordshire
A member of the HS2 team pauses on a stretch of the tunnel as he walks towards the Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) named Cecilia, after astronomer and astrophysicist Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, yesterday
A dramatic photograph shows the tunnel leading up to the monster Tunnel Boring Machine being used to dig for HS2. The rail industry is bracing for a downsizing of a major section of HS2, together with the project’s ballooning price tag – especially after the economic harm of the pandemic
The high-speed rail line has recently come under fire from critics who have questioned whether the project is worth its ballooning price tag
Identical twins Florence and Cecilia are both at the Hertfordshire site tearing through the earth at a steady one centimetre per minute – or 15m per day.
The 2000-tonne monsters work around the clock and will not stop for three years until they have completed the ginormous burrows striped across Britain.
A 17-strong crew man each TBM in shifts to keep the machines running 24/7 while being supported by people on the surface managing logistics.
Florence was the first launched in May 2021 while Cecilia followed and both were deployed to the same site in the South East.
Both machines are specifically designed for the mix of chalk and flint they will encounter under the stunning Chiltern Hills.
The TBMs convert the spoil into slurry which will be pumped back to the main site where it is treated before being used for landscaping on-site.
In total 10 of the giant machines will excavate 64 miles of tunnels on the first phase of the high speed railway between London and the West Midlands.
Aerial pictures showed the devastation caused by the 557ft TBMs as acres of greenery was turned into a building site with stacks of metal and stone piled up in front of two vast burrows
Furious campaigners argued HS2 – which will run between London and Birmingham – poses ‘a grave threat to the UK’s ancient woods, with 108 at risk of loss or damage’. Pictured: The tunnel entrances near West Hyde
HS2 blasted back at campaigners saying that only 0.29 square kilometres (0.11 square miles) of ancient woodland will be lost during the first phase. It comes after Tory backbencher Andrew Bridgen told the Commons the project will be ‘loss-making’ and won’t be completed before 2041 – around 10 years later than planned
Ten 170 metre-long tunnel boring machines, which weigh up to 2,200 tonnes, will work 24 hours a day, seven days a week to bore and line the tunnels, covering around 15 metres per day. The tunnel boring machine will head south towards London to begin digging the tunnel, while a second tunnel will also be dug to create the twin bore tunnel. Each of the two tunnels will take around five months to dig. Pictured: A construction worker near concrete tunnel lining ring segments
The final stage will see a ‘green tunnel’ built, where a soil ‘roof’ is constructed around the tunnel entrance to integrate it within the natural landscape, according to HS2’s website. Pictured: A huge crane at the site to lift the concrete slabs
A construction worker is pictured laying the concrete floor along a stretch of the HS2 tunnel yesterday. Work suspensions, social distancing and reduced productivity over the past 12 months saw HS2’s costs soar by another £1.7bn in September – with the project’s estimated overall budget now swelling over £106billion
Pictured: The huge tunnel entrances near West Hyde yesterday. Meanwhile, Northern leaders and the rail industry are braced for a downsizing of the a major section of the HS2 in a report expected to be published during or after the Cop26 summit
The Chilterns tunnel for the HS2 London-Birmingham rail link is not only longer than most sections of the London Underground — at 30ft across, it is considerably wider than any rival, including the Channel Tunnel.
That is because it will also be the fastest stretch of rail tunnel in the land and speed determines the width of a tunnel. At 200mph, the trains would simply suck the air out of anything narrower.
There are two tunnels — one bore for northbound traffic, and one for trains going the other way, meaning it is more like 20 miles of tunnel.
A short walk from there another huge engineering exercise is underway as what will be Britain’s longest railway bridge is being steadily erected.
The two-mile viaduct will be built to feed the high-speed trains in and out of the tunnel and over the Colne Valley.
HS2’s 140-mile line from London to Birmingham — which currently accounts for £44.6 billion of the total — is broken in to four sections with different builders for each.
The shortest section, known as C1, is the 14-mile leg running from the London suburbs up through the Chilterns towards the late Roald Dahl’s home village of Great Missenden.
Run by a multi-national consortium called Align, this is also the most complex stretch as it includes the longest tunnel and longest bridge on the entire line.
A construction worker gives an idea of the scale of the cranes and concrete slabs being used to line the tunnel as he directs the operator yesterday. The high-speed rail linking Birmingham and Leeds, also known as the ‘eastern leg’, is no longer expected to be laid in full. It means HS2 trains will run at slower speeds on existing track for as much as 60 miles of the distance between the two cities
Pictured: A member of the HS2 team speaks with a colleague as he walks along a stretch of the tunnel beneath the Chilterns yesterday. Journey times could take about an hour rather than 40 minutes, according to sources familiar with plans being considered by ministers. However, a compromise is said to have been struck following pressure from pro-HS2 northern leaders which could still see around 80 miles of high-speed track laid
Pictured: A view of a working area within the HS2 Tunnel Boring Machine. HS2 will link London to Birmingham in phase one before forking into two sections. The western leg connecting Birmingham with Manchester is expected to go ahead
A member of the HS2 team holds a pack of emergency rations as he stands within an emergency refuge shelter onboard the Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) named Cecilia yesterday
The pilot gestures to her monitor screens as she discusses her role on the HS2 Tunnel Boring Machine yesterday. The Integrated Rail Plan is set to be published around mid-November after being delayed since January
Pictured: A view of the rear of the cutterhead at the front of the TBM. Phase 1 of HS2 was due to open in 2026, but in an update to Parliament in 2019, Transport Sinister Grant Shapps said the opening date would be pushed back to between 2028 and 2031
A vehicle carries a load of concrete tunnel lining ring segments, which weigh an average 8.5 tonnes each, into one of two tunnels at the HS2 south portal site yesterday. In the HS2 six-monthly report to Parliament in March 2021, the DfT said the projected ‘delivery into service’ date range is between 2029 and 2033
In September, Andrew Bridgen, the Conservative MP for North West Leicestershire, said he had received information from a whistleblower within HS2 Ltd, which claims the first phase of the line will not open until 2041.
He told MPs: ‘Experts in the field estimate that the energy requirements of HS2 trains will be five time that of conventional rail.
‘Can we have an extended debate on the impact of HS2 on Government’s energy policy and the level of subsidy this loss-making project will have to be supported with annually if it is ever built?
‘Could we have this debate before 2041, which is the date that my whistleblower at the very top of HS2 tells me the project for phase one will actually be able to carry passengers between London and Birmingham?’
Work suspensions, social distancing and reduced productivity over the past 12 months saw HS2’s costs soar by another £1.7bn in September – with the project’s estimated overall budget now swelling over £106billion.
Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg dismissed Mr Bridgen’s claims, saying: ‘I thought whistleblowing was more steam engine than fast high-speed trains but never mind.
‘Obviously, the energy to run a train that is 440 yards long, that is two furlongs long, extraordinary length of train, at 225 miles an hour is more than running Ivor the Engine.’
Mr Rees-Mogg continued: ‘And that is of course something that has to be built into the overall energy plans of this country.
‘But the cost of energy to operate the HS2 network has been accounted for within the overall business case of the project and this energy will be procured in the open market at the right time to start operations and achieve value for money for the taxpayer.’
He said the figures were wrong, adding: ‘The delivery and service of HS2 phase one remains 2029-2033, so I am interested in his whistle blower and I will of course pass the whistle on to the Secretary of State for Transport.’
A service vehicle pauses to drop off passengers on a stretch of the HS2 tunnel beneath the Chilterns yesterday. One contractor close to the project said that HS2 Ltd, the state-funded body responsible for delivering the line, ‘doesn’t really know how much Covid has added’. HS2 Ltd declined to comment when approached by MailOnline
A view of the rear of the cutterhead at the front of the HS2 Tunnel Boring Machine. Construction started on Phase 1 of the London to Birmingham line in August last year after more than a decade of planning. But the ballooning costs could add to Treasury fears that HS2 will be a black hole for taxpayers
Pictured: The tunnel wall including the semi-rigid air input tube (top) and slurry flow pipes are seen on a stretch of the HS2 tunnel beneath the Chilterns yesterday
A member of the HS2 team looks back along a stretch of the tunnel from onboard the Tunnel Boring Machine. The Department for Transport previously conceded to MailOnline that there had been ‘unavoidable costs’ arising from the Covid pandemic
Pictured: A view from within the HS2 Tunnel Boring Machine highlights the scale of the project. HS2 said it the high-speed line will reduce journey times between London and northern England and add capacity to Britain’s crowded rail network
Meanwhile, Northern leaders and the rail industry are braced for a downsizing of the a major section of the HS2 in a report expected to be published during or after the Cop26 summit.
The high-speed rail linking Birmingham and Leeds, also known as the ‘eastern leg’, is no longer expected to be laid in full.
It means HS2 trains will run at slower speeds on existing track for as much as 60 miles of the distance between the two cities.
Journey times could take about an hour rather than 40 minutes, according to sources familiar with plans being considered by ministers.
But a compromise is said to have been struck following pressure from pro-HS2 northern leaders which could still see around 80 miles of high-speed track laid.
A purpose-built hub in the village of Toton, in Nottinghamshire, would be scrapped. Instead, about 50 miles of high-speed rail would link Birmingham and East Midlands Parkway station.
At this point, HS2 trains would join the existing Midland main line, which would be upgraded. This would take trains at a slower speed than envisaged up to the village of Clayton, in West Yorkshire.
Sources said the planned changes would represent a ‘significant scaling back’ of the project. The proposals could save between £10billion and £20billion and comes after Treasury officials raised concerns about HS2’s costs.
A crane lifts concrete tunnel lining ring segments, which weigh an average 8.5 tonnes each, in a storage area at the HS2 south portal site yesterday. 112,000 of these concrete segments will be required to be installed by the Tunnel Boring Machines to complete both tunnels
Pictured: The tunnel entrances on Wednesday. Critics have questioned whether the rail line is worth its ballooning price tag, especially after a pandemic that might permanently change people’s travel habits
