As one marathon amount of tunnelling is just completing another is about to begin.
The 26 miles of crossrail tunnelling, linking rail services from Reading and Heathrow in the West to Shenfield and Abbey wood in the East finished in June after 3 years of constant tunnelling. 8 giant tunnelling machines were used constantly to make the network of new rail tunnels, and whilst there are still stations and platforms to construct it is hoped the civil engineering work will be complete in 2017 with the new rail services starting from 2018.
The new services will allow an extra 24 trains an hour to run during peak services and will increase rail capacity by 10% carrying 72,000 passengers per hour through the new tunnels. 1.5 million more people will be able travel to within 45 minutes of central London.
However, as one feat of tunnelling engineering ends another is about to begin. The Thames Tideway Project preliminary construction works begin in 2016, with the proposed 4 years of tunnelling beginning in 2017.
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