A year after their unveiling, the tunnel boring machines that will build the 4.5-mile section of HS2 between Old Oak Common and its London terminus in Euston have finally started operations. Or at least the first one has.
Rail minister Lord Peter Hendy and chief secretary to the prime minister Darren Jones MP were on site in Old Oak Common yesterday to turn on the first Euston TBM, a 1,624-tonne Herrenknecht machine called Madeleine, after Madeleine Nobbs (1914-70), a 聽building services engineer and president of the Women鈥檚 Engineering Society.
HS2 Ltd chief executive Mark Wild said: 鈥淥n my first day at HS2, I unveiled the Euston TBMs as they were being prepared to build the Euston Tunnel. Just over a year on, we鈥檙e beginning to excavate the tunnel 鈥� a show of confidence that HS2 will be built into central London and kickstart economic growth.鈥�
He added: 鈥淥ver the past 12 months, I have been leading a comprehensive reset across HS2 to get it back on track and I am confident that we鈥檙e on the right path to delivering HS2 safely and efficiently. The start of tunnelling here today is a part of the strong foundations we can build upon to completing HS2 and deliver better journeys for rail passengers.鈥�
Darren Jones said: 聽鈥淭here鈥檚 nothing boring about tunnel boring. Today鈥檚 launch was a brilliant moment for the UK鈥檚 railways, building on six major rail tunnel and road milestones completed ahead of schedule [sic] last year.鈥�
The Euston Tunnel is the fifth and final deep twin-bore tunnel on the 140-mile HS2 route between London and Birmingham. It is being built by Skanska Costain Strabag joint venture (SCS JV), which has already built 8.4 miles of twin bore tunnels under outer London, from West Ruislip to Old Oak Common.
The tunnelling operation for the Euston tunnel is being facilitated by a separate logistics tunnel that was completed in January 2024. The 853-metre Atlas Road Logistics Tunnel will allow the tunnelling team to access both machines, deliver construction materials including 48,294 concrete ring segments (combined total), and remove more than 1.5 million tonnes of excavated spoil.
The excavated material will be taken via conveyor to the London Logistics Hub at the Willesden Euro terminal depot. From there it is taken by rail for reuse in projects in Kent, Cambridgeshire and Warwickshire.
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