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Here we have both Elizabeth and Victoria, TBM's 3 and 4 for Crossrail, TBM's 1 and 2
for us. These are big TBM's, we use big cranes, it's big work and it brings with it excitement.
Crossrail has been 10 years in the making, certainly 5 years of design. I think we have
a much better understanding today of what the ground is and how the ground will behave,
that has helped us to specify our TBM's and ensure as best we possibly can that the tunnelling
performance will meet and match the ground conditions that we find. As you can see this
evening we a really starting a new phase of construction, we are moving out from the large
shaft construction and we are starting tunnelling and that really resets the bar for us. The
milestone is significant because it really is the start of tunnelling for us. Whilst
we have been here for well over 18 months, arguably the job starts now. We've worked
very hard with the contractor putting together a very detailed lifting plan, I'm happy to
say that they have all come together this evening and we've had arguable the perfect
lift. We have tonight lowered down our first TBM, the second will follow in short order
and then we will begin the exciting part of the job which is driving the running tunnels
from here at Limmo, finishing at Farringdon. It takes a good few months to plan for a big
event like this. It's big for Crossrail and obviously it's big for us because we are putting
our reputation on the line, everything has to be planned down to the final pins so a
lot of preparation and planning goes into an event like this. Very limited people are
allowed in the shafts especially when a big lift is going on like this, so the less people
the better for us. Between me and the crane driver we're the only ones on the radio, there
should be no other interference because it's such a big lift again preparation and planning
has gone into it, the last thing that we need is interference especially lifting a big machine
down a hole like that. Now we've got it down into shafts and they are there to do their
jobs we feel relieved that we have done our job, we've done our duty so hopefully we'll
start the ball rolling now. When you get to look at big machines like this you feel very
satisfied that you can be a part of something big and with Crossrail to do something like
this I feel very overwhelmed with it to be honest, I feel very proud. We'd like between
now and Christmas to get both TBM's in the ground, get them both at least partly buried.
The segment manufacturing facility is manufacturing segments now on both carousals so hopefully
by the end of the year we will have tested the process of logistics and consequently
we can start 2013 knowing that we can both drive the tunnels, deliver the segments and
remove the material all the way to Wallasea Island without a hiccup.