Entrants have until February to think up a pair of names for each pair of tunnel boring machines. A Crossrail judging panel will then produce a shortlist of names and publish them for the general public to make the final decision by way of a vote.

Andy Mitchell, Crossrail Programme Director says: “This competition is a chance for Londoners and those living along the Crossrail route to suggest the names of the tunnel boring machines that will construct the major new rail tunnels under London. In years to come the winners of the competition will be able to travel on Crossrail and not only say they named the machines that built the tunnels but that they watched history unfold as tunnelling started.”

The winning entries will be announced in March and the lucky winners will be able to see their chosen names painted on the Crossrail tunnel boring machines before they head underground to dig the Crossrail tunnels beneath London. The winners of the competition will also be able to choose between Eurostar tickets or a family pass to the Merlin Theme Parks. The winners will also be invited to come along to the launch of the first pair of tunnel boring machines at the Crossrail Royal Oak portal.

The first of the TBM pairs will be launched in spring. The gigantic tunnel boring machines will tunnel from Royal Oak to Farringdon, where they are expected to arrive in summer 2013. The next pair of TBMs will be launched from Docklands later on this year, and the final pair is due to be launched from Plumstead at the end of the year.

The tunnelling section of the Crossrail project will continue night and day until the last of the tunnels have been excavated. Teams of twenty tunnelling operatives, trained at the brand new Crossrail Tunnelling Academy, will work 24/7 to ensure work stays on schedule. More than six million tonnes of earth will be excavated by the tunnel boring machines as they burrow away beneath London, most of which will be transported to Essex for use in the construction of a new nature reserve at Wallasea Island.

The tunnel boring machines will move forwards at a rate of one hundred metres per week and as they progress, concrete reinforcement rings will be put in place to line each of the Crossrail tunnels. These concrete segments are being specially constructed at a purpose built factory in west London and are so large that it takes one month for each segment to set completely hard. Approximately a quarter of a million concrete segments will be needed by Crossrail and in order to cope with the demand, a further two factories will be built.

The Crossrail project is creating many new jobs, particularly in the construction industry, but not all local businesses are pleased—many have been subjected to compulsory purchase orders in order to make way for Crossrail construction work in the area.

Crossrail will be using a total of eight tunnel boring machines to complete the tunnelling section of the Crossrail project, all of which are being constructed by Herrenknecht AG. This is the same German company that was responsible for supplying tunnel boring machines to work on the Docklands Light Railway Extension project as well as the Jubilee Line extension.

The first stage of tunnelling is scheduled to begin in March next year and the first of the Crossrail TBMs will begin tunnelling at the Crossrail Royal Oak portal. Another tunnel boring machine will also be sent underground from the Royal Oak portal a few weeks after the first TBM. Further tunnelling launches will commence from Limmo Peninsula at the end of 2012, and thereafter there will be TBM launches in 2013 and 2014.

In total, there are ten separate tunnel drives planned for the Crossrail route and by the time the tunnel boring machines have completed their mammoth schedule of work, 21 kilometres of tunnel will have been bored beneath London. The completed tunnels will be 6.2 metres in diameter and as each TBM progresses slowly, pre-cast concrete rings will be put in place behind them. In order to ensure there is a ready supply of concrete for the Crossrail project, a concrete segment factory has been built at Old Oak Common. Once tunnelling is underway, the tunnel boring machines will be working 24/7 with no breaks expect for scheduled maintenance work.

Should HS2 get the final go-ahead, the route will stretch 100 miles across the Midlands and dissect some areas of outstanding natural beauty. However, commuters will be able to travel between London and Birmingham in only 49 minutes, which will be a major boost top the economy.

Unfortunately, HS2 has thus far proved to be deeply divisive across all sections of the government and many ministers are deeply opposed to the project going ahead. Critics of the scheme believe that building HS2 will have a catastrophic effect on some of the most beautiful parts of the UK, specifically the Chiltern Hills, and if the project goes ahead without the extra tunnelling work, there is a danger that the government will be split down the middle with one half for and one half firmly against.

The planned new 1.5 tunnel is intended to reduce the environmental impact as it will connect with two existing planned tunnels and divert the rail line beneath the Chilterns. But in order for the tunnel to be built, an extra $500 million of funding is required. Hence the delay in the final decision on the project as the Transport Minister needs more time to see if the money can be made available. The extra delay will enable feasibility and environmental studies to be carried out.

Environmental campaign groups are fully in favour of extra tunnelling on HS2 as it will have a much lower environmental impact on the area. However, some concerns have been expressed that the extra funding could be pulled from cutting back on existing environmental mitigation elsewhere on the route.

The current Thames Water super sewer scheme will involve 20 miles of tunnel beneath the city of London. The new sections of tunnel will help to channel raw sewage to a pumping station and reduce the amount of effluent that is currently leaking into the River Thames each time the region experiences heavy rainfall. Unfortunately, the construction and tunnelling work taking place as part of the proposed scheme will affect many local residents during the next few years.

The authors of the report have now suggested that a large and very expensive tunnelling scheme is completely unnecessary and Thames Water can still meet new EU water quality objectives if they choose to embark on a cheaper and greener alternative. One such alternative scheme has been proposed by Jacobs Babtie Engineering. This involves a shorter tunnel and would cost half as much as the current Thames Water preferred option.

Critics of the Thames Water planned super sewer project are most concerned about the negative effect tunnelling infrastructure work will have on local residents living in the vicinity of proposed construction sites. They also believe that Thames Water is more driven by financial concerns than any real desire to choose a cheaper alternative.

The cheaper tunnelling schemes currently being put forward will considerably less than the super sewer scheme in favour with Thames Water. They will also be more environmentally friendly and probably a lot more popular with the local communities likely to be affected by the scheme, which is why Lord Selborne, chairman of the report commission, has called for further investigations to be made into the alternative schemes.

The first of the Crossrail station contracts, Paddington station, was awarded earlier this year. Construction contracts for the final three Crossrail stations will be awarded at some point next year. These include Liverpool Street, Tottenham Court Road and Bond Street.

Construction work in the new Whitechapel Crossrail station will take place north of the existing station. Plans are in place for a ticket hall and passengers will enjoy step free access to the new Crossrail line, plus the existing London Underground and Overground services. Local residents will also enjoy a new pedestrian route around the station.

Farringdon Crossrail Station will eventually be one of the busiest stations in London as it will serve the London Underground and the Thameslink service as well as the new Crossrail high speed rail link. Passengers joining the Crossrail line at Farringdon station will be able to reach Heathrow Airport in thirty one minutes and there will also be fast access to Gatwick Airport and Luton Airport.

Work on the new Crossrail high speed rail link appears to be progressing well and so far everything is on schedule. Work on the first Crossrail tunnel portal, Pudding Lane, has been completed. The giant tunnel boring machines that will be used for the tunnelling work are currently in the process of being manufactured and should be delivered in good time for tunnelling work to start next spring.

The £250 million Paddington Station Crossrail contract was awarded in July if this year to a Skanska / Costain joint venture team and the next two up for grabs are Farringdon Station contract and Whitechapel Station works contract. Together these are worth a total of £625 million.

Inside sources believe that the Kier, Bam Nuttall and Ferrovial Agroman joint venture consortium are likely to be the winning bidders on the C345 Farringdon Station Crossrail contract worth an estimated £375 million. The other contract expected to be announced very shortly is the C512 Whitechapel works contract worth £250 million and it is believed that the Balfour Beatty, Vinci and Morgan Sindall joint venture team are the winning bidders on this Crossrail contract.

Previously Crossrail stated that announcements regarding the Whitechapel Station and Farringdon Station contracts would be made at the end of this year, but it appears that Crossrail have already made their decision and things have been moved forwards by a few weeks. The last three remaining Crossrail station contracts are expected to be announced next year. These include Liverpool Street Station worth £300 million, Tottenham Court Road Station contract worth £200 million, and the Bond Street Station contract worth £200 million.

In other news this week, Crossrail has invited tenders on the Custom House contract, a design and build contract worth around £35 million. The successful bidder will be expected to demolish the existing structure, build a new station entrance, construct a passenger foot bridge to the conference centre, and build a new section of railway line.

In a show of support, the Environment Agency has voiced its approval for the Thames Tunnel project and is keen to make the point that ignoring the continuing pollution problems caused by sewage overflow into the River Thames is not an acceptable option. The Environment Agency will be liaising closely with Thames Water and the Government as the next stage in consultation moves forward.

“The River Thames has improved significantly over the last 20 years, but further improvements are needed to deal with the unsatisfactory overflows of sewage,” said Lord Smith, chairman of the Environment Agency. “Doing nothing is not an option. We consider the Thames Tunnel the best solution available to limit pollution from sewage in the Thames,” he added.

There are currently thirty four unsatisfactory sewage overflow points along the banks of the River Thames and each time there is heavy rain in the region, the old Victorian sewerage system is unable to cope, which causes raw sewage to overflow into the river. This is estimated to be in the region of around 39 million cubic metres of effluent, which is a significant environmental problem. And as the population of London continues to grow, the problem of sewage pollution will only get worse.

Once completed, the Thames Tunnel will run beneath the city of London and channel raw sewage into the Beckton Sewage Treatment Works. Part of the Thames Tunnel will also link up with the Lee Tunnel, currently under construction by Thames Water

Compensation grouting shafts at the Crossrail Bond Street station are necessary to help protect neighbouring properties from problems caused by ground settlement once tunnelling and box excavation begins on the site of the Crossrail station. The compensation grouting shafts are being excavated to a depth of seventeen metres and concrete reinforcement rings are sunk one metre at a time. Excavated material from the shaft is removed using cranes and sloop is pushed down between the concrete rings and surrounding soil as a fluid support.

The team of engineers at the Crossrail Bond Street station site have already faced a number of unexpected challenges, including discovering a large concrete structure buried underground. This was thought to be an old cellar filled with concrete, but it had to be painstakingly removed in order for work to progress. In a second delay, an unmarked pipe was found, and until local utility companies confirmed that the pipe was no longer in use, work once again ground to a halt.

Other issues faced by the team include the close proximity of the site to many buildings in the heart of Mayfair. Consequently, the engineer in charge of the compensation grout shafts has had a logistical nightmare and has had to plan materials delivery schedules and plant selection extremely carefully in order to avoid disruption to residents and businesses in the local area.

The project will involve construction of a new rail flyover as part of a Crossrail branch line extension to Heathrow Airport. The Crossrail link to Heathrow will leave the main section of track between Hayes and West Drayton, cross the new flyover, and then continue underground. As well as the planned rail flyover, other essential work on the Crossrail project includes the construction of new overhead lines, perimeter fencing, lighting, and of course new rail track. Two ponds south of the main site will also need to be filled in to make way for the new flyover.

Crossrail work sites have been set up on local industrial sites in the area and preliminary work will be starting shortly. Since the construction work on the Crossrail Heathrow link will be taking place in industrial areas, residential homes are unlikely to be affected by the noise of construction traffic entering and leaving the work sites, but it is very likely that roads in the vicinity of the sites will be affected by closures and sheer volume of traffic.

The £15 billion Crossrail high speed rail project is already well underway and Crossrail tunnelling work will start next spring. Once the Crossrail project has reached completion in 2018, passengers will be able to enjoy a high speed rail link between east and west London.