German tunnelling manufacturer, Herrenknecht AG, has been chosen to supply six tunnel boring machines for the tunnelling contracts on the £15.9 million Crossrail project.

Herrenknecht AG will deliver the first of the six TBMs in the early part of 2012, when work is scheduled to begin on the Royal Oak Portal. Two more are scheduled for delivery in the middle of 2012 to enable contractors to start tunnelling work on the eastern running Limmo Peninsula tunnels. The final two TBMs will be delivered towards the back end of 2012 when tunnelling work in Stepney Green is due to start.

Crossrail has estimated that it will need ten tunnel drives to construct the planned 21 km of twin bored tunnels. In total, seven tunnel boring machines will be required, each of which will be 120 metres long and 850 tonnes in weight.

Each tunnel boring machine will be shipped over via boat from Germany in separate sections, but it will have been rigorously tested prior to delivery so that it is ready to start work on the Crossrail tunnels. Local people will be given the opportunity to christen each tunnel boring machine with a special nickname and the Crossrail website will feature a special TBM tracking page where interested people can see how much tunnelling progress the TBMs make as they burrow away beneath the capital.

Crossrail tunnelling work is now only about nine months away, but early site preparation work has been continuing since the early part of 2010 at the Royal Oak tunnel portal, which will be the site of the first tunnel boring machine launch next year.

As Boris Johnson, Mayor of London says, “There is nothing boring about the leviathan machines that will soon be burrowing their way through the earth way below our streets.”

According to Ken Livingstone, the former Mayor of London, London needs more massive transport infrastructure projects like Crossrail in order to stay on the cutting edge of global business markets.

Speaking at the London Transport Awards in London recently, Ken Livingstone declared he was greatly in favour of a system of underground commuter railway lines similar to those currently in operation in Paris, France. He feels that Crossrail 2 and 3 projects could easily be integrated into the new High Speed Two (HS2) rail project that looks set to be on the cards at some point in the near future.

A second Crossrail project was first proposed more than forty years ago and was originally christened the Chelsea-Hackney line. Interest in the scheme was revived once again in 1995 and cost estimates for a scheme that included a 7.3 km tunnel between Victoria and King’s Cross, were produced. Estimates valued the project at around £2.6 billion, but despite serious interest, the project was shelved once again.

A Crossrail 3 transport project would probably run between Euston and Waterloo and would provide a useful connection between the West Coast Main corridor and services to the south of London, although such a scheme has never been examined in any great detail. It would involve a 4km section of tunnel between Euston and Waterloo.

Ken Livingstone is convinced that building a Crossrail 2 and 3 makes huge sense and can potentially offer some significant benefits for commuters travelling to and from central London. “We could replicate what is the real success with Paris with its RER and deep lines running beneath the city. Because you don’t have to get off at terminuses and the train doesn’t have to turn around you are massively increasing the capacity of transport in our city.”

Months of negotiations between the Calgary Airport Authority and Calgary city officials and aldermen look like finally being laid to rest as a deadline for a decision on the Calgary Airport Tunnel project has been set for Friday 13th.

Discussions on the finer points of the airport tunnel scheme have been continuing for months now, but so far city officials have failed to come to any kind of agreement with the Calgary Airport Authority. If the project goes ahead, the city of Calgary will be expected to contribute $295 million for an extension to the Airport Trail that takes the form of a tunnel beneath the runway.

If the scheme does finally go ahead, the Calgary Airport Authority wants the city to contribute further funds towards the construction of traffic interchanges at various points along the Airport Trail, although this will be dependent on traffic increases.

Although there are many who feel that the airport tunnel scheme will help to improve access to the airport from the northeast road network, there are also many others who are concerned about the expense of the scheme and feel that the city cannot afford such a venture. There have also been comments made by some suggesting that the negotiations have dragged on unreasonably long due to unnecessary delays caused by the Calgary Airport Authority.

There have been plans to build an airport tunnel for some time now, but it was not until Mayor Nenshi worked hard to secure a funding endorsement that Calgary city officials decided to commit funds to the project in February. By this time, construction work had already begun. But although things appear to be moving forward, it remains to be seen whether the go ahead is finally given on the airport tunnel project at the end of this week.

A parent company of the mighty Shell Ireland has made a further investment of 60 million Euros in the Corrib Gas project, thus raising the total level of investment from Shell E&P Ireland to 190 million Euros. This will now enable the last phase of the Corrib Gas project to take place.

The recent investment from Shell will now enable construction work to begin on the 5 km subterranean tunnel that will eventually bring gas ashore from the Corrib off-shore Gas field to the mainland. Experts say that there are one trillion cubic feet of gas in the Corrib gas field and nearly 2.5 billion Euros has already been spent on developing the gas field. This is almost three times as much as the original estimated cost of development: this was estimated to be 800 million Euros.

All of the necessary permissions and consents have now been obtained and Shell E&P Ireland are expected to begin work on the 5 km tunnel in the next three months. The Corrib Gas tunnelling project is expected to take around 22 months and the contractor hopes that it all of the work will have been completed by 2013. If everything goes to plan, the first gas flow will take place in 2013. Several hundred jobs should be created as construction work on the tunnel begins, although final job numbers have not yet been confirmed by Shell.

An Bord turned down the original proposal for a gas pipeline to the mainland on safety grounds back in 2009. Two local residents have also raised objections to the pipeline in court and legal action has begun. Due to the fall in international gas prices and the extensive delays to hit the project, Shell have already been forced to write off at least 399 million Euros since the gas pipeline project first began.

A recent report in the NCE has revealed exactly who the biggest fee earners on the Crossrail high speed rail project have been in the last two years. In total, eight lucky design and civil engineering consultants have been paid more than £160 million for a series of civil engineering design contracts.

According to the NCE, the top three big earners were Arup, Mott Macdonald and URS Scott Wilson. Each earned $40.1 million, £34.7 million and £32.5 in fees for a series of civil engineering design contracts on the Crossrail project. The fees have been accrued since 2009 and March 31st this year.

Arup is the highest fee earner. The consultant has been successful on a number of key Crossrail design contracts including the central bored tunnels alignment and tracks contract awarded in May 2009. This contract was worth £28.4 million and the Tottenham Court Road station contract awarded during the same period was worth £11.65 million.

Mott Macdonald were successful with their design for the Liverpool Street station contract in August 2009, worth a total of £16.15 million. The consultant also won the sprayed concrete lining design contract for cross passages, escalator shafts and platform tunnels worth £11.35 million. A further £7.2 million was awarded for shaft, aerodynamics and ventilation design works on the Paddington Integrated Programme.

URS Scott Wilson won the Paddington and Farringdon station contracts as well as the Pudding Mill Lane tunnel portal Crossrail contract.

The other bog Crossrail earners include Hyder Construction. The firm has earned £19.3 million for civil engineering design work on Whitechapel and Victoria Dock stations. Capita Symonds has earned £12 million for its design work on Royal Oak, North Woolwich and Plumstead, as well as the Crossrail Tunnelling Academy. The Bond Street staion earned £10.93 million in fees for the WSP Group and Jacobs earned £9 million for design work on shafts.

Transport officials in Italy and Austria have finally come to an agreement about the world’s longest tunnel, which means preliminary construction work can now go ahead on the 55 km Brenner Base Tunnel between Innsbruck in Austria and Fortezza in Italy.

An agreement on the finances and costs for the tunnel project has been finalised and the budget has been set at US$11.4 billion, of which US$1.4 billion will come from the European Union and includes subsidies given to the European Rail Traffic Management System.

Preliminary excavation work on the first access tunnels started back in 2008 and the contractor has made excellent progress thus far. Construction work on the main section of the 55 km tunnel will commence shortly and construction work on the central section between Ahrental and Trens is planned for 2016. A completion date for the tunnel is set for 2025.

It is hoped that once construction work on the 55 km tunnel has reached completion, congestion and bottleneck problems for passenger and freight transport between Austria and Italy will be significantly eased.

Vice-President Kallas from the European Union said: “In line with the objectives of the White Paper on the Future of Transport the Brenner Base Tunnel will deliver a crucial contribution for rail transport to play its part in more resource efficient and sustainable alpine transport.”

The tunnel is part of the larger Priority Project 1 and it will eventually connect to the high capacity rail network between Palermo and Berlin. This will create the longest underground railway in the world, at a total length of 64 km.

The construction contracts for the early works on the tunnel will be awarded over the coming year and the main tunnelling will be put out for tender by 2015.

The shortlist for the remaining four central London Crossrail stations had been revealed following the announcement of the shortlist for Farringdon and Paddington stations earlier this year. The total value of the final four central London Crossrail station contracts is in the region of £1 billion.

Andy Mitchell, programme director of Crossrail, said in reference to the Crossrail station shortlists:

“The major procurement focus for Crossrail during 2011 will be the main construction contracts for the six central London stations, worth in the region of £1.5bn. We are now in a position to confirm the shortlist for Bond Street, Tottenham Court Road, Liverpool Street and Whitechapel stations. This means that we have now confirmed the shortlists for all central London stations as Paddington and Farringdon stations were announced earlier this year.”

The shortlists for the Bond Street, Whitechapel, Liverpool Street and Tottenham Court Road stations are:

Bond Street station:

Costain / Skanska JV;
Laing O’Rourke Construction Ltd;
BAM Nuttall / Ferrovial / Kier JV; and
Lend Lease Construction (EMEA) Ltd.

Whitechapel station:

Balfour Beatty / Morgan Sindall / VINCI JV;
Costain / Skanska JV;
BAM Nuttall / Ferrovial / Kier JV; and
Dragados / Sisk JV.

Liverpool Street station:

Balfour Beatty / Morgan Sindall / VINCI JV;
Costain / Skanska JV;
Laing O’Rourke Construction Ltd; and
Dragados / Sisk JV.

Tottenham Court Road station:

BAM Nuttall / Ferrovial / Kier JV;
Dragados / Sisk JV;
Lend Lease Construction (EMEA) Ltd; and
Laing O’Rourke Construction Ltd.

Besides the six central London Crossrail stations, there are also two other Crossrail stations just outside of central London. These are Canary Wharf, currently under construction by the Canary Wharf Group, and another station planned for Custom House. This will be tendered later on this year. There is also a station box planned for Woolwich Crossrail station.

The Crossrail management team has now been completely restructured following a successful check by the Treasury. Passing this important milestone means that Crossrail will now have complete control over the project and will no longer be held accountable to the Department of Transport and Transport for London before making important decisions as the high speed rail scheme continues to progress towards completion in 2018.

The restructuring of the management team heralds a new phase in the Crossrail project. Programme Director, Andy Mitchell, will be in overall charge of the management team and will oversee the project promoter, Crossrail Limited, programme partner, Transcend, and project delivery partner, Crossrail Central. Individual directors will take responsibility for separate projects and areas including health and safety.

Transcend is a joint venture between Aecom, CH2M Hill and the Nichols Group while Crossrail Central is a joint venture between Bechtel, Halcrow and Systra. Along with Crossrail Limited, all three are vital for the successful delivery of the Crossrail project.

The change in organisational structure is designed to eliminate the potential duplication of roles within the management team. It will also help to clarify exactly who is doing what as the project moves inexorably forward. There have been some inevitable redundancies and redeployments as part of the management restructuring, but about 800 staff remain across the three teams: 300 in Crossrail Limited, 550 in Crossrail Central, and between 50 and 60 in Transcend.

The Crossrail project is now moving from the design phase into the construction phase and the last of the major tunnelling contracts have just been awarded: the Thames Tunnel contract was awarded to Hochtief and J Murphy last month Vinci will carry out the Connaught tunnel refurbishment.

Project risks and construction will be the responsibility of the contractors, but Crossrail are hoping that further savings can be made

With construction work almost at an end on the Victoria Tunnel in Auckland, New Zealand, contractors are now confident that two out of three lanes inside the completed tunnel will be open to through traffic by the end of November. If all goes well, the final stage of the project will be finished by the end of March next year.

Construction work first started on the Victoria Tunnel in November 2009. The project kicked off almost a year ahead of schedule and at the time a project completion date was set for mid 2012, but with work on the tunnel almost completed, the project is nearly a year ahead of schedule.

One important aspect of the Victoria Tunnel project is that tunnelling work has affected the historic Birdcage Hotel and in order to minimise potential damage to the building, the structure has been placed on runway beams and shifted to a different location while tunnelling work takes place. This job first began last September, but before the final stage of tunnelling in an area south of the hotel can commence, the historic building will have to be restored to its former location.

The 450 metre long tunnelling project is costing around $340 million to build and more than 400 workers have been employed on the job. However, despite the complexities of the project, the tunnelling contractor has enjoyed an enviable safety record and there have been no serious accidents on site since the project’s inception.

There are only another 20-30 metres of tunnelling work to and the entrance portal is already in sight. Once the Birdcage Hotel has been restored, a sewerage diversion put in place will be removed and the final stage will begin.

The completed tunnel will help to ease the traffic problems for more than 160,000 drivers who use the route every day.

Construction work has finally begun on the long awaited Waller Creek tunnelling project in Austin, Texas. The tunnelling project has been in the planning stages for many years and plans were initially given the green light way back in 1998, but it has taken a long time to come to fruition and the ground was only broken on site a short time ago.

The Waller Creek tunnel is being built to help control flooding from the Waller Creek, a problem that has hindered development in a large swathe of Austin for many decades. When the Waller Creek tunnelling project has been completed in 2014, flood water will be channelled away from the flood plains surrounding the Waller Creek and directed into the Lady Bird Lake in the downtown area of Austin, Texas. Once the flooding problem has been resolved, the large section of unusable land in the 100-year-old flood plain area will be ripe for development.

The flood plain area encompasses around 26 acres and city officials have estimated that it is currently worth about $4 billion. Now that the Waller Creek tunnelling project has begun, the city believes that it will not be long before property developers are rushing in to buy tracts of prime building land. However, despite being pleased that the flooding problems are finally being taken care of, some local residents have expressed concern that a property boom in the Waller Creek area might push local property prices up beyond the means of those who have been raised in the area and who wish to purchase property there.

The Waller Creek tunnel project is expected to cost around $144 million. This will be paid for via a scheme that will use money generated from the sale of flood plain land to reimburse the city and state the cost of funding the project.