15.02.13
Victoria Dock portal construction work starts
Construction has now begun on the tunnel portal at Victoria Dock, to provide a gateway into a key one-mile tunnelled section of the new Crossrail route. The work is being delivered by VINCI Construction UK Ltd and is part of the £14.8bn Crossrail project across London, due to open in 2018.
The Victoria Dock portal will allow trains on the existing surface railway from the east to move underground and into the tunnelled section.
The building foundations for the portal structure involve over 700 piles being driven into the ground. The portal itself will be 20 metres wide, 371 metres long and 13 metres deep.
The first section of the portal will be completed in early 2014 and the first Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) will be launched towards Victoria Dock from the Limmo Peninsula site in summer 2014.
The TBM will then be taken back to the Limmo site so that it can create a second adjacent tunnel to Victoria Dock Portal, completing a crucial 1km section of the Crossrail route.
The remaining sections of the portal structure will be completed in 2015.
Over Christmas, major engineering works took place to make space for the portal. 420 metres of Docklands Light Railway tracks were moved and renewed by a team of 200 workers.
Bill Tucker, Crossrail area director for the ‘Central’ section, said: “The Victoria Dock Portal will be a key part of the Crossrail route, forming a gateway from the existing surface railway in east London into the new tunnels being built beneath central London. The start of construction at Victoria Dock is an important further step towards delivering lasting transport improvements for east London.”
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