A 1,600-tonne tunnel boring machine used on HS2 is being disassembled after completing the 3.5-mile mission to excavate the first section of the route’s Bromford Tunnel.
The first stage in the process of disassembling the machine saw its 120-tonne diameter cutterhead being lifted into the Birmingham skyline by a 700-tonne crawler crane – with the lift taking just 90 minutes!
A team of 15 engineers will spend the next three months dismantling the 125-metre-long machine before it is returned to the German tunnel boring company, Herrenknecht.
The giant machine, which spent 652 days and nights working underground to excavate the first bore of the Bromford Tunnel, is expected to be refurbished and adapted ready to meet the technical requirements of its next tunnelling mission.
