“Busy Lizzie” in start position

16 January 2012 - New contracts - United Kingdom

On 16 December 2011, in London, the TBM Busy Lizzie was lowered into position at the bottom of the launch shaft, from where, in February 2012, she will start driving the Lee Tunnel. Using one of the most powerful cranes in Europe, it took just four hours to lower the machine, weighing 800 t, to a depth of 80 m. Undertaken on behalf of Thames Water, the project involves creating a 7 km-long tunnel, which will make it possible to reduce by 16 million cubic metres the volume of wastewater and rainwater discharged annually, untreated, into the Thames. The project is being implemented by the MVB consortium, composed of Morgan Sindall, VINCI Construction Grands Projets and Bachy Soletanche, a subsidiary of Soletanche Freyssinet (VINCI Construction), and also calls for the creation of four huge shafts, the diaphragm walls of which have just been completed. Worth €476m, the works began in 2010. They will take 5 years to complete.