Handover of Lee Tunnel TBM

30 June 2011 - New contracts - United Kingdom

On 4 May, at the Herrenknecht plant in Germany, the MVB consortium composed of Morgan Sindall (50%), VINCI Construction Grands Projets (30%) and Bachy Soletanche (20%), a subsidiary of Soletanche Freyssinet (VINCI Construction) took delivery of the pressurised-mud tunnel boring machine that will bore the Lee Tunnel. 120 metres long and with a cutting head 8.85 metres in diameter, this machine will now be dismantled and transported to east London (UK), where it will embark on its task in January 2012.

Undertaken on behalf of Thames Water, the Lee Tunnel project concerns the construction of a 7 km-long tunnel for rainwater and wastewater that, by capturing it at source, will reduce by half the 32 million cu. metres of polluted water discharged yearly into the Thames. The project also includes the creation of four very large shafts, and supplying and installing the equipment and control systems required to manage the effluent and to lift it more than 80 metres.