Kawasaki TBMs selected for Channel Tunnel Rail Link

  Kawasaki has received an order from the Nishimatsu-Cementation Skanska Joint Venture for two tunnel boring machines (TBMs) to be used by Union Railways (North) Ltd. on Section 2 of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL). The 8.11 m dual-mode earth pressure-balanced TBMs will be delivered in April 2002, with excavation to begin in July 2002.
  The 109 km CTRL, Britain's first high-speed railway, will link central London with Paris in just 2 hours 20 minutes by 2007. The Kawasaki TBMs will be used to construct 7.5 km twin-bore tunnels between London's St. Pancras station and Stratford, in east London. Section 1 of the project linked the Channel Tunnel with north Kent.
  Kawasaki previously supplied two 8.78 m TBMs for the Channel Tunnel project under the Dover Channel between France and England, which helped it win the new order. The 7.5 km project will be one of the longest tunnels ever excavated by TBM for soft ground conditions.