National Grid’s flagship London Power Tunnels project is gathering momentum with the arrival of the scheme’s second Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM).

The state of the art machine arrived at National Grid’s Channel Gate Road site near Willesden Junction earlier this month.

The machine will be used to tunnel 19 kilometres of the 32km subterranean electricity superhighway which National Grid is carving out deep below London’s busy streets.

Named Evelyn the TBM joins the project’s original TBM Cleopatra which began tunnelling earlier this autumn. The machines are digging along a pre-determined route which will link up National Grid’s existing substations at Hackney, St John’s Wood, Willesden and Wimbledon.

The TBMs use large concrete segments to line the tunnels as they progress through the ground. Once tunnelling concludes high voltage electricity cables will be installed and it is anticipated that the tunnel will be fully operational by 2018.

National Grid Project Manager Gareth Burden said: “London Power Tunnels is one of the most exciting engineering projects happening in the world today. It will play a vital role in keeping Londoners connected to the energy they use. Our work will help ensure London has the power infrastructure to support it as a world class leader in business, commerce, sport and tourism, both now and into the future.” 

He added: “By housing the cables in deep underground tunnels we are avoiding major traffic disruption as we won’t need to dig up London’s roads either during tunnel construction or for subsequent infrastructure work.”

The name Evelyn was chosen by schoolgirl Chastity Nyadu-Bekoe, 9, in a competition run by project team members.

For more information on the project go to http://londonpowertunnels.com/index.html

Ends

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National Grid

National Grid (LSE: NG; NYSE:NGG) is an electricity and gas company that connects consumers to energy sources through its networks.  The company is at the heart of one of the greatest challenges facing our society - to create new, sustainable energy solutions for the future and developing an energy system that underpins economic prosperity in the 21st century.  National Grid holds a vital position at the centre of the energy system and we ‘join everything up’. 

In Britain, we run the gas and electricity systems that our society is built on, delivering gas and electricity across the country.  In the North Eastern US, we connect more than seven million gas and electric customers to vital energy sources, essential for our modern lifestyles.

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• We own the high-voltage electricity transmission network in England and Wales, operating it across Great Britain
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