HS2 has revealed the inner workings of its 170m-long tunnel boring machine (TBM) Cecilia, to show how the machine is excavating a 10-mile section of tunnel under the Chilterns.
The TBM features an innovative robotic arm which picks wooden wedges used to stack the individual precast concrete tunnel wall segments to avoid workers accessing a dangerous area to remove them manually.
A slurry pump fitted within the TBM removes up to 1,500 cu m of slurry and excavated material per hour. The TBM also contains a crane which picks up and places concrete tunnel wall segments onto a feeder before they are taken to the build area.
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