Construction of a new high speed railway in the UK between London and the Channel Tunnel continues to progress. The first section, from Fawkham Junction just outside London to the Channel Tunnel, is more than 90% complete, on time and on budget. The second stage, which includes a lot of tunnelling under the capital, began in July 2001 and is already 30% complete. A key site for the second stage is Stratford in east London where a giant concrete box, 1km long, will be built to house a new international station. At the moment the Stratford Box site provides an access shaft for tunnelling both westwards towards London St Pancras and eastwards out of London. The first tunnel boring machine left Stratford, heading to St Pancras, in August. Assembling and placing the TBM was carried out with the aid of three lifts by Baldwins’ 1,000t capacity Gottwald AK 912 lattice boom truck crane. The front body of the TBM weighed 300t and was set down at a radius of 24m.
