Silvertown tunnelling resumes after fire

The fire, at the project’s Silvertown site on the north side of the River Thames, occurred less than three weeks after tunnelling began, and damaged half of the conveyor belt. Six fire engines and around 40 firefighters attended the fire.

Transport for London (TfL) said that following repairs to the conveyor system, both the conveyor belt and the TBM were restarted this week. 

TfL, the Riverlinx consortium and its subcontractors are still investigating the cause of the fire.

TfL could not tell T&T whether working practices on site had been altered since the fire, or how the downtime would affect the overall programme.

Tunnelling on the new Thames crossing, which is using the largest diameter TBM ever employed in the UK, started in September. The TBM has now tunnelled more than 50m and 24 concrete rings have been installed.

Sheet piling for the tunnel approach roads in Newham is under way and the rotation chamber in Greenwich, on the south of the Thames, has been excavated and concrete pours for the base of the chamber are being carried out.

The 1.4km road tunnel is being built by Riverlinx consortium, a joint venture between Bam Nuttall, Ferrovial Construction and SK Ecoplant, through a design, build, finance, operate and maintain contract.