At 170m long 'Florence' is the largest tunnel boring machine (tbm) ever to be used on a UK rail project.
360 Geomatics are pleased to have been commissioned to carry out weekly level monitoring of the sub-station structures either side of the tunnel entrance, whilst the machine cuts through the chalk below. The sub-stations have been built specifically to power the tbm.
Florence will spend the next three and a half years boring through the chalk beneath the Chiltern Hills. The cutter head will rotate at up to 3.2 rpm with the machine expected to cover15.6 m per day.
