Company also uncovers suspected plague pit.
Crossrail’s last remaining tunnelling boring machine is to be removed from Farringdon following the end of tunnelling works.
The machine, TBM Victoria, brought tunnelling works to a close after breaking into Farringdon Crossrail station in May 2015.
Victoria is now being dismantled 40 metres below central London, ready to supply parts for future tunnelling projects. The 130m trailer will be returned to manufacturer Herrenknect after being brought to ground level via the shaft at Stepney Green. The cutter head is being cut into small pieces ready for removal.
Victoria is amongst Crossrail’s eight tunnel boring machines that have been in operation over the last three years. Together these 1,000 tonne machines have bored 26 miles of new rail tunnels under London.
Roger Mears, Crossrail Eastern Tunnels Project Manager said: “Crossrail’s last tunnelling machine, Victoria, has finished her journey and is being dismantled and recycled. Thanks to the quality of these marvellous machines and skill of the teams who operated them, Crossrail’s tunnels are now complete, ready for the complex task of fitting out the railway.”
Whilst tunnelling works have drawn to a close, Crossrail continues construction on ten new stations.
The company has just announced the discovery of yet more skeletons at their Liverpool Street site. The remains of 30 human beings have been found, adding to the hundreds uncovered there during preliminary excavations in 2011 and 2012.
The mass burial ground is suspected to contain victims of the Great Plague, coinciding with the 350th anniversary of the last major plague outbreak in 1665.
The pit was unearthed during excavation of the Bedlam burial ground, a step which enables construction of the station’s eastern entrance.
The skeletons are to be analysed by osteologists from the Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) in order to reveal the cause of death.
Jay Carver, Crossrail Lead Archaeologist said: “The construction of Crossrail gives us a rare opportunity to study previously inaccessible areas of London and learn about the lives and deaths of 16th and 17th century Londoners.
“This mass burial, so different to the other individual burials found in the Bedlam cemetery, is very likely a reaction to a catastrophic event. Only closer analysis will tell if this is a plague pit from The Great Plague in 1665 but we hope this gruesome but exciting find will tell us more about the one of London’s most notorious killers.”
Alongside increasing central London’s rail-based transport network capacity by 10%, Crossrail is the UK’s largest archaeology project. Over the course of construction works, 10,000 artifacts have been discovered.
These developments come ahead of Crossrail’s 2018 completion date for central London, with a report from the Crossrail 2 Growth Commission due in 2016.
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