Crossrail has marked a major milestone in the construction of London's new rail line with the lowering of a 550 tonne tunnelling machine into a 40 metre deep shaft in east London, ahead of the start of tunnelling for Crossrail’s eastern section of the new rail line.

The delicate operation required one of the largest cranes in Europe to lift the equivalent of 280 London taxis.

Perfect weather conditions were needed and the light winds and no rain allowed for Elizabeth to be moved underground.

The team at Limmo Peninsula, adjacent to Canning Town station, will shortly repeat the operation with sister machine, Victoria.

Elizabeth will start tunnelling later this year, travelling under the River Lea towards Canary Wharf. Work has started to prepare Crossrail’s Canary Wharf station to receive Elizabeth, with workers breaking out the hard concrete at the tunnel eyes to allow for the machines to easily enter the station next year.

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Both tunnelling machines will receive maintenance while in the large station box, before continuing their journeys toward Whitechapel, Liverpool Street and Farringdon.

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: "The transformational force of Crossrail is now coming ever nearer to central London. With every twist of these giant boring machines we are unleashing the huge economic opportunities stemming from this ambitious infrastructure project. Furthermore, the construction of Crossrail’s eastern section is demonstrating London's world-class engineering expertise and providing thousands of technical training and job opportunities."

The 1,350 tonne crane took weeks to assemble and includes heavy duty equipment to carry Elizabeth and Victoria on their descent into the enormous main shaft built at the site.

A smaller crane will lift the 10 gantries that form the back-up trailers of the tunnelling machine and carry the materials to support the tunnelling effort. The assembly of the tunnelling machines and their gantries will be completed underground creating two 148 metre long tunnelling factories.

After both machines and their gantries are safely in the shaft, a large conveyer system will be constructed to take the earth from the bottom of the shaft onto nearby ships. The two machines will use large shove frames to push themselves forward into the earth.

(CD)