Crossrail's 1,000-tonne tunnel machine Elizabeth has successfully broke into Liverpool Street station this morning, Thursday.

The breakthrough, 40m beneath the City of London, is part of Crossrail's longest tunnel drive, 8.3km from Limmo Peninsula, near Canning Town, to Farringdon.

Elizabeth now has 750m of tunnel to bore, before arriving at her final destination at Farringdon station. Elizabeth will finish her tunnel drive and link all Crossrail tunnels for the first time with the big east/west breakthrough at Farringdon in the spring.

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Her sister machine Victoria will arrive at Farringdon a few weeks later. On completion, a total of 42km of tunnel will have been bored as part of Europe's largest infrastructure project. 40km out of 42km have now been constructed.

Andrew Wolstenholme, Crossrail Chief Executive, said: "We are now on the final countdown to the big east/west breakthrough at Farringdon, which will link all of Crossrail's tunnels for the first time.

"This is a phenomenal feat of civil engineering that London can be justifiably proud of. The next challenge is to implement railway systems across the route, keeping the project on time and within budget."

(CD/JP)