TBM Annie - Thames Tideway Tunnel (Central)
Central London, UK (Kirtling Street to Chambers Wharf) · 2016-2022 (Tunnelling started 2016, overall project completion 2025) · £4.2bn (Project total)
The judgement call
Account-gated at launchNamed after Annie Maunder, an astronomer and pioneer in solar photography. Part of the 'super sewer' project to clean up the River Thames.
Key engineering challenges
Tunnelling through varied ground conditions beneath a major city. - Minimising disruption in a densely populated urban environment. - Managing large volumes of excavated material.
Project facts
- Client / owner
- Tideway
- Lead contractor
- Ferrovial Agroman UK and Laing O’Rourke Construction Joint Venture (FLO JV)
- Lead designers
- —
- Project type
- new build
- Scale
- Tunnel length: 7.2km (Central section); TBM diameter: 8.85m
- Disciplines
- civil; structural; mechanical; electrical; systems; tunnelling; geotechnical; environmental
- Standards & frameworks
- NEC4 (New Engineering Contract), CDM Regulations, UK water industry standards.
Sources: Tideway.london (https://www.tideway.london/news/press-releases/2019/november/new-map-shows-progress-of-giant-machines-creating-super-sewer-beneath-the-thames/) - Herrenknecht AG (https://www.herrenknecht.com/en/references/referencesdetail/thames-tideway-tunnel/) - Jacobs (https://www.jacobs.com/projects/thames-tideway-tunnel)