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HS2 has introduced two massive machines that will excavate a 10-mile tunnel segment with a depth of 80 meters below the floor in Chilterns as a component of the first phase of the high-speed rail between London and Birmingham.
The German construction apparatus appointed Cecilia and Florence after a public vote among a short list of advice made through local schoolchildren.
Cecilia is named after Buckinghamshire-born astronomer Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, while Florence comes from Florence Nightingale, the founder of fashion nursing who spent many years in the county.
The other shortlists call Marie marie Curie, the first woman to win a Nobel Prize.
The 2,000-ton machines were built by the specialist company Herrenknecht in the small town of Schwanau, in south-western Germany.
HS2 Minister Andrew Stephenson said: “These impressive tunnelers will play a key role in the first level of this transformative rail line between London and the West Midlands, and it is appropriate that they bear the names of Florence and Cecilia, two emblematic of this region whose achievements remain notorious today.
HS2 will provide better and more reliable connections than our country will in fact stimulate economic expansion and percentage opportunities. I would like to thank all the academics who participated in this milestone and who will benefit from this high-speed railway. in the years to come.
Mark Thurston, CEO of HS2 Ltd, said: “The launch of our first tunnelers will be a turning point in HS2’s history, and our paintings to provide a high-speed, low-carbon exercise that will replace the way we do in the UK.
“I would like to thank all the schools that participated in the first level of the competition, the academics who nominated the 3 shortlisted names and everyone who voted online.
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“It’s wonderful to see that communities care about homework and that schoolchildren are inspired by HS2’s clinical and technological ambition. “
The machines will be operated through HS2 Align JV, a joint venture between bouygues Public Works infrastructure, Sir Robert McAlpine and VolkerFitzpatrick.
They will be sent to pieces and arrive at Lin’s main joint venture near the M25 highway in Hertfordshire either by the end of this year.
Florence will begin painting in early 2021 and Cecilia will begin the other part of the double drilling tunnel about a month later.
Both machines are 170 meters long and were designed for the addition of plaster and flint that the Chilterns would find.
They will operate almost frequently and are expected to take about 3 years to dig the tunnel, which will be covered with concrete as they move towards South Heath, Buckinghamshire.