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57-651: Martin Herrenknecht (born 24 June 1942) is a German engineer and businessman. He founded an engineering company in 1975, which became Herrenknecht AG in 1977. Today his company makes large, heavy tunnel boring machines . They have 4955 employees as of 2015. Herrenknecht is the son of an upholsterer in Schwanau, Baden-Württemberg . He graduated from Max Planck Gymnasium and studied at the University of Constance , earning an engineering degree in 1964. In 2010, his company drilled

114-557: A Herrenknecht TBM. During 2021, the UK's largest TBM was delivered by Herrnknecht for the boring of the Silvertown Tunnel . Herrenknecht also produced the TBMs to bore multiple tunnels for Britain's High Speed 2 (HS2) railway line. During 2023, Herrenknecht acquired a majority stake in the geothermal energy specialist H. Anger’s Söhne Bohr- und Brunnenbaugesellschaft mbH in order to expand

171-570: A competition in January 2012 to name the TBMs, in which over 2,500 entries were received and 10 pairs of names short-listed. After a public vote in February 2012, the first three pairs of names were announced on 13 March and the last pair on 16 August 2013: In September 2012, a gantry supporting a spoil hopper, used to load rail wagons with excavated waste at a construction site near Westbourne Park Underground station , collapsed. It tipped sideways, causing

228-614: A government investigation into blacklisting at Crossrail. Further allegations of blacklisting against Crossrail were made in Parliament in September 2017. In March 2023, a former Crossrail worker made a High Court statement regarding a damages claim against Crossrail, Skanska, Costain, T Clarke and NG Bailey for blacklisting. The case had been settled out of court in December 2021. Electrician Daniel Collins had raised health and safety concerns at

285-441: A new wetland nature reserve ( Wallasea Wetlands ). The project eventually moved seven million tons of earth. Restoration of Connaught Tunnel by filling with concrete foam and reboring, as originally intended, was deemed too great a risk to the structural integrity of the tunnel, and so the docks above were drained to give access to the tunnel roof in order to enlarge its profile. This work took place during 2013. Boring of

342-478: A number of other schemes including a "Thameslink Metro" route enhancement, and the Chelsea–Hackney line. The cost of the east–west scheme including rolling stock was estimated at £885   million. In 1991, a private bill was submitted to Parliament for a scheme including a new underground line from Paddington to Liverpool Street. The bill was promoted by London Underground and British Rail, and supported by

399-627: A project to increase the capacity of the Elbe Tunnel in Hamburg , Germany (completed in 2002). The boring of the world's longest and deepest railway tunnel, the Gotthard Base Tunnel in Switzerland, was performed using the company's machinery; excavation was completed in 2009, roughly six months ahead of schedule. That same year, Herrenknecht delivered a pair of TBMs with a diameter of 15.43m, then

456-621: A range of automation technology including underground vehicles, conveyor belts and monitoring systems, and shaft-drilling equipment. In the energy industry, it provides equipment for oil and gas pipelines, fossil fuel exploration, geothermal energy development and electricity tunnels. Its drilling rigs can reach eight kilometers underground and its TBMs range in diameter from 10 cm to 19 meters. Its other services include tunneling personnel, spare parts/refurbishment, installation, rental and re-used TBMs. As an international company, 90% of its sales were outside of Germany as of 2015 . Over time,

513-472: A specialist investigation by the Railway (London Plan) Committee, appointed in 1944 and reporting in 1946 and 1948. The term "Crossrail" emerged in the 1974 London Rail Study Report. Although the idea was seen as imaginative, only a brief estimate of cost was given: £300   million. A feasibility study was recommended as a high priority so that the practicability and costs of the scheme could be determined. It

570-542: A strategic partnership with Herrenknecht to create a new company, DrillDeep , that focuses on extracting deep geothermal energy. Crossrail Crossrail is a completed railway project centred on London. It provides a high-frequency hybrid commuter rail and rapid transit system, known as the Elizabeth line , that crosses the capital from suburbs on the west to east and connects two major railway lines terminating in London:

627-407: A timetable through the core section, to check the reliability of the railway. In November 2021, Crossrail entered trial operation which is the final stage before opening. With an initial budget of £14.8   billion, the total cost rose to £18.25   billion by November 2019, and increased further to £18.8   billion by December 2020. Delays to the project of several months were caused by

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684-787: A tunnel under the Thames , was awarded to Hochtief and J. Murphy & Sons in 2011. By September 2009, preparatory work for the £1   billion developments at Tottenham Court Road station had begun, with buildings (including the Astoria Theatre ) being compulsorily purchased and demolished. In March 2010, contracts were awarded to civil engineering companies for the second round of 'enabling work' including 'Royal Oak Portal Taxi Facility Demolition', 'Demolition works for Crossrail Bond Street Station ', 'Demolition works for Crossrail Tottenham Court Road Station' and 'Pudding Mill Lane Portal'. In December 2010, contracts were awarded for most of

741-603: The COVID-19 pandemic in England , and in late 2020 this reduced the number of workers that could be safely on-site. By August 2021, seven of the nine new stations had been handed over to TfL. The Abbey Wood to Paddington section opened to passengers on 24 May 2022, although initially trains did not run on Sundays to allow for further testing, nor did they call at Bond Street, which opened on 24 October 2022. From Sunday 6 November trains began running directly from Reading and Heathrow in

798-690: The Great Western Main Line and the Great Eastern Main Line . The project was approved in 2007, and construction began in 2009 on the central section and connections to existing lines that became part of the route, which has been named the Elizabeth line in honour of Queen Elizabeth II who opened the line on 17 May 2022 during her Platinum Jubilee . The central section of the line between Paddington and Abbey Wood opened on 24 May 2022, with 12 trains per hour running in each direction through

855-591: The Thames Tideway Scheme and the High Speed 2 projects, which were under development in London at the same time as Crossrail, the excavation works that took place during the project gave archaeologists a valuable opportunity to explore the earth underneath London's streets that was previously seen as inaccessible. Crossrail undertook what was described as one of the most extensive archaeological programmes ever seen in

912-477: The 2010s, the company developed a new semi-trenchless method for pipeline installation; by 2019, roughly 380 km of new pipelines were being installed worldwide using Herrenknecht's technology. During 2014, the company reported a record level of orders at 1.2 billion euros, which was primarily attributed to its involvement in the construction of multiple metro expansion schemes across the Middle East and Asia. In

969-569: The Bond Street station site in February 2015, was fired three days later, and faced repeated difficulties in gaining new employment on the project. He alleged there was a "secretive system of misuse of private information" about union activists. Crossrail and the contractors denied all Collins' allegations, saying they settled the court case "for purely commercial reasons" and "without admission of liability or wrongdoing". Collins received an undisclosed sum for damages and to cover court costs. Much like

1026-500: The Crossrail scheme, and also a Wimbledon–Hackney scheme. While CLRL was promoting the Crossrail project, alternative schemes were being proposed. In 2002, GB Railways put forward a scheme called SuperCrossRail which would link regional stations such as Cambridge , Guildford , Oxford , Milton Keynes Central , Southend Victoria and Ipswich via a west–east rail tunnel through central London. The tunnel would follow an alignment along

1083-535: The River Thames, with stations at Charing Cross , Blackfriars and London Bridge . In 2004 another proposal named Superlink was promoted by a group of senior railway managers. Like SuperCrossRail, Superlink envisaged linking a number of regional stations via a tunnel through London, but advocated the route already safeguarded for Crossrail. CLRL evaluated both proposals and rejected them due to concerns about network capacity and cost issues. The Crossrail Act 2008

1140-454: The Thames tunnel, which involves tunnelling through chalk ; and 'Earth Pressure Balance Machines' (EPBM) for tunnelling through clay, sand and gravel (at lower levels through Lambeth Group and Thanet Sands ground formation). The TBMs weigh nearly 1,000   tonnes and are over 100 metres (330 feet) long. The main tunnelling contracts were valued at around £1.5   billion. Crossrail ran

1197-486: The UK. Over 100 archaeologists have found tens of thousands of items from 40 sites, spanning 55   million years of London's history and prehistory. Many of the items were placed on show at the Museum of London Docklands from February to September 2017. Some of the most notable finds include: In the first half of 2021, Crossrail entered trial running stage of construction. Crossrail, in partnership with TfL, ran trains to

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1254-662: The adjacent Network Rail line to be closed. On 7 March 2014, Rene Tkacik, a Slovakian construction worker, was killed by a piece of falling concrete while working in a tunnel. In April 2014, The Observer reported details of a leaked internal report, compiled for the Crossrail contractors by an independent safety consultancy. The report was alleged to have pointed to poor industrial relations arising from safety concerns, and that workers were "too scared to report injuries for fear of being sacked". Three construction workers died from suspected heart attacks over six months in 2019, but Crossrail announced that, following extensive testing,

1311-480: The air quality at Bond Street station was within acceptable limits. In 2012, Crossrail faced accusations of blacklisting . It was revealed that an industrial relations manager, Ron Barron, employed by Bechtel , had routinely cross-checked job applicants against the Consulting Association database. An employment tribunal in 2010 heard that Barron introduced the use of the blacklist at his former employer,

1368-567: The area. On 24 June 2009 it was reported that no traces of anthrax or bubonic plague had been found on human bone fragments discovered during tunnelling. Invitations to tender for the two principal tunnelling contracts were published in the Official Journal of the European Union in August 2009. 'Tunnels West' (C300) was for twin 6.2-kilometre-long (3.9-mile) tunnels from Royal Oak through to

1425-413: The company became involved with Maschinen und Stahlbau GmbH of Dresden . Following the merger of the two companies in 1988, Herrenknecht became a joint-stock company (AG). Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, the company pursued an expansion strategy to achieve worldwide operations. During the late 1990s, Herrenknecht built a TBM with a diameter of 14.20m, which was the largest in the world at that time, for

1482-524: The company had around 5,000 employees. Martin Herrenknecht established the Martin Herrenknecht engineering company in 1975; it initially had six employees. Two years later, it became Herrenknecht GmbH , at which point it had a capital of 20 million euros. By 1984, Herrenknecht had opened Herrenknecht International Ltd. in Sunderland , England, its first foreign subsidiary. During the late 1980s,

1539-610: The company has applied its underground expertise to new areas, such as the decommissioning of offshore wells . Herrenknecht has formed several partnerships and joint ventures with other companies. During early 2020, the Belgium offshore installation specialist DEME Offshore and Herrenknecht formed a team to produce a subsea drill for use at the Saint-Nazaire offshore wind farm in France. The French geothermal specialist Arverne Group formed

1596-421: The company to cover the complete drilling process. By 2015, the company had around 5,000 employees, roughly two-thirds of which worked at the company's headquarters in the installation of hydraulic and electronic components and final inspection. Furthermore, 300 staff worked at three locations across China . In 2015, Herrenknecht had 82 subsidiaries around the world and has worked on 2,600 projects. During

1653-404: The company’s portfolio of automated drilling rigs and equipment. The firm has also investigated the use of advanced control systems, guided by artificial intelligence , in order to minimise noise levels generated from geothermal energy schemes. The company works with the mining, transport and energy sectors, building TBMs for road, railway, metro and utilities construction. In mining, it offers

1710-440: The construction firm Chicago Bridge & Iron Company (CB&I), and referred to it more than 900 times in 2007 alone. He was found to have unlawfully refused employment to a Philip Willis. Aggravated damages were awarded because Barron had added information about Willis to the blacklist. In May 2012, a BFK manager challenged their subcontractor, Electrical Installations Services Ltd. (EIS), saying that one of their electricians

1767-502: The core section in Central London . The main feature of the project was the construction of a new railway line that runs underground from Paddington Station to a junction near Whitechapel. There it splits into a branch to Stratford , where it joins the Great Eastern Main Line ; and a branch to Abbey Wood in southeast London. When the Elizabeth line became fully operational in May 2023,

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1824-846: The existing Great Eastern Main Line at Stratford . The south-eastern branch runs underground to Abbey Wood via Canary Wharf , Custom House and Woolwich . This branch takes over a stretch of the former North London line built by the Eastern Counties and Thames Junction Railway , and connects it with the North Kent Line via a tunnel under the Thames at North Woolwich . The tunnelled sections are altogether approximately 42 km (26 miles) in length. There are new stations at Paddington , Bond Street , Tottenham Court Road , Farringdon , Liverpool Street and Whitechapel , with interchanges with London Underground and National Rail services. Due to

1881-519: The government; it was rejected by the Private Bill Committee in 1994 on the grounds that a case had not been made, though the government issued "Safeguarding Directions", protecting the route from any development that would jeopardise future schemes. In 2001, Cross London Rail Links (CLRL), a joint-venture between TfL and the Department for Transport (DfT), was formed to develop and promote

1938-436: The largest in the world, for the boring of two large tunnels under Shanghai , China. In December 2012, Herrenknecht acquired Techni-Métal Systemes SAS, a French manufacturer of tunnel supply vehicles; the move expanded the company's portfolio to comprise all technical equipment and services relating to TBMs. Three years later, Herrenknecht launched its first horizontal directional drilling HDD rock cutting tools, which enabled

1995-597: The largest tunnel in the world. He is a member of the Christian Democratic Union . He received the Werner von Siemens Ring in 2015. He has caused some controversy in his Stuttgart 21 development project. The Green politician Winfried Hermann accused him of having too close a relationship with Lothar Späth . Herrenknecht AG Established by Martin Herrenknecht in 1975, the company soon grew. Its first overseas subsidiary, Herrenknecht International Ltd ,

2052-614: The length and positioning of the new platforms, Farringdon station is also connected to Barbican station, and Liverpool Street to Moorgate station. From the western end of the tunnel Elizabeth line services continue to Hayes and Harlington where they either remain on the Great Western Main Line and run to Reading or Maidenhead via Slough or split off to the Heathrow branch terminating at Heathrow Terminals 4 or 5 . Existing stations were refurbished and upgraded, including

2109-563: The line would not open in 2021, with TfL not expecting the full line from Heathrow to Shenfield to open until the early part of the 2023/24 financial year. In August 2020, Crossrail announced that the central section would be ready to open "in the first half of 2022". In May 2021, trial running commenced, with the core section opened by Queen Elizabeth II for passenger service on 24 May 2022. The project used eight 7.1-metre (23-foot) diameter tunnel-boring machines (TBM) from Herrenknecht AG (Germany). Two types are used; 'slurry' type for

2166-460: The mid 2010s, eight Herrenknecht-built TBMs, valued at £10 million, were deployed to bore out a 13 mile stretch of tunnel for Crossrail , a mostly-underground commuter railway line beneath London. In May 2020, workers on the Brenner Base Tunnel reportedly set a new record for hard rock tunnel, boring a distance of 61 meters and 4 centimeters within 24 hours, a feat that was achieved using

2223-499: The new Crossrail Farringdon Station , with a portal west of Paddington . The 'Tunnels East' (C305) request was for three tunnel sections and 'launch chambers' in east London . Contracts were awarded in late 2010: the 'Tunnels West' contract was awarded to BAM Nuttall , Ferrovial Agroman and Kier Construction (BFK); the 'Tunnels East' contract was awarded to Dragados and John Sisk & Son . The remaining tunnelling contract (C310, Plumstead to North Woolwich ), which included

2280-693: The new nine-carriage Class 345 trains started to run at frequencies in the central section of up to 24 trains per hour in each direction through the central core, after which services divide into two branches: in the west to Reading and to Heathrow Central ; in the east to Abbey Wood and to Shenfield . Local services on the section of the Great Eastern Main Line between Liverpool Street and Shenfield had been transferred to TfL Rail in May 2015; TfL Rail also took over Heathrow Connect services in May 2018 and replaced some local services between Paddington and Reading in December 2019. The TfL Rail brand

2337-404: The overhead lines were powered up between Westbourne Park and Stepney , the installation of platform doors was completed, and video was released of the first trains travelling through the tunnels. TfL Rail took over Heathrow Connect services from Paddington to Heathrow in May 2018. At the end of August 2018, four months before the scheduled opening of the core section of the line, it

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2394-679: The peak of construction up to 14,000 people were expected to be needed in the project's supply chain. Work began on 15 May 2009 when piling works started at the future Canary Wharf station . The threat of diseases being released by work on the project was raised by Lord James of Blackheath at the passing of the Crossrail Bill. He told the House of Lords select committee that 682 victims of anthrax had been brought into Smithfield in Farringdon with some contaminated meat in 1520 and then buried in

2451-561: The project was repeatedly delayed, including several months caused by the COVID-19 pandemic . The concept of large-diameter tunnels crossing central London to connect Paddington in the west and Liverpool Street in the east was first proposed by railwayman George Dow in The Star newspaper in June 1941. The project that became Crossrail has origins in the 1943 County of London Plan and 1944 Greater London Plan by Patrick Abercrombie . These led to

2508-405: The prospect of delays to the project in updates to Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, and called for TfL commissioner Mike Brown to consider his position. Crossrail said major challenges before completion included writing and testing the software that would integrate the train with three different track signalling systems, and installing equipment inside the tunnels. In July 2019, it was announced that

2565-476: The provision of step-free access at all stations, and platform lengthening at most to accommodate the new 200-metre-long (660 ft) trains. Earlier plans suggested terminating at Maidenhead, with an extension to Reading safeguarded. Various commentators advocated an extension further west as far as Reading because it was seen as complementary to the Great Western Electrification project which

2622-579: The railway tunnels was officially completed at Farringdon on 4 June 2015 in the presence of the Prime Minister and the Mayor of London . Installation of the track was completed in September 2017. The ETCS signalling was scheduled to be tested in the Heathrow tunnels over the winter of 2017–2018. The south east section of the infrastructure was energised in February 2018, with the first test train run between Plumstead and Abbey Wood that month. In May 2018

2679-793: The tunnel to the Great Western Main Line and the Metropolitan line on the Underground. The City route was shown as a new connection across the City of London linking the Great Northern Route with London Bridge. The north–south line proposed routing West Coast Main Line , Thameslink, and Great Northern trains through Euston and King's Cross / St Pancras , then under the West End via Tottenham Court Road , Piccadilly Circus and Victoria towards Crystal Palace and Hounslow . The report also recommended

2736-554: The tunnelling work. To assist with the skills required for the Crossrail project, Crossrail opened in 2011 the Tunnelling and Underground Construction Academy in Ilford . The academy was handed over to TfL in 2017, who have sub-contracted its management to PROCAT . In February 2010, Crossrail was accused of bullying residents whose property lay on the route into selling for less than the market value. A subsequent London Assembly report

2793-442: The west to Abbey Wood, and from Shenfield in the east through to Paddington as the surface railways connect with the central tunnels. TfL expects that the full line, with final timetable, will be operational by May 2023. In the west, the new tunnel connects with the Great Western Main Line at Royal Oak , west of Paddington . East of Whitechapel the line splits at an underground junction. The north-eastern branch emerges to join

2850-560: Was a trade union activist. Some days later, Pat Swift, the HR manager for BFK and a regular user of the Consulting Association , again challenged EIS. EIS refused to dismiss their worker and lost the contract. Flash pickets were held at the Crossrail site and also at the sites of the BFK partners. The Scottish Affairs Select Committee called on the UK Business Secretary , Vince Cable , to set up

2907-417: Was also suggested that the alignment of the tunnels should be safeguarded while a final decision was taken. The Central London Rail Study of 1989 proposed tunnels linking the existing rail network as the "East–West Crossrail", "City Crossrail", and "North–South Crossrail" schemes. The east–west scheme was for a line from Liverpool Street to Paddington/Marylebone with two connections at its western end linking

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2964-450: Was announced in July 2009. A Reading terminus was also recommended by Network Rail's 2011 Route Utilisation Strategy . On 27 March 2014 it was announced that the line would indeed extend to Reading. A flyover at Airport Junction near Hayes & Harlington station allows Heathrow Express trains to pass over the track used by Crossrail, avoiding delays caused by crossings. The line between

3021-409: Was announced that completion was delayed and that the line would not open before autumn 2019. In April 2019, it was announced that Crossrail would be completed between October 2020 and March 2021, two years behind schedule, and that it would not include the opening of the Bond Street station, one of ten new stations on the line. The London Assembly's transport committee concluded that TfL played down

3078-400: Was created in 1984; a further 79 subsidiaries would be setup or purchased over the next 30 years to provide global coverage. Its products have often pushed technological boundaries; a Herrenknecht-built TBM in the late 1990s was the largest in the world at that time, while the world's longest and deepest railway tunnel (the Gotthard Base Tunnel ) was bored using the company's apparatus. By 2015,

3135-564: Was discontinued when the core section of the Elizabeth line opened in May 2022. The Elizabeth line is operated by MTR Corporation (Crossrail) Ltd as a London Rail concession of Transport for London (TfL), in a similar manner to London Overground . TfL's annual revenues from the line were forecast in 2018 to be nearly £500   million in 2022–23 and over £1   billion from 2024 to 2025. The total estimated cost rose from an initial budget of £14.8   billion to £18.8   billion by December 2020. Originally planned to open in 2018,

3192-618: Was given royal assent in July 2008, giving CLRL the powers necessary to build the line. In September 2009, TfL was loaned £1   billion towards the project by the European Investment Bank . Both Conservatives and Labour made commitments in their 2010 election manifestos to deliver Crossrail, and the coalition government following the election was committed to the project. In April 2009, Crossrail announced that 17 firms had secured 'Enabling Works Framework Agreements' and would now be able to compete for packages of works. At

3249-583: Was highly critical of the insensitive way in which Crossrail had dealt with compulsory purchases and the lack of assistance given to the people and businesses affected. There were also complaints from music fans , as the London Astoria was forced to close. In December 2011, a contract to ship the excavated material from the tunnel to Wallasea Island was awarded to a joint venture comprising BAM Nuttall Limited and Van Oord UK Limited. Between 4.5 and 5   million tonnes of soil would be used to construct

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