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Fly through London’s Crossrail tunnels - drone footage released

Tunnelling work for London's Crossrail project is now complete

Ryan Ramgobin
Friday 05 June 2015 11:04 BST
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Tunnelling for London's Crossrail project is complete
Tunnelling for London's Crossrail project is complete (Getty)

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Tunnelling across London for the £14.8 billion Crossrail project has been completed.

You won’t be able to use the service until 2018 but to get a feel for how it’ll be, take a look at the drone footage below.

Slightly nauseating, yes, but you get a real sense of how extensive the project is.

Work began in 2012 and according to a video released by the company, tunnelling took place 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Services will run from Shenfield in Essex to as west as Reading.

Activity in the tunnels
Activity in the tunnels (Getty)

The three-year process saw 250,000 concrete tunnel segments used and 400,000 apprenticeships created.

Working conditions in the tunnels
Working conditions in the tunnels (Getty)

8 giant tunnel boring machines were used to excavate 7-million tonnes of material, of which 98% was recycled.

UK PM David Cameron visits the Farringdon Crossrail site
UK PM David Cameron visits the Farringdon Crossrail site (Getty)

Prime Minister David Cameron visited Farringdon’s Crossrail site on Wednesday and hailed it as “an engineering triumph”.

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