TBM Breakthrough.

Event Works, Design Works

Client: Align JV

Project: TBM Breakthrough

The background: After almost 3 years, the moment arrived to celebrate the achievement of a remarkable tunnelling machine that had been tirelessly working underground.

HS2’s giant Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM), “Florence,” launched two years and nine months earlier, had completed the longest tunnel in the project, spanning 10 miles beneath the Chiltern Hills. As part of the new railway connecting London and Birmingham, Florence was one of 10 machines digging a total of 32 miles of tunnel. It was the first TBM launched on the HS2 project, completing nearly a third of the total tunnel work. Florence made impressive progress, averaging 16 metres a day, while excavating a tunnel the height of two double-decker buses, using 56,000 pre- cast concrete segments and reaching depths of up to 8 metres with a team of 450 staff.

The brief: Completing the TBM breakthrough deserved to be celebrated, so we set to work.

The solution: The day for Florence’s breakthrough was finally set. CampaignWorks’ mission was to make it a memorable celebration for the hardworking team. The event, attended by Ministers, the press, and those responsible for getting the TBM into position, required careful coordination.

An AV team ensured speeches and music could be heard over the TBM’s noise, while a film crew recorded and broadcasted the TBM breakthrough the tunnel across all Align JV sites. A giant 9-metre mural of the TBM cutter head was placed at the breakthrough spot, accompanied by banners and a massive 40-metre billboard of the HS2 train.

The result:

When Florence finally broke through the concrete wall, it did so precisely on time and within millimetres of its target. The moment was celebrated with a burst of flames shooting 12 metres into the air, while celebratory music played. The wall collapsed, marking a fitting end to Florence’s long journey.

With the event complete, it was time for some photo opportunities, international press footage and to pack away the gear and wait the next achievement on this engineering journey.

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