Scottish Water’s £100m Shieldhall tunnel, being built by Costain Vinci, is designed to help tackle flooding and improve river water quality in Glasgow.
A 1,000-tonne tunnel boring machine (TBM) has spent the past 15 months creating the 3.1 mile-long sewer beneath the south of the city and on the evening of 12th October broke through in Queen’s Park.
The TBM installed more than 3,200 concrete rings that form the tunnel before its giant cutting head emerged at the bottom of a 16 metre-deep shaft to cheers and applause from some of the workers involved.
Further construction and ancillary work will be carried out including work to connect the tunnel to the existing waste water network before the tunnel becomes operational next summer, but the major part is now done.
Scottish Water chief executive Douglas Millican said: “We are delighted to have completed the construction phase of the Shieldhall Tunnel, which is the flagship project in Scottish Water’s investment in the waste water infrastructure in the Greater Glasgow area – the biggest in well over a century.
“The completion of the Shieldhall Tunnel, which will increase capacity and alleviate pressure on the existing network by providing additional storm water storage, is a key part of that network modernisation.”
Scottish Water project manager Dominic Flanagan said: “Many hundreds of people have worked as part of Costain Vinci Construction Grans Projets Joint Venture (CVJV), which was set up to deliver the tunnel, to get us to this point. Building the tunnel has required a wide range of specialist skills, knowledge and expertise and our workforce has included local contractors and those with international experience and backgrounds. We are all enormously proud of what we have achieved for the good of the people of Greater Glasgow.”
CVJV project director Neil Grosset added: “This is one of the most challenging projects many of us have worked on and the completion of the tunnel construction is testament to the skills, knowledge and determination of our team who have safely delivered a high quality piece of infrastructure that will have a huge positive impact for the city now and in the future.”
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