The 1,350-tonne capacity lattice-boom crawler crane is the largest in the country.
The tunnel boring machine (TBM), called Elizabeth, will drive tunnels from east to central London - 8.3km between Canning Town and Farringdon
The team at Limmo Peninsula, next to Canning Town station, will shortly repeat the operation with sister machine, Victoria.
Elizabeth will start tunnelling later this year, travelling under the River Lea towards Canary Wharf. Work has started to prepare Crossrail’s Canary Wharf station to receive Elizabeth, with workers breaking out the hard concrete at the tunnel eyes to allow for the machines to easily enter the station next year.
Both tunnelling machines will receive maintenance while in the large station box, before continuing their journeys toward Whitechapel, Liverpool Street and Farringdon.
Crossrail began building its first tunnel in May of this year, when the first tunnelling machine, Phyllis, closely followed by Ada, started tunnelling at Royal Oak in west London. Eight tunnelling machines will construct a total of 21km of twin tunnels under London.
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