Tunnelling in Yorkshire – It Isn’t All Boring

Synopsis

Although major tunnelling projects are often focused on sites in the south, in particular within London geology, there have been major tunnelling projects within Yorkshire in recent years. These have provided interesting design and construction challenges and also opportunities to advance the knowledge of tunnelling in the UK within different geologies.

Two of these projects will be presented which include a new build tunnel construction for the 37 km long Material Transport System (MTS) Tunnel which forms part of the North Yorkshire Polyhalite Project within the North York Moors and a 4.9 km long, 3.65m diameter tunnel under the Humber to facilitate the replacement of a critical section of pipeline within the Gas National Transmission System. Other challenging tunnelling projects which will be presented include the remediation of an existing rail tunnel constructed through a landslip and a 1.3 km long, 1.8m diameter pipe jacked tunnel within Chalk constructed as part of a major Flood Alleviation Scheme near Hull.