The transportation of the excavated materials from Crossrail’s tunnel which transferred the material out of London to Northfleet in Kent, UK.
The first train, which left Crossrail’s Westbourne Park site, had 13 wagons and carried 492 tons of earth. This was followed by two more trains bound for Kent in the past week. Crossrail anticipates that over the coming six weeks, every week two trains will run between Crossrail’s tunnel entrance near Paddington and Northfleet.
The company anticipates increase in the number of wagons, to reach 27, by mid-2012; operating three times a day. At tunnelling peak, the number of trains will be increased to five per day and is likely to transport about 7,000 tons of earth everyday.
Crossrail anticipates excavating more than one million tons of earth from the boring of 6.4km long western tunnels between Royal Oak Portal and Farringdon station. The entire project is likely to generate approximately 6000 tons of excavated earth.
The excavated materials will be used for several regeneration projects, such as a new RSPB nature reserve at Wallasea Island, Essex. The materials will be transported to these places by means of ships which will operate from Northfleet.