Behind the breakthrough: HS2 milestone marks full completion of first twin bore tunnel

This video takes you behind the scenes with the team building HS2's tunnels.
On Thursday 30 March 2023, 2,000 tonne tunnel boring machine ‘Dorothy’ completed the second bore of HS2's Long Itchington Wood Tunnel in Warwickshire. The milestone breakthrough marked the full completion of first twin bore tunnel on HS2.
HS2’s tunnelling team in Warwickshire celebrated the milestone breakthrough of tunnel boring machine ‘Dorothy’ as the giant cutterhead broke through the wall of the Long Itchington Wood Tunnel south portal.
Launched in November 2022, it’s only taken four months for the 2,000 tonne TBM to complete its one-mile second bore, making this the first complete twin-bore tunnel on the HS2 project.
This marks the culmination of a three-year operation, from site set-up and TBM assembly, the first TBM drive and breakthrough, and now completing the second breakthrough.
The tunnelling team have been working around the clock in shifts for four months to operate the TBM, which has put 791 concrete rings in place, with each ring made from eight two-metre-wide segments that each weigh up to 8 tonnes.
The tunnel, which preserves the ancient woodland above, forms a key element in how HS2 is managing environmental impacts through the design of the railway, protecting Britain’s precious wildlife habitats. Long Itchington Wood is classified as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) with complex ecosystems that have taken hundreds of years to establish.
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If you have a question about HS2 or our works, please contact our HS2 Helpdesk team on 08081 434 434 or email [e-mail].

[@ICanPlayPiano]

A tunnel digging project manager called .......DOUG!!!

[@1chish]

How can anyone not be totally impressed with this achievement? Just quality tunnel engineering.

[@praneethjayasimha5943]

asia not at all impressed.

[@1chish]

@@praneethjayasimha5943 Well no you just totally disregard the environment, people's property, their rights and destroy everything en route. We have better standards.

[@billmmckelvie5188]

A lot more safer than the old methods were a few men, to many men loosing their lives!

[@anthonygillespie6977]

Even if its not modern day viewing,but add footage of the miners/engineers who actually took the tbm to its breakout,Real backbone of tunnelling

[@joshdushulovci7341]

I’m doing an apprenticeship for Danny Sullivan group and I am so proud to be part of the hs2 tunnelling team

[@Michael-lj3lm]

How did you get onto the apprenticeship if you mind me asking?

[@joshdushulovci7341]

@@Michael-lj3lm I got it through universal credit they helped me with all the stuff

[@rvnadim]

Congratulations on reaching this incredible milestone! It's amazing to see the hard work and dedication that has gone into this project. It's a great reminder of the huge potential of engineering and the power of collaboration. Well done!

[@jimmyhackers8980]

i want my taxes back if they are going to waste it on nonsense like this

[@mikehindson-evans159]

Great to see the progress. Looking forward to seeing the full video after it launches later this afternoon. Thanks for the great communications aspect of your programme.

[@owensmith7530]

I hope a lot of the team are going with the TBM to Bromford so the knowledge will continue to be useful and the tunnel boring faster.

[@lokyinszegwrraillover158]

Great!!!!!!!!!! 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

[@peterforan5982]

Impressive engineering and project execution.

[@buffplums]

Very interesting video

[@davekirk100]

Wondered when they were going to start the Bromford tunnel, now I know. Used to live there many many years ago

[@mikehindson-evans159]

Reusing the Long Itchington TBM, I believe.

[@kwv4865]

In Brisbane rather than build high speed rail to The Gold and Sunshine Coast, The LNP at previous state level decided to build congestion increasing road tunnels and now at Brisbane Council level decided to build a amusement park ride the Metro.

[@jamesmcdonnell5617]

Same thing in New York

[@davedave6404]

I can never understand how the machine navigates to come out exactly where intended. It can't be GPS because signals blocked so what reference is used? A short video would be great or a link reference if already explained somewhere.

[@richiericcardo317]

It's GPS, control is both internally and externally. An area is marked by the coordinates fed into the operational computer, aided by special navigational instruments on board, the TBM progress further the pilots have to maintain the red dot in the middle as it's the intended destination. Hopefully it makes sense.

[@simonbaxter8001]

Laser referencing is the key!

[@worldcomicsreview354]

I'll never live on censorship island again, but it's nice to see it can do a few things right.

[@harrh4528]

***** * ****

[@EdgyNumber1]

Why are we not exporting these skills and services?

[@captaincessna7897]

If I remember after digging the first tunnel, they dismantled it, transported all the pieces by road to the other end, reassembled it and started the 2nd tunnel……..couldn’t they have just sent it the other direction?

[@owensmith7530]

The facilities for handling the spoil and inserting new tunnel rings were at one end. Either you move the TBM by road back to the start, or you have to move the entire site that handles spoil and supplies rings etc to the other end. I bet moving the TBM was considerably cheaper and quicker.

[@jamesmcdonnell5617]

Good point.

[@davidhall7744]

Great video series, detailing the construction of the worlds largest cycle path (which it will be when HS2 gets cancelled).

[@martingoffin9659]

United Kingdom Of Great Britain London and all UK city's are the best in the world, UK HS2 Trains Railways is the best world class, UK Railways business boost business forever. The first railroad built in Great Britain to use steam locomotives was the Stockton and Darlington, opened in 1825. It used a steam locomotive built by George Stephenson and was practical only for hauling minerals. The Liverpool and Manchester Railway, which opened in 1830, was the first modern railroad.

[@chrisroberts2266]

HS2 is far from world class and historically trains have been a huge financial failure in UK history.

[@-_James_-]

HS2 will (currently) open 67 years after Japan's first high speed Shinkansen route, and four years after Japan starts operating its first 500km/h maglev line. HS2 is a dinosaur before it even opens. It's a colossal waste of money.

[@sandrabennett6166]

Wonderful sad to see h s 2 will be put on hold l am said about lt x

[@DavidShepheard]

Putting HS2 on hold will cost a ton of money, for absolutely no reason. We don't start getting the benefits of HS2 until it opens, and the InterCity trains are moved off of the existing mainlines.

[@sandrabennett6166]

@@DavidShepheard hello David l know everything about h s 2 my husband work on the project and I have took a interest in it l would love to see the project finished x

[@hopidenisova]

Mmmyeah and now they have decided to stop digging.... Haha

[@scottpeacock5492]

Show me the link that HS2 is bankrupt.

[@timstarkey-smith8842]

I m struggling to understand what the French guy is saying, he is talking too fast

[@HS2ltd]

We have uploaded a full transcript, so try turning on closed captions for any parts that you are struggling to understand. Hope you enjoyed the video.

[@timstarkey-smith8842]

@@HS2ltdI've no idea how to do this, I don't even know what it is you're describing, I'm afraid

[@lg5819]

@@timstarkey-smith8842 When you watch this video, click on the small Cog icon on the screen, and you will see a drop down menu appear with Captions Off!… Click it On! I hope that helps.

[@callumgreenhow3074]

Dead simple. Go to the cog symbol on the video, click on Captions, then either choose English or English (auto-generated)

[@chrisroberts2266]

Great as an engineering achievement it may be touted as, the project as a whole is still a complete waste of money. The same invested into the current infrastructure to get current lines faster and operating reliably would make a huge difference. No one needs to get to Birmingham 20 mins faster or Manchester in half the current time than you can already from London. what would be good is not being left stuck unable to travel or delayed by hours at a time on a regular basis.

[@worldcomicsreview354]

Yeah, why are they building this now? Why not 50 years ago? ！歳萬！歳萬！歳萬

[@marcelwiszowaty1751]

The main reason for building HS2 was to increase capacity on one of the most heavily-congested inter-city railways in the world. Given that, it makes sense to make it a high-speed railway to enable much greater time savings further north.

[@DavidKnowles0]

No point making the lines faster when they a clogged up with traffic.

[@chrisroberts2266]

@@DavidKnowles0 that's how you make them faster by stopping the congestion.

[@scottpeacock5492]

@@chrisroberts2266 That what bypasses are for.

[@philiphowell1505]

Does it cross the Garden Bridge to link up with the bridge to Ireland and thus return via the roundabout under the Isle Of Man and deliver it passengers to the brexit barge just in time for the celebrations of brexit. How much are the tickets, I just want one to frame.

[@chairmakerPete]

It's a real shame the HS2 project is such a dud, because the engineering is truly amazing.

[@DavidShepheard]

The project is not a dud at all. When the HS2 line opens, InterCity services on existing mainlines are going to be moved over to the new railway. That will leave gaps in the schedule, every hour, that can be passed over to local trains. Not only that, the issue, at the moment, with a mixed traffic railway, is that an InterCity train runs a lot faster than a local train, so the train schedulers have to leave big gaps in front of them. Those big gaps are not needed on a railway line that has trains at roughly the same speed. So one InterCity train doesn't just replaced by one commuter service. It can be replaced by a lot more than one train. (And this is every hour, so not just several trains over the entire day.) Put all of that together, and what you end up with is that the local train services around Birmingham are going to take over the mainline and are going to be able to increase commuter train service levels, to the sort of trains per hour, people currently only see near London. And HS2 can do that for other cities, once it gets to them and moved the InterCity trains off of the existing mainlines. It works exactly the same way that a road bypass moves unnecessary through traffic out of towns and gives the town back to local people.

[@TimDyer-fe8bn]

Great engineering, fantastic,but has ruined our countryside ,waste of money ,no one wants it around that southam area , and further

[@worldcomicsreview354]

You know those beautiful old Victorian viaducts "ruined the countryside" in the 19th century? Now they're part of it.

[@OnTheRailwayOfficial]

Look at it this way. We spent the money so we don't rip up more of the precious countryside and ancient wood like the French do. It might be a high cost now, but it is for a more sustainable future.

[@Nick-ye5kk]

Glad to see the progress but maybe use someone with English as their primary language for a public video.

[@ianjohnston2361]

HS2 Brilliant engineering.... But... What a disgraceful waste of money.

[@vinniesuperstar8923]

Is it any wonder that this project is costing so much looking at the number of people stood around not actually contributing anything to the build?

[@MegaBILLYBOB66]

waste of money

[@mattgoodchild8215]

I hate the HS2 for what they have done/doing to our countryside to which most people haven't seen because they don't live in the area at all and only see these videos or what they have read believe me I live amongst the carnage and I think it's disgusting and an utter shame I have tried everything I possibly can to air my views which I will continue to do so I have witnessed a hell of a lot of things that they wouldn't want you to no unofficial road closures illegal fish transportation felling of listed mature oaks to name but a few for a project that will still take decades to finish It's an utter disaster

[@owensmith7530]

It'll be fine in a few years when things have had time to settle into the countryside. When finished railways form wildlife corridors, because people don't generally go into the cuttings and embankments etc. If your view had been followed throughout history, we'd all still be living in trees. Clearing land for those mud huts and iron age hill forts destroyed so much of the natural environment. I've lived next to major roadworks widening the A14, I know what it's like. It just needs time.

[@mattgoodchild8215]

Yes ive seen the destruction on the A 14 aswell and the difference anything from the iron age didn't bang out 140 decibels louder than motorheads loudest concert day in day out .....humans are continually pushing aside anything that gets in their way in the name of so called progress taking but not giving back and I think as a species we are the most selfish we can not carry on the way we are it's simply not sustainable the carbon footprint the HS2 has caused will take 100s of years to replenish if indeed we are still here as a species ....i have seen the ponds the woodlands the idilic country lanes full of birds mammals amphibians and reptiles insects etc be replaced by something that resembles a NASA launch site and is very upsetting to me and other people that live in the area and will never be replaced .....i wrote this whilst sitting up my tree whilst eating my wild nuts and berries wearing my animal skin clothing banging my bison horn but I am at least 1 human who worries and cares for our environment ....m8

[@highvoltageswitcher6256]

Is it the environmental issues for you? If the same money was spent on a north of England HS3 from Liverpool to Yorkshire would object to it?

[@jaystocky]

NIMBY... Rural areas make around 90% of england... It has to go through the countryside... Where else are they meant to put it! There are people who have been needing this infrastructure for years. Other countries have it and love it, quit your moaning and understand the benefits it will bring properly instead of sucking upto what the media inform you of.

[@keithmason7481]

@@owensmith7530 o