This week, the underground tunneling for England’s Crossrail, a 73-mile rail route that is Europe’s single largest construction project ever, was completed.
To celebrate the successful excavation, a time-lapse video of the entire 26 mile section of Crossrail that runs through London was shot with a drone.
The tunnels, 20 feet in diameter, were made with 1,100-ton drilling machines.
The colossal public transport project, set to cost more than $22 billion dollars and involve more than 10,000 people, is slated for completion in 2018. Construction of the stations above ground have already began.
Once operation, the Crossrail should carry more than 200 million passengers each year, expanding London’s overall rail capacity by more than one-tenth.
“Crossrail is an incredible feat of engineering that will help to improve the lives of working people in London and beyond,” British Prime Minister David Cameron said in a statement. “The project is a vital part of our long term plan to build a more resilient economy by helping businesses to grow, compete and create jobs right along the supply chain.”
The Crossrail is a part of a larger plan to improve the railway in England as whole, a project that will cost around $58 billion dollars between 2014 and 2019.
The projection dovetails not only with improving transportation, but creating more commercial and retail space as well. Crossrail has plans to develop 3 million square feet of residential and business property above its stations.
For its central London station, Crossrail wants to construct a permanent world-class art exhibition within the building, and is collaborating with leading London art galleries to do so.
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