14 November 2013
A special machine that will be boring tunnels deep under St Helier has been unveiled.
Victoria Vole, a pink boring machine, has been brought to Jersey to create two 70-metre-long tunnels which are part of a drainage system that will reduce the risk of flooding in the West Centre area of town.
The North St Helier Flood Alleviation Scheme started in October 2012. So far, a shaft eight metres wide has been dug 23 metres deep near Phillips Street. Now twin 70-metre-long tunnels will be bored to connect the shaft to the existing tunnel that leads to the cavern.
Remote-controlled burrowing
Controlled remotely, Victoria Vole will be lowered down the shaft at Phillips Street and will bore its way along to a reception chamber created within the existing tunnels. Once it reaches the reception chamber it will be rotated and transported 300 metres along the existing tunnel so that it can be retrieved from another shaft near the cavern. It will then be returned back to the shaft at Phillips Street to bore the second tunnel.
The whole project is due for completion in late spring 2014 and will reduce the risk of flooding in town, by providing more capacity in the drainage system to allow rain water to escape.
Deputy Kevin Lewis, the Minister for Transport and Technical Services, said “I am sure that those people who were so badly affected by flooding in 2010 will be pleased that we are now in the final phase of this project and it is only a few months away from completion.”
Supporting After Breast Cancer
The machine has been named Victoria Vole and painted pink to promote and support ‘After Breast Cancer, Jersey’.
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