National grid has awarded Balfour Beatty a £52m contract to deliver essential cabling works on the London Power Tunnels 2 project. The cabling works on phase one of the scheme, north of the Thames, was also delivered by Balfour back in 2017 and will now commence on the second phase of the project to ‘rewire London and link with the capital’.
Their London Power Tunnels 2 project work will include 200km of 400kV cables installation in a tunnel network of 32.5-kilometer, deep underground from Wimbledon to Crayford. Several substations connection across the city, underground tunnel cables network will be deployed to minimise the local communities and travelling public disruption when the future maintenance and repair works are needed.
Read also:The SSEN Transmission Phase two underway in Scotland.
The Automated Cable Installation
Balfour Beatty will use the second generation of their Automated Cable Installation Equipment (ACIE) machine on the London Power Tunnels 2 project. Developed in-house and utilised on the scheme’s first phase, the second-generation machine comprises of cameras and laser sensors to improve the quality and speed of the works. The ACIE has also increased the safety of tunnel cable installation works by lowering the number of people needed within the underground tunnels to manually install the cables.
The Managing Director of Balfour Beatty’s Power Transmission and Distribution business, Ian Currie was pleased to be working with National Grid once more. According to the director, their world leading innovation and expertise in tunnel cable installation, combined with the great sector knowledge, makes Balfour ideally positioned to successfully deliver the critical piece of national infrastructure. Cable installation work will start in January 2023 with the full package of works planned to be done in 2026. At peak construction, Balfour Beatty will offer jobs to approximately 150 people, as well as around eight apprentices.
