The Crossrail project approaches the end of its major tunneling phase, with the start of one of the shortest tunnels to be excavated. A mere 900 metres beginning at Canning Town station, and going towards the Victoria Dock Portal in East London

It will become part of what will be the south-east spur of London’s new rail line. Beginning 35 metres deep running close to the River Lea through to where the Crossrail tracks come to the surface at the Custom House station. The TBM (Tunnel Boring Machine) undertaking the job is Jessica, named after London 2012 gold medalist Jessica Ennis-Hill, and is its second tunnel after completing a tunnel that went from Pudding Mill Lane to Stepney Green last winter. The machine is manned by a team consisting of twenty personnel all of whom are decked out in the brightest hi-vis safety workwear available.

Jessica’s sister machine Ellie will create the second tunnel on this stretch from Limmo Peninusla to the Victoria Dock Portal later in the year. All of the tunneling machines were named by members of the public following national competitions and named in pairs:

Ada and Phyllis: Ada Lovelace was one of the earliest computer scientists, working with Charles Babbage, and is regarded as having written the first computer program. Phyllis Pearsall single-handedly created the London A-Z. She once got lost on the way to a party and decided that the maps on offer at the time were simply not good enough. She walked 23,000 streets and over 3,000 miles to complete the first street map, delivering the first 250 copies published in her own wheelbarrow.

Victoria and Elizabeth: Named after two monarchs of the realm. Victoria was on the throne in the first great age of railway projects and Elizabeth II is of course our current queen who was the monarch when this project began.

Mary and Sophia: Mary was the wife of the famous railway engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Sophia was the wife of Marc Brunel who built the first tunnel under the Thames.

Jessica and Ellie: As you already know who Jessica is named after, the only remaining name to reveal is Ellie, and of course is a Gold Medallist from the 2012 Paralympics, namely Ellie Simmonds.

With more than 80% of the tunnels in the project now completed four of the eight TBMs have been retired and the whole project is expected to open sometime in 2018.