A CROWD of people gathered at the reception pit just outside Bleddfa for the culmination of a huge project to create a tunnel to replace a worn part of the Elan Valley aqueduct that carries water towards Birmingham.
They were rewarded by seeing the tunnel boring machine finally emerge out of the ground after nearly five months.
The work is being paid for by Severn Trent and carried out by the BNM Alliance.
Since the machine was launched it has travelled at a speed of between 10 and 100 ml per minute to make its way through almost 1,760 metres of hillside.
The machine’s breakthrough was witnessed by local people and councillors as well as officials and workmen from Severn Trent and the BNM Alliance. There were also two television camera crews as well as other media present to record the moment.
After the breakthrough men working in the tunnel climbed through a gap in the machine carrying Welsh flags.
The next stage of the work to be carried out in the area is at Nantmel. The launch pit site is already being worked on and will be on a far larger scale than the one at Bleddfa.
The tunnel boring machine will now be taken to Nantmel for refurbishment before being put into the ground to make a one-kilometre-long tunnel to bypass an existing viaduct.
Work on the tunnelling at Nantmel is likely to start in the summer of 2017.
Also around that time workers will start preparing the launch pit in Knighton to make a tunnel to bypass an existing part of the aqueduct and a viaduct under Ffrydd Wood.
At the Bleddfa site the next big operation will be to join the existing parts of the aqueduct to the new tunnel and then the sites will be returned back to how they were.
The BNM Alliance is employing about 70 people on this project. People employed on the site include locals as well as ones who come from all over the country bringing a economic boost to the area. BNM have also given donations to several groups and organisations in the community.