In the English port city of Hastings, the sewage system regularly overflows during heavy rains. To protect downtown Hastings from more floodings, the authorities planed to construct a new 1,600-meter-long water collector. Via this pipeline, excess stormwater should be transported to a collection basin in order to guarantee that the inhabitants of Hastings could leave their houses “without getting their feet wet” during rains.

A customized Mixshield with a diameter of 7.35 meters is used. The 50-meter-long machine is equipped with a cutting wheel, which was specially adapted to the geological conditions – sandstone, limestone, clay and silt. Moreover, the segment transfer system was designed to comply with the British norms for concrete segments. Due to good tunnelling performances, the machine successfully reached its target in August 1999 after 14 months of excavation.