Collapse! Tesco tunnel Gerrards Cross after the disaster
Ten years ago today, I had a lucky escape. I was on the last train through the ‘Tesco tunnel’ at Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, before it dramatically collapsed, closing the Chiltern main line for almost two months.
The tunnel was created to allow a Tesco store to be built over the railway cutting. The project was controversial, and many people in the village protested against it. It only went ahead after John Prescott overturned the council’s refusal to allow the store to be built.
I was on my way back from a work trip to Chester that evening, Thursday 30 June 2005. It was a lovely evening, and I had enjoyed the journey south. My train passed through the tunnel at around 7.15. It collapsed about 15 minutes later.
The scene three days later
The weekend after, people flocked to the scene to see the damage.
Witnessing the aftermath
Work resumed on the project two years later, and Tesco Gerrards Cross opened in November 2010, some 14 years after it was commissioned by the company. Despite the protests over the years, it’s proved popular with locals.
The Tesco tunnel, 29 June 2015
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Dear Rob
I am writing to request permission for Imperial College London to use a photograph from your website. The one I am interested in concerns the Gerrards Cross Tunnel Collapse, particularly the one shwoing the site three days after. We would like to include it in an updated history of Imperial’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, which will celebrate the Department’s research, people, and educational impact. The image will be used specifically in relation to the technical advisory work of members of our staff involved in the public enquiry which followed the incident.
The updated history will be published both online and in print. For context, you can view our previous history document (published in 1985) here: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperial-college/faculty-of-engineering/civil/public/about/History_100_Yrs_Civil_Engg_IC%5B1%5D.pdf
Imperial College London
3. Unwin’s 100-ton testing-machine with H. M. Martin, one of Unwin’s first four students, holding the control lever
http://www.imperial.ac.uk
If you are happy for us to use the photograph, we would be grateful if you could kindly reply with:
Thank you very much for your time and assistance.
Colin J Kerr
Honorary Senior Research Officer
c.j.kerr@imperial.ac.uk
Dear Colin. I’d be delighted for Imperial College London to use the image. Please credit the image to me. I will see if I have a high res copy.