A giant boring machine will arrive in Ross tomorrow, Thursday, January 31st, ready to dig out a tunnel as part of the town's £7million Flood Alleviation Scheme. Engineers from Owen Williams are managing the project on behalf of Herefordshire Council, Edmund Nuttall are the contractors and Morgan Est are the tunnel contractors. Councillor Brian Wilcox, Herefordshire Council's cabinet member for highways and transportation, said: "Creating this tunnel will be one of the most exciting stages of the Flood Alleviation Scheme and will show people what a major feat of engineering the whole project is. "As part of making the community fully engaged during the works, we have invited schoolchildren to name the boring machine and create artwork for use around the site," he added. Ken Henderson from Morgan Est is bringing considerable expertise to the Ross-on-Wye project, having previously spent three years working on the prestigious Channel Tunnel. Mr Henderson will be in charge of digging out the 350-metre long tunnel, termed an inverted siphon, using the 60-tonne machine which has a two-metre diameter. The tunnel will be dug at a depth of 10 metres, starting from a rising shaft in the Homs Road car park and finishing at a falling shaft in King's Acre car park. Concrete segments will be slotted in to create the actual tunnel. Mr Henderson said: "Now the boring machine has arrived, we will be getting on with the task of digging out the tunnel. While nothing in comparison to the Channel Tunnel, with which I was involved, it is still a major feat of engineering and involves a lot of calculations to make sure it is right. "The topography of the site also means the tunnel cannot be built in a completely straight line but instead there have to be two shaped bends," he added. Earth from the tunnel will be used to create a 1.7 metre high earth bund to the east of the A40 and this bund will create a water storage area during times of high flow. Tunnelling work should be complete by April 2008. It is aimed to complete the whole scheme by July 2008.