More than 120 jobs have been created in Medway by Crossrail.

A new factory in Chatham Docks is producing 110,000 concrete segments to line the multi-billion pound project’s eastern tunnels.

The segments are transported from Chatham to the Limmo Peninsula, east London, by barge.

Crossrail will link Berkshire and Buckinghamshire via Greater London to Essex. It is due to open in 2018.

The Chatham facility is working round the clock manufacturing more than 300 concrete tunnel segments a day. Eight segments form a tunnel ring and the Chatham plant has so far produced more than 2,200 rings.

The segments line 8.3km of new tunnels forming the eastern section of the Crossrail route.

Two huge tunnel boring machines are burrowing their way from the Limmo site towards Farringdon in central London. The concrete segments line the tunnels.

Bill Tucker, Crossrail’s Central area director, said: “The Chatham factory is playing a crucial role in the delivery of Crossrail, supplying 110,000 segments to line the new tunnels being built in London.

“By creating new jobs for local people, the Chatham factory set up by our contractor Dragados Sisk Joint Venture (DSJV) is ensuring the economic benefits of Crossrail spread well beyond the capital.”

Crossrail and its contractors are working with job centres and Rochester-based Cheema to provide workers for the factory, including crane drivers, concrete finishers, and forklift drivers.

Brett Concrete, part of the Canterbury-based Brett Group, has supplied about 25,000 cubic metres of concrete to the Chatham plant, creating six jobs.

Medway Ports, part of the Peel Ports Group that owns Chatham Docks, is benefiting from some 340 barge movements.