A company that pioneered a way of building tunnels entirely with robots has gone into administration.
HyperTunnel developed the automated construction method at its research facility in the North Hampshire Downs where it unveiled the world’s first entirely robot-constructed underground structure in 2022.
It claimed to build tunnels more than 10 times faster and at half the cost of conventional techniques using a fleet of ‘hyperBot’ robots.
The system was adopted last year by contractor AmcoGiffen for work on rail tunnels and has received investment from Vinci.
But now HyperTunnel and its holding company are in the hands of administrators from Opus Business Advisory Group.
Latest results for HyperTunnel for the year to April 30 2023 reveal the company was £9.6m in debt and employed 40 staff.
