SPS: Completion of the 7 km tunnel

At precisely 10.32 a.m. on 31 July, the Robbins boring machine (the 'mole') reached the end of its 7 km circular journey, marking the completion of the piercing of the tunnel and of a major stage in the construction programme for the 400 GeV accelerator on CERN Laboratory II site. Some photographs show a group of VIPs and journalists present in the tunnel at the final breakthrough.