Tunnels & Tunnelling Weekly
Tunnels and Tunnelling International
The official magazine of the British Tunnelling Society at Business Trade Media International
Welcome to this week's Tunnels and Tunnelling International newsletter.
A week full of interesting stories, achievements and milestones. See our highlights below:
HERRENKNECHT HANDS OVER SEVENTH TBM FOR BRENNER BASE TUNNEL
Herrenknecht AG presented the first of two double shield TBMs for Lot H53 Pfons-Brenner on the Brenner Base Tunnel. The consortium of PORR Group and Marti Group will deploy the 10.37m diameter TBMs to excavate 7.5m of the West Main tunnel towards Innsbruck. The €959m (US$1bn) Lot 53 is the largest construction lot in Austrian history.
The double shield machines were specified for the complex geology and long drives in hard rock. Each has a 10.37m diameter, is 183m long and weighs around 2,700 tonnes.
Transportation of the first TBM – named Wilma – from Herrenknecht AG’s Schwanau factory is expected to start at the end of March. The machine will then be reassembled in the assembly cavern.
Tunnelling is scheduled to commence in autumn this year.
FINAL HS2 TBM IN WEST MIDLANDS STARTS WORK
HS2 (High Speed Two) Ltd has launched the last TBM to bore tunnels for the new high-speed railway in the West Midlands.
The 125m-long TBM has started its journey to dig the second bore of HS2’s Bromford Tunnel, between the east portal at Water Orton in North Warwickshire and the west portal at Washwood Heath in Birmingham.
The 5.6km twin-bore tunnel will take high speed trains in and out of Birmingham, with a series of viaducts between Washwood Heath and Curzon Street Station taking trains to the city centre.
The majority of TBM Elizabeth, including the gantries and the centre part of the cutterhead, have been reused from TBM Dorothy after completing the 1.6km twin-bore Long Itchington Wood Tunnel in Warwickshire last year.
CHANNEL ISLANDS TUNNEL IDEA GAINS MOMENTUM
Guernsey and Jersey’s Chambers of Commerce last week hosted meetings to explore the viability and benefits of a tunnel between the Channel Islands and a link to France.
Arild Petter S?vik, network director at the Norwegian Tunnelling Society, and Teitur Samuelsen, CEO of Eystur- og Sandoyartunlar, the Faroe Islands government-owned tunnel corporation, addressed the meetings.
The Channel Islands group, Connect 3 Million, has been campaigning for the idea since 2019. The group says the concept is viable because other similar tunnelling projects have been successful. It cites the Faroe Islands, where 11km of sub-sea links have been built.
TBM IDA COMPLETES HER FIRST 2 KM ON BBT
New milestone for the Brenner Base Tunnel project at the H41 Sill Gorge-Pfons construction site as TBM Ida completes her first 2kms.
TBM Ida is moving southward, excavating the west line tunnel as part of the Austrian construction lot 'H41 Sill Gorge-Pfons'. Meanwhile, the Ahrental tubbing ring factory continues its production at full capacity.
Ida started out on 27 June 2023 and completed her first 2 km of excavated tunnel on Sunday 25 February, progressing at an average of about 12 metres per day. It will excavate, in total, for 8,4 km. At the same time, Ida is also installing the inner ring lining of the tunnel. Each ring consists of six concrete segments weighing a total of approximately 60 tonnes each.
CRCHI SLURRY PIPE JACKING MACHINE DELIVERED TO COLOMBIA
In February, CRCHI (China Railway Construction Heavy Industry) completed assembly of its slurry pipe jacking machine in Changsha, China, successfully passing the acceptance inspection.
This milestone marks the first export of a China-made pipe jacking machine to the Colombian market.
The machine's destination is Bogotá, where it will tackle a municipal sewage treatment project spanning approximately 2.1 kilometers. Crossing beneath the Bogotá River, the project encounters various strata.
The cover depth of the tunnel roof is about 7-11 meters.
IMPLENIA WINS NORTH BOTHNIA LINE TUNNEL CONTRACT
The Swedish Transport Authority has awarded Implenia the contract for planning and building the Ersmark tunnel in northern Sweden.
The project comprises a 1.6km-long tunnel between F?boberget and Ersmarksberget on the North Bothnia rail line, as well as a service tunnel, various concrete structures, water and wastewater systems and drainage mats.
Access roads and staging areas are also being built. Work will begin in May and will take about two years to complete.
RECORD-BREAKING TBMS RELAUNCHED IN SYDNEY
Two TBMs have been relaunched to build the next 11km section of Sydney Metro West.
TBMs Beatrice and Daphne were relaunched from Five Dock Metro Station site to build the new metro tunnels from The Bays to Sydney Olympic Park. Their next stop will be 2km away at the future Burwood North Metro Station site.
The two machines made tunnelling history in December last year when they arrived at Five Dock Station site minutes apart to achieve the first double TBM breakthrough in the southern hemisphere.
ROADHEADER BREAKS THROUGH FIRST METRO WEST SERVICE TUNNEL
The first service tunnel to connect Sydney’s 24km Metro West line to a new stabling and maintenance facility at Clyde has been completed.
A roadheader called Rhonda broke through a wall of rock to complete the 700m-long service tunnel after 12 months of excavation.
Trains will use the tunnel when departing the service facility that will be at the core of the new Metro West network. The tunnel will house operational and maintenance functions, including the operations control centre and infrastructure to maintain the new fleet of metro trains.
Roadheader Rhonda is working alongside roadheaders Charlotte and Ivory to build the service tunnels and junction caverns. So far, the machines have excavated a combined 200,000 tonnes of material.
BTS MARCH 2024 MEETING - HARDING PRIZE PRESENTATIONS
?? Thursday 21st March 2024 at 18:00 hrs
?? Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) - One Great George Street, Westminster, London SW1P 3AA
This month's British Tunnelling Society meeting will feature the annual Harding Prize presentations.
The Harding Prize competition is named in honour of Sir Harold Harding, the founding Chairman of the British Tunnelling Society.
The competition is open to young engineers aged 33 or under.
ITACET LUNCTIME LECTURE SERIES: MARCH 2023
?? March 12th - 13:00 CET
The next ITACET Foundation for Continuous Education and Training on Tunnelling and Underground Space Use lunchtime lecture will focus on 'Design and construction of conventional tunnelling in urban setting'.
The lecture will consist of 3 presentations in total:
? Challenges of tunnelling in urban areas - Nasri Munfah, Principal, Gall Zeidler Consultants
? Conventional tunnelling in urban areas - Vojtech Ernst Gall, Principal, Gall Zeidler Consultants
? The Gateway Program: Putting the pieces together for urban setting in New York, James Morrison, Chief Technical Officer, Gateway Development Commission (GDC)
Thanks for reading; we hope you enjoyed it.
Until next week.
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