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 very busy week with a lot of achievements and milestones for the sector.
See our highlights below:
EGLINTON CROSSTOWN WEST TBM MAKES FINAL BREAKTHROUGH
One of two twin TBMs digging the western underground segment of Toronto’s Eglinton Crosstown West Extension has broken through the final wall.
The 750-tonne, 131m-long machine completed the journey at the Scarlett Road extraction shaft, where both TBMs will be disassembled and removed from the ground.
TBM Rexy has spent the past two years digging one of two 6.3km tunnels that stretches from Renforth Drive to Scarlett Road, where the future line will come to the surface and transition to an above ground section.
West End Connectors, a consortium of Aecon Group Inc., Dragados USA, Inc. and Ghella, was awarded the Advance Tunnel contract in 2021 and launched the two TBMs in 2022.
SYDNEY METRO WEST CELEBRATES ANOTHER BREAKTHROUGH
Further progress has been marked on Sydney Metro West, with two TBMs arriving at the Burwood North Metro Station site.
TBMs Beatrice and Daphne have each built 6.26km of tunnel, so far excavating a combined 1.2 million tonnes of spoil and installing around 44,100 tunnelling segments.
The 7m diameter double-shield, hard rock TBMs are more than halfway through the 11km journey to carve out a section of the alignment between The Bays and Sydney Olympic Park, via future station sites at Five Dock, Burwood North and North Strathfield.
It will take just over two weeks for the pair to traverse to the western end of the cavern where they will be relaunched to tunnel the 1.8km to the next stop at Metro’s North Strathfield station site. The 29m-deep Burwood North station box cavern is 25m wide and 194m long.
COWI WINS DESIGN CONTRACT FOR TRANSPENNINE UPGRADE
Network Rail has awarded a design contract to COWI for the W2BC project of the Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU) scheme.
The TRU is a major programme of railway improvements across the Pennines to improve connections between Manchester, Huddersfield, Leeds and York. The W2BC project covers the 29km between Stalybridge and Huddersfield.
Working collaboratively within a major delivery organisation, COWI will develop engineering solutions for the route with the objective of minimising impacts on adjacent communities, reducing construction duration and costs, all with sustainability and safety oversight.
COWI will be responsible for the tunnelling works for three Victorian era tunnels: Stalybridge tunnel, Scout tunnel and Standedge tunnel.
WORLD FACES TUNNELLING SKILLS VOID, WTC 2024 TOLD
The global tunnelling industry is facing an engineering skills shortage, delegates at WTC 2024 in Shenzhen were told.
Delivering the Muir Wood Lecture entitled “Underground resources for a sustainable global future”, Professor Priscilla P. Nelson, head of the Department of Mining Engineering at the Colorado School of Mines, said there was a lack of qualified professionals, particularly in the west.
“There is a generation of engineers coming to retirement who will never be replaced. We simply are not educating those who could take over,” she said.
UNITED UTILITIES SEEKS TECHNICAL ADVISER FOR HAWESWATER PROGRAMME
United Utilities has opened bids for a technical adviser for the Haweswater Aqueduct Resilience Programme (HARP) in Cumbria.
The scheme involves replacement of six tunnel sections – approximately 50km – of the 110km pipeline that carries drinking water from Haweswater in Cumbria to Greater Manchester. It also includes connections to existing multiline siphons between the tunnel sections and associated facilities.
The project will use a competitively appointed provider (CAP), which is currently being procured using Ofwat’s new direct procurement for customers (DPC) approach. Under the DPC, Ofwat requires the appointment of a consultant to protect customers in relation to the project.
The ￡50m technical adviser role will ensure objective, independent oversight of costs that may be passed on to customers and provide robust scrutiny and assessment of the CAP’s management of project costs and delivery.
ENBRIDGE CHOOSES CONTRACTORS FOR GREAT LAKES TUNNEL
North American energy company Enbridge has appointed a joint venture of Barnard Construction Company and CBNA (Civil & Building North America Inc.) to lead construction of the Great Lakes Tunnel in the Straits of Mackinac.
The Great Lakes Tunnel will be a utility corridor to connect Michigan’s peninsulas. It will carry the Line 5 pipeline light crude oil and natural gas liquids as it crosses under the lakebed at the Straits. Enbridge said the bored tunnel could also be used to house other utilities.
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“This agreement with Barnard and CBNA marks a milestone for this historic project. The selection of these two world-class companies reinforces our commitment to safely building the Great Lakes Tunnel,” said Tom Schwartz, senior vice-president liquids pipelines, Enbridge Strategic Projects and Partnerships.
TUNNELLING AND SHAFT EXCAVATION CONTINUE ON SNOWY 2.0
Snowy Hydro Limited has refuted reports that TBM Florence has become stuck again on the Snowy 2.0 pumped hydro project.
“TBM Florence remains fully operational and is now more than 800m into excavation of the Snowy 2.0 headrace tunnel at Tantangara. The TBM has operated successfully since its restart on 8 December 2023 and has moved through identified soft ground into hard rock,” the company said in its latest project update. The three TBMs working on the project have tunnelled a total of approximately 9km.`’
As provided in evidence at two recent Senate Estimates hearings, Snowy Hydro has been investigating options to de-risk the headrace tunnel construction by excavating from the other end. This work remains ongoing,” Snowy Hydro Limited said.
DUBLIN AIRPORT GRANTED PERMISSION FOR TUNNEL UNDER RUNWAY
Ireland's planning body, An Bord Pleanála, has granted permission for a €200M tunnel to be built beneath Dublin Airport.
An Bord Pleanála granted Dublin Airport operator daa permission to construct a 0.7 km long twin-cell enclosed tunnel underneath one of the runways. It will be joined to the surface by portals and ramps.
The tunnel is intended to allow airside vehicles to traverse the airport’s runway more efficiently and safely.
Despite objections from Ryanair and a local community group, An Bord Pleanála’s appeals board approved the development given that they felt it would “not give rise to any unacceptable impacts on the amenities of the surrounding area or on traffic safety and convenience during construction and operation”.
ITACET LUNCTIME LECTURE SERIES: MAY 2024
?? 14 May - 13:00 CET
This month's ITACET Foundation for Continuous Education and Training on Tunnelling and Underground Space Use lunchtime lecture will focus on ‘Logistics in long and deep tunnels’ in collaboration with the ITA-AITES Working Group 17
The lecture will consist of 3 presentations in total:
·?Logistical aspects of deep tunnelling - Magali Schivre
·?Logistical challenges and solutions of Gauduri tunnel in north-south corridor (Kvesheti-Kobi) road project in Georgia - Junpeng Wang
·?Logistical issues specific to the Brennero project - Antonio Voza
There will be a chance for a Q&A session at the end.
BTS MAY 2024 MEETING - SNOWDONIA VISUAL IMPACT PROVISION PROJECT OVERVIEW
?? Thursday 16th May 2024 at 18:15 hrs
?? Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) - One Great George Street, Westminster, London SW1P 3AA
This month's British Tunnelling Society meeting will focus on the Snowdonia Visual Impact Provision and Project Overview.
Speakers:
As part of its national Visual Impact Provision programme, National Grid are working towards removing some of the most visually impactful overhead lines in AONBs and National Parks.
Thanks for reading; we hope you enjoyed it.
Until next week.
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