Olympic infrastructure

Direct by Design

Olympic infrastructure

Shani Wallis, TunnelTalk

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Feb 2022

of China to transport athletes and visitors to the location of olitical posturing aside, the holding of the Winter the outdoor winter sports arenas some 174km northwest and Summer Olympic Games has been an of the indoor venues in Beijing, a high-speed journey on inspiration for host nations to invest significantly in the new dedicated railway and on sleek new high-speed support infrastructure and outstanding sporting venues. trains that takes about 47 minutes, travelling at up to Following on from the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics, 350km/hour.

China has again built some exceptional infrastructure for hosting the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. Sadly for Work on the railway and its Badaling underground Beijing, and similar for the postponed 2020 Summer station started in 2016 and opened to services on 30 Olympics in Tokyo last year, the Covid pandemic will December 2019, an astonishing marvel in itself. The severely restrict the many thousands, if not millions, of scale of the undertaking is equally impressive (Table visitors and athletes that would otherwise have travelled 1 and Fig 1 video). A technical tour of the completed to Beijing this month to enjoy the games and marvel at station would be a highlight for any underground the engineering infrastructure and stadia created for the construction engineer.

2022 Winter Olympics. Nevertheless, more than 3,000 athletes and an anticipated 11,000 international visitors are expected Table 1. Outstanding statistics of the Badaling tunnel and underground rail station to be at the Games, starting with Station scope the opening ceremony on Friday Excavation footprint Almost 40,000m2 (8 February), and Beijing is ready Length 470m to receive them.

Maximum depth 102m Operating levels Three - platforms, equipment level, entrances and exists Perhaps the most spectacular Underground network 78 caverns - 88 different cross sections of the new infrastructure - that most visitors will pass through Platforms Three closely spaced parallel caverns without being conscious of the Excavation method Sequential and full face drill+blast excavation achievement - is the new Badaling Excavation period 2,941m excavated in 372 days working from 8 access adits high-speed railway station and its Approach tunnels 12km of approach running tunnels 12km long passing twice under the Great Wall built directly under the Great Wall Video: Fig 1. Excavation sequences and construction support systems of the Badaling station project

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Underground infrastructure built to host previous Olympic Games

Lillehammer Winter Olympics 1994

Sydney Summer Olympics 2000

The Gjøvik Olympic Hall built for the ice rink events for the 1994 Winter Games in Norway is still the world’s largest underground cavern for public use. Designed to seat 5,500, the cavern is 91m long x 25m high and 61m wide with more than 141,000m3 of rock excavated to create the space within the mountain.

Tokyo Summer Olympics 2020-21

A 156m2, 13.5m wide x 11.5m high tunnel to accommodate the double-deck six-lane Eastern Distributor highway was one of the significant infrastructure projects completed in time for the Sydney Games in 2000. Another was the Northside interceptor sewer to ensure sparkling Sydney Harbour waters for the Games, a project that tested one of the first applications of the Alliance form of project procurement. A new underground rail link was also built to connect the city with Sydney’s Kingsford Smith international airport.

Four mega TBMs of more than 16m diameter worked on the Kan-etsu to Tomei underground section of the Tokyo Outer Ring Road as an Olympic investment project.

Preparations are also well in hand for hosting upc

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Los Angeles Summer Olympics 2028

Brisbane Summer Olympics 2032

When Los Angeles hosts the Summer Games in 2028, the first phase of the new Purple Line under the Wilshire Boulevard corridor will be in operation adding to the city’s extensive network of underground metro transportation beneath the traffic congestion on the surface. A planned underground extension under the Sepulveda Pass into the San Fernando Valley may also be ready for service by then.

It may seem a long way off, but 2032 is just around the corner in the procurement of large infrastructure projects and Brisbane has made a early start on new rail infrastructure in time of its Summer Olympics fixture, with current construction of the 10.2km long Cross River Rail project, 5.9km of which is in twin tunnels under the Brisbane River and the city centre to link four new underground stations.

Sochi Winter Olympics 2014

Vancouver Winter Olympics 2010

32.3km of tunnelling, using a variety of excavation methods, including TBMs, drill+blast and roadheaders, were required to create the new road and rail links to the snowfield venues above Sochi. Microtunnelling machines were also deployed to improve drainage outfalls under the Sochi seafront ahead of the Games.

London Summer Olympics 2012

The 19km long Canada Line, with 7.3km of cut-and-cover work, eight cut-and-cover stations and a 2.45km section of twin-bore tunnels directly under the city centre, was built to speed visitors in from the Vancouver international airport. The line opened in August 2009, almost four months ahead of the original schedule.

Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics 2016

6km of electricity cable tunnels, as part of an extensive network of cable tunnels under London, cleared the London Olympic Park area of high voltage pylons to start its development. CTRL, the underground section of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link was also on hand to transport visitors from the International Railway Station at St Pancras to the Park at Stratford, in northeast London.

coming Olympic Games

Drill+blast and TBM metro tunnels and new twin tube road tunnels are a legacy to the city of the Rio de Janeiro Games.

Paris Summer Olympics 2024

Milan Winter Olympics 2026

Milan is well into excavations for its Metro Line 4, a 15km long, fully-automated, driverless light rail system to run east-west beneath the city to easy surface road congestion and provide efficient mass transit during the Games.

With about 170km of new underground infrastructure in total, some sections of the Grand Paris Express are scheduled to be in operation to assist the city in its hosting of the 2024 Summer Olympic Games, creating one of the world’s largest metros.

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