TunnelTalk Annual Review 2018

TUNNELTALK ANNUAL REVIEW 2018

www.TunnelTalk.com

Annual Review

Direct by Design

2018

And early 2019

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Welcome to the digital edition of the TunnelTalk Annual Review for 2018 and into early 2019 Each of the articles has been published first on www.TunnelTalk.com, the leading online magazine for the global underground construction industry.

All the articles are hotlinked to the TunnelTalk online Archive allowing for direct, free access to the full coverage and a wealth of additional information.

All advertisements are also hotlinked directly to the advertiser’s website.

All featured videos are linked to the TunnelTalk YouTube channel.

Digital issues of the Annual Review are available for purchase, allowing you to build a historic reference of the international tunnelling industry.

Annual Review

2018 TunnelTalk.com

Article Archive

Weekly Alert

and early

2019

Previous Editions

elcome to the ninth edition of the TunnelTalk Annual Review, recording in print the main achievements, developments and activities of the underground engineering and construction industry throughout the year of 2018 and into early 2019. All articles were published initially on the TunnelTalk.com online magazine, which is your gateway to the international tunnelling and underground construction industry on the web.

The online magazine is written, researched and reported by professional journalists and video reporters. Contributed technical articles from industry engineers and professionals add to a wide, free-to-access Archive of industry-specific research and discussion. At the end of 2018, global readership of TunnelTalk.com comprised more than 100,000 readers/month with more than 5.5 million connections to articles during the year. Sign up to receive our free weekly Alert of current webmagazine reporting. Explore also the creative advertising opportunities with TunnelTalk.

All eight earlier volumes of the Annual Review are available to order in digital and printed formats via the web-magazine. Each edition builds a reference library of annual industry developments.

Copies of the Annual Review will be distributed from the TunnelTalk stand at the main tunnelling conferences and exhibitions during 2019.

We look forward to meeting friends, colleagues and new contacts at the programme of international conferences during the year.

GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE 6 A reactive 2018 leads to an unpredictable 2019 8 TunnelTalk video reporting

56 Funding secured for two-tunnel WaterFix in California 58 All done after tough drive in Atlanta 58 Agua Sur project receives first EPBM

MAJOR PROJECTS 11 Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao sea link 13 Japan: Hiroshima heavyweight for hard rock 14 UK: Tideway making strides under the Thames 16 Denmark-Germany: Germany approves Fehmarn fixed link 16 Finland: Renewed momentum for Helsinki-Tallinn fixed link 17 Norway: TBM boring complete for Follo Line 18 Norway: Considerations for next big rail link 19 Nepal: Proving TBM applicability in Himalayas 20 Bhutan: Bids sought for hydro scheme 21 Nepal: Urgent infrastructure needs 22 Australia: Mega TBM arrives in Melbourne 24 Austria-Italy: Brenner Baseline progress 24 Norway: Proposals called for Rogfast undersea highway

EUROPE 59 Italy: Milan metro sees TBM progress on Line 4 60 Germany: Cross city line for Munich S-Bahn 60 Germany: Rail progress in Stuttgart 61 France: Grand Paris Metro progress 61 France: Unexpected cavern encountered 62 UK: Woodsmith potash mine well into construction 63 UK: Silvertown highway tunnel approved for London 64 UK: Designers and contractors engaged for HS2 stations 64 UK: More money and time needed to complete Crossrail 66 Sweden: Award of further road and rail transport contracts 68 Austria: Final TBM breakthrough for KAT2 at Koralm 68 Albania: TBM breakthrough a first 69 Russia: Sevastopol Bay immersed tube plans 69 Russia: Twin bore at Biakal for Siberian Silk Road railway 70 Russia: Plans start for Sakhalin fixed link 70 Turkey: Istanbul Metro works 71 Poland: Lodz to host country’s first TBM railway tunnel 71 Czech Republic: Dual-mode TBM to modernise rail infrastructure

DISCUSSION FORUM 25 Two generations of tunnelling at Herrenknecht 27 In search of the ideal TBM specification 29 Characteristics of a successful/unsuccessful project 29 Review of insured risk codes of practice 30 TBM developments a main focus at NAT 32 Evacuating along elevated platforms 33 Dubai hub for international networking 34 Appeal overturn of original Glendoe collapse ruling 35 Rastatt a year after collapse 35 Political upheaval and Brexit 36 Industry Feedback: Letters to the Editor 45 Winners of the 2018 ITA Awards AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND 46 Tough year for Perth airport link 47 WestConnex final contracts awarded 48 Contractor selected for Auckland interceptor 49 Proposals called for Auckland rail link

ASIA 72 Malaysia: KVMRT Line 2 progress in Kuala Lumpur 74 China: Record breaking TBM performance at Jilin 74 China: Mega slurry TBM ready for river underpass 75 India: Progress on Mumbai Metro Line 3 76 India: Bangalore Metro moves ahead with Phase II 76 India: Double breakthrough after challenging drive in Lucknow 78 Singapore: Tight squeeze for sewer drives 78 Thailand: Challenging drives in Bangkok 78 Lao: Hydro work 79 Singapore: DTSS Phase 2 begins MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA 80 Algeria: Chinese TBM a first in Africa 80 Israel: TBMs complete Red Line of Tel Aviv Metro 81 Lesotho: Highlands Phase II preparations 82 United Arab Emirates: TBMs accepted for Dubai stormwater drives 82 Qatar: Chinese EPBM heads to Qatar 83 Egypt: Breakthroughs for Suez Canal underpasses

THE AMERICAS 50 Seattle underground highway opened 51 Hampton Roads undersea TBM drive awarded 52 BART to San Jose and second transbay crossing 52 Crossover TBM powers through in Akron 53 California High Speed Rail designs 54 Los Angeles effluent outfall bid result 54 Rebuilt machine for another drive in Chicago 55 Breakthrough at Cleveland clean up operation

INDUSTRY NEWS, HONOURS AND AWARDS 84 Technical Developments 97 Events and Tributes 100 Books and Reports

PUBLISHER & EXECUTIVE EDITOR

Direct by Design Copyright TunnelTalk 2018. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.

All views expressed in this journal are those of the respective contributors and are not necessarily the opinions of the publisher, neither do the publishers endorse any of the claims made in the articles or the advertisements. Printed by Buxton Press Ltd, UK. ©

Shani Wallis HEAD OF ADVERTISEMENT SALES

Binda Punj DESIGN & PRODUCTION MANAGER

Claire Hunt

VOLUME 9 Order extra copies of the 2010-2018 issues online

CONTRIBUTORS Patrick Reynolds Roland Herr Eugene Gerden Jaroslaw Adamowski PRODUCTION ASSISTANTS Julie Burchell Jane Jenkins

www.TunnelTalk.com ContactUs@TunnelTalk.com

FOLLO LINE, NORWAY

A THOUSAND TONNES OF INGENUITY Four Double Shield TBMs running in parallel, rock strengths of up to 268 MPa, and managing potential water pressures of up to 12 bar – Follo Line is undoubtedly a technical and logistical top-class project. Smart engineering, unshakeable willpower and mutual trust between all partners are necessary to make Norway’s biggest infrastructure project a success. herrenknecht.com/hardrock/

Contractors: Acciona Infraestructuras Ghella ANS

A NEW DIMENSION OF HARD ROCK TUNNELLING – THE FOLLO LINE PROJECT The Follo Line is currently the largest infrastructure project in Norway. Sensational centerpiece is a 20 km long twin-tube tunnel between Oslo and Ski. The new route will finally shorten the travel time by about half. For this mission, 4 Herrenknecht Double Shield TBMs bite through 268 MPa strong Norwegian rock. This TBM technology enables high advance rates by installing the concrete segments parallel to tunnelling. For the first time ever, 4 Herrenknecht Double Shield TBMs are simultaneously working in one project.

FOLLO LINE, NORWAY Client: Bane NOR Contractor: AG JV (Acciona-Ghella Joint Venture) Application: Railway Drive length TBM: 2 × 8,892 m, 2 × 9,125 m MACHINE DATA Machine type: 4 × Double Shield TBM Diameter: 9,900 mm Drive power: 4,550 kW GROUP PARTNERS INVOLVED

VMT

214

TECHNI-MÉTAL SYSTÈMES

HARD ROCK TBMS DELIVERED

BY HERRENKNECHT SINCE 2000 – ON TIME, IN TOP QUALITY AND WITH A SUCCESSFUL BREAKTHROUGH

ATTACKING HARD ROCK ATTACKING HARD ROCK THE SMART WAY THE SMART WAY To prevail in solid rock, rock, sheersheer force force and and To prevail in solid smartsmart solutions are needed.

Herrenknecht solutions are needed.

Herrenknecht combines TBM technology, services and and combines TBM technology, services logistical expertise to lead logistical expertise to hard lead rock hard rock projects to success. projects to success.

FAST & EFFICIENT FAST & EFFICIENT DRILLING SYSTEMS DRILLING SYSTEMS Powerful drilling rigs with Powerful drilling rigs bore with lengths bore lengths of up of to up 40 to m 40 daily and percussion m daily and percussion

REAL-TIME DIGITAL REAL-TIME DIGITAL COCKPIT TOOL: COCKPIT TOOL: DISC CUTTER ROTATION DISC CUTTER ROTATION MONITORING MONITORING

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PE R PE R DIS D I SC C CU T TE RCUT T ER

power of 30 of kW30 make for efficient probeprobe power kW make for efficient drilling and grouting to reduce water drilling and grouting to reduce water inflows.

With With these,these, required drills drills can can inflows. required be finished in up in to up 90 to minutes. be finished 90 minutes.

SUPER SUPER STRONG STRONG HEAD HEAD 265 tonnes of stiffest cutting wheelwheel 265 tonnes of stiffest cutting construction combined with Domite construction combined with Domite wear wear protection to persist underunder protection to persist roughest conditions. roughest conditions.

A reactive 2018 leads to Shani Wallis, TunnelTalk

Public inquiry into value for money

In Australia, a public inquiry into the impact of the WestConnex highway system in Sydney, aligned in more than 22km of twin-tube, three- and four-lane tunnels, investigated all aspects of the project including: • the business case: cost-benefits ratio • the cost and reasons for overruns • governance and structure of the project • compulsory purchase of property • the cost and whether it represented a good investment for NSW taxpayers.

In its report the committee questioned the transparency of the project and found deficiencies with the first business case, citing a failure to adequately consider alternate options at the start of the project.

The inquiry by the New South Wales (NSW) Parliament Legislative Council Public Accountability Committee criticised several aspects of the project but in its conclusions, it rejected calls from local

Image source: Wikipedia

GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

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egal actions and public reactions to major projects through 2018, ranging from public inquiries into project costs to questioning the motives of China in promoting its global One Belt One Road initiative, closed with Brexit turmoil in Europe, government shutdown and political standoffs in the United States, economic slowdown in China, sanctions continuing against Russia and Iran and stock markets around the world all down on fears of trade wars and uncertain futures all predicting a volatile 2019. The knock on effect will impact global infrastructure plans and investments and developments of underground projects.

One of several high profile court rulings in 2018 was a significant win by local traders and residents in Vancouver, Canada, against the disruption and loss of business caused by the open cut construction of the Canada Line LRT project link to Vancouver Airport in time for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. A large portion of the 19km route is aligned underground in TBM running tunnels and open cut underground stations in the heart of the city with a 7km long section along Cambie Street converted from the original bored tunnel plan to the less expensive cut-and-cover option.

Within days of the first train test runs in 2008, more than 100 business owners filed a class-action lawsuit claiming that the cutand-cover disruption cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost business. In 2016, the Supreme Court of British Columbia Province ruled that members of the class action could not sue for lost revenue but could instead sue for lost value of the property in which they ran their businesses.

In September 2018, a ruling found in favour of the first three claims and

they were awarded damages of a total of CAN$128,000, $44,560 and $7,600.

In his ruling, Justice Christopher Grauer wrote: “What made the construction intolerable... was the extended time over which access was restricted.” Project owner TransLink has been ordered to pay the damages and the ruling is seen as an important precedent for resolving the more than 100 remaining claims.

The ruling came as planning for the Broadway extension of the Vancouver LRT system was advancing with Mayor of Vancouver Gregor Robertson committing to supporting bored tunnelling for the underground reaches, saying, “as long as I am mayor with a council majority, we will not let cut-and-cover happen.”

One Belt One Road initiative

residents and opposition groups to stop the project. The report stated, “it remains clear that the project must proceed”, that the cost of stopping would be borne by the taxpayers of New South Wales and that the projected benefits of the project to the highway systems of the city of Sydney as a whole would otherwise be lost (p47).

Overturn of original ruling

In a surprise overrule, an appeal court overturned the original finding, for the contractor, in the case of the Glendoe hydro scheme TBM drive headrace tunnel collapse in Scotland (p34). Power utility Scottish and Southern Electricity won an appeal against the Hochtief-led JV to recover £107.6 million of repair costs and £1 million for business losses associated with the collapse in 2009. Hochtief had previously defended itself successfully at the Court of Session in Scotland but on appeal, at the same court, the power company won its case with a 2 to 1 majority of judges in favour of allowing its claim.

The hydro scheme had to be shut down for nearly three years while rectification works resulting from a defect that the owner successfully claimed existed prior to take over of the scheme were carried out. The turnkey contractor was said to be looking at options to dispute the appeal ruling.

Global infrastructure vision

The One Belt One Road initiative promoted

by President Xi Jinping of China is a grand plan to connect Asia, Africa and Europe, with a belt of overland railway corridors and a maritime network of shipping routes in what is known as the new Silk Roads for the 21st Century.

While many countries support the US$1 trillion initiative in principal, others fear development of neocolonialism, debt-trap diplomacy by China to extract strategic concessions from countries unable to pay back the infrastructure investment loans.

The initiative is supported by the Silk Road Fund and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and China is said to have invested more than $210 billion of the estimated US$1 trillion cost of projects in Asian countries, with Chinese firms and Chinese equipment engaging in their construction. At the bauma China construction equipment trade fair in Shanghai in November 2018, Chinese manufacturers were reporting the delivery of TBMs and other items of heavy construction equipment to Chinese contractors for One Belt One Road projects. These included TBMs to railway line projects in Malaysia, Indonesia and Bangladesh.

The power and influence of disrupters, including continued dabbling in the tunnelling industry by billionaire Elon Musk, might well be the lasting legacy of 2018.

As 2018 closed, and 2019 opened to reports of a downturn in the global

Members of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank in orange

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economy, there were concerns and fears for the future of several major international projects.

Notably in Malaysia, the newly elected Government under Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad cancelled investment in the design and planning of the KVMRT Line 3 Circle Line in Kuala Lumpur, put on hold progress towards construction of a long proposed and awaited high-speed railway line between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, and cancelled the previous government’s commitment to the East Coast Rail Line. It also threatened to terminate and retender the current underground section of the KVMRT Line 2 unless engaged contractor MMCGamuda could reduce costs. Negotiation of a 3.6 billion Ringgit (US$860,000) or 21.5% reduction to 13.11 billion Ringgit ($3.1 billion) on the original 16.71 billion Ringgit (US$3.99 billion) contract for the 11km of underground running tunnels and 11 underground stations resolved the situation but with finishing works for two underground stations postponed to an undecided future date (p72).

In the UK, with Brexit from the European Union scheduled for 29 March 2019, there was concern for, in particular, the estimated £27.18 billion Phase 1 (at 2015 prices) section of the HS2 high speed rail project from London to Birmingham. Of the 240km distance, more than 39km is aligned in twin tube TBM running tunnels with an underground terminus for the train services at Euston Station in London.

In mid-2017 early contractor involvement (ECI) agreements were signed with preferred bidders for each of the major underground and tunnelling contracts but, as acknowledged by industry leaders, these are far from confirmed construction contracts and could be cancelled by the project owner HS2 Ltd at any

References • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Tunnel contracting in the UK after Brexit vote – TunnelTalk, July 2017 UK votes to leave EU and face consequences – TunnelTalk, June 2016 Australia examines terrific regional workload – TunnelTalk, November 2017 Auckland calls for rail link proposals – TunnelTalk, October 2018 California high speed rail designs – TunnelTalk, April 2018 MWD fills funding shortfall for two-tunnel WaterFix – TunnelTalk, April 2018 Funding and single-bore secured for BART to San Jose – TunnelTalk, May 2018 ARC cancellation hits industry hard – TunnelTalk, November 2010 Canada Line on track to meet Olympic deadline – TunnelTalk, March 2007 WestConnex final link awarded – TunnelTalk, December 2018 Appeal overturn of original Glendoe collapse ruling – TunnelTalk, April 2018 bauma China 2018 report: China manufacturing on show – TunnelTalk, December 2018 Back from brink for KVMRT underground works – TunnelTalk, November 2018

www.TunnelTalk.com

time. National and international contractors including Skanska, Costain, Strabag, Buoygues, Volker Fitzpatrick, McAlpine, Eiffage, Kier, Balfour Beatty, and Vinci are all involved in the stage one of ECI agreements that lead to negotiations of contracts for a target price stage two period of detailed design and construction. The expectation is that the project has advanced too far for it to be cancelled (p64).

Another UK Government funded project in the balance is the Silvertown highway tunnel under the River Thames in London. The estimated £1 billion project was granted Government approval in May 2018 with two shortlisted bidders competing for the design, build, finance and maintain construction contract. The Cintra Global Ferrovial Group of Spain and a group led by Hochtief PPP Solutions of Germany are hoping this project too is beyond the point of cancellation (p63).

Across the world in Australia and New Zealand concerns for funding streams and for controlling any sign of escalating costs will be a focus for politicians and the taxpayers for major underground investment projects.

In New Zealand, continuation of the estimated NZD$3.4 billion Auckland City Rail Link project will require substantial political and ratepayers support. Programmed to open to public service in 2024, two shortlisted tenderers for construction of the stations and tunnels contract will submit bids in early February towards anticipated award of contract by end of March 2019.

The two bidders are: • Downer New Zealand, Vinci Construction, Soletanche Bachy, with engineers AECOM, Tonkin & Taylor, WSP Opus and • CPB Contractors, UGL (NZ), and engineers Beca, McMillen Jacobs and Jacobs New Zealand

Contract 3 follows on from substantial early works contracts that have been progressing since early 2016 (p49).

In the USA, there are four significant underground construction projects to monitor through 2019: the California highspeed rail link, the Bay Delta WaterFix in California (p56), the BART to San Jose light rail extension in Northern California (p52) and the Gateway rail tunnel under the Hudson River in New York. Each of the multi-billion dollar projects have had rollercoaster rides in progressing their engineering development, finalising funding agreements and securing public and political support.

Cancellation of the first railway project under the Hudson River, known then as Access to the Region’s Core, cost millions of dollars to terminate awarded contracts when cancelled in 2010. Revival of practically the same project, now as the Gateway project, will cost many billions more than the original US$8.7 billion project in 2009.

The BART to San Jose extension was first discussed in the early 2000s and the California WaterFix project continues to face opposition from farmers and water users in the Central Valley.

Discussions about the dedicated high speed rail service in California generally get a response that it will never happen.

This is despite the fact that construction has already started in the Central Valley sections - a reality that few know about or refuse to acknowledge (p53).

No matter where in the world, the future of infrastructure investments are the first to fall victim to economic slowdowns.

The reaction is to cut spending and follow a policy of austerity to weather financial crises. Cool heads are needed but seem to be in short supply among politicians and global leaders at the start of 2019. n

GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

an unpredictable 2019

Artist’s impression of new HS2 concourse at London Euston Station

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Video reporting

Industry Conferences and Events

Through 2018, TunnelTalk has reported from around the world, providing coverage of major conferences and projects, as well as interviewing key industry players. Read the articles in this copy of the TunnelTalk Annual Review and view the TunnelTalk video reporting on the TunnelTalk YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/user/TunnelTalkVideos/videos

Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Sea Link

Twin tube Follo Line TBM drives, Norway

T U N N E LTA L K 2 0 1 8 V I D E O R E P O R T I N G

Nine years after construction began, the mega project sea link that spans 55km and consists of three bridges, two artificial transition islands and a 6.7km long immersed tube opened in October 2018.

Lin Wei, Design Engineer for the project, speaks of the special features of the immersed tube element.

Highlights of the WTC 2018 World Tunnel Congress in Dubai.

The NAT conference in Washington DC presented diverse events, speakers and technical sessions.

Two sets of two TBMs raced side by side in parallel drives towards simultaneous breakthroughs in September 2018 and March 2019 for the 20km long Follo Line railway tunnel between Oslo and Ski in Norway.

Overview of the fifth edition of the biennial bauma CONEXPO INDIA trade fair.

California High Speed Rail project

The northern route which includes tunnel sections through the Pacheco Pass.

The southern section between Bakersfield and Burbank near Los Angeles.

The Women in Tunnelling Group (WIT) held a meetup in conjunction with the NAT Conference in Washington DC in June 2018 to celebrate confirmation of support by the UCA of SME and to network within the community of professional women in the international industry.

An overview of the project and plans for improved services for travellers.

Organisation of the project delivery authority and concepts for financing construction and operation.

Women in Tunnelling Group

The BTS Conference attracted delegates, speakers and exhibitors from across the globe.

Exploring the history of tunnelling at the London Transport Museum exhibition

Education and Training

Dr Priscilla Nelson has spent nearly 35 years in academia and in the service of educating the next generations of engineers. Hear of her experiences and thoughts for the future of the underground space development industry.

Industry Honours and Awards David Klug (left), Dr Harvey Parker (centre) and Dr Priscilla Nelson (right) are honoured in the 2018 UCA of SME industry awards.

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The British Tunnelling Society hosted recipients of the James Clark Medal Award, gathering some of the finest tunnelling engineers in the country.

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World Class Tunnel Fire protection

www.promat-tunnel.com

© Promat International NV / 2016-04

Promat are the world’s largest dedicated manufacturer of passive fire protection materials and global leaders in the Fire Protection of Tunnels, providing fire protection solutions to many of the world’s largest tunnel projects. Since the 1960’s Promat materials have protected more than 300 tunnels using PROMATECT® boards. More than 1.4 million m2 of tunnel linings have been protected using our spray applied systems.

Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao sea link

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fter seven years in construction, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao highway bridge and tunnel project across the Pearl River estuary was opened officially to the public on 23 October 2018 by President Xi Jinping of China. The 55km long sea link includes two man-made islands that transition the highway from long bridges on either side into a 6.7km long immersed tube tunnel running beneath vital shipping channels that accommodate up to 4,000 vessel passages per day.

In 2018, the immersed tube and man-made island elements of the project took top honours as Project of the Year at the 2018 ITA Tunnelling Awards of the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association (ITA), see page 45.

The immersed tube consists of 33 11.4m high x 37.95m wide x 180m long elements that connect to the bridges on the 100,000m2 man-made islands.

With soft soil of the seabed of a consistency to be easily penetrated, the method adopted for construction of the man-made islands was to use vibration piling to insert 120 steel cylinders of 16mm thick x 22m diameter x 50m high to about 30m deep into the impermeable layer of the soil. Auxiliary cells were then inserted to connect the adjacent cylinders creating a temporary impermeable wall from within which the seawater was pumped out. This allowed for sand filling and vertical drains to be installed inside the wall to achieve surcharge pre-compression by a large over consolidated ratio. Foundation consolidation and improvement took about 100 days.

With ground improvement meeting the requirements for building structures on the island, the need for separate pile foundations was eliminated. The cylinders were used also as a wall for construction of the 18m deep trench needed for the cut-and-cover transition ramps to the immersed tube tunnel.

Using this method, island formation was shortened to seven months from an estimated three years using traditional methods which would have required improvement or removal of up to 30m of soft soil from the bed of the estuary. This greatly reduced impact on the

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habitat and minimised extra construction traffic in the sea channels.

Tunnel foundation

The tunnel trench was excavated to a maximum of 45m below sea level, so the soil stress generated by all loads will not exceed the historical stress. The main settlements will be at, or close to, the surface, where settlement was a matter of great uncertainty.

To overcome this, an additional 2m thick layer of cobbles, compacted by vibration using a hydraulic hammer, was installed below the gravel bed to provide a hard base for the landing of the elements.

Sand compaction piles were applied to improve the soft soil layer and to increase the bearing capacity of the ground. Depending on the load level, sand compaction piling replacement ratios of 70%, 55% and 42% were used.

Settlement of the elements is controlled to between 50mm and 60mm. This was far less than the predicted settlement value of 150mm to 200mm.

Special-purpose equipment was developed for preparing the trench. A grab dredger was modified to have a plane dredging function to reduce disturbance and increase accuracy to control tolerances to within ±500mm for the trench bottom.

Another dredger cleaned sediment before the gravel bed was placed and a suction head removed local sediments from the gravel bed almost without disturbing it.

Semi-rigid immersed tube

The original design envisaged a segmented immersed tube structure with vertical concrete shear keys arranged at the joints with a spacing of 22.5m. The vertical shear keys however could be damaged by differential settlement and result in insufficient bearing capacity for the 21m thick cover of sediment over the tunnel.

A semi-rigid element structure in which the frictional force at the vertical face is mobilised to resist part of the shear force and strengthen the shear capacity of the joint solved the problem without the need for load reduction. The main change was keeping the temporary prestressing tendon in place permanently.

A rational amount of longitudinal prestressing tendons ensured adequate compression at the joints.

A certain amount of rotation is allowed between segments to adapt to longitudinal foundation settlement. The semi-rigid elements also decreased the likelihood of reflection cracking on the road surface and feature injectable waterstops.

Memory bearings

Another feature of the immersed tube is vertical locking by steel shear keys mounted after element immersion. To protect the shear keys and avoid cracking of the concrete, memory bearings were set between the vertical steel shear keys.

A memory bearing protects the structure from shear damage by releasing the differential settlement between elements and continually sustaining a constant force during its compression.

The memory bearing remembers the design capacity of the concerned structure and when that value is about to be exceeded, and the bearing will divert the excess part of the load to the foundation right down the structure, rather than to the foundation of the adjacent structure via the shear keys.

MAJOR PROJECTS

Members of the design-build China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) JV, including Lin Ming, Project Director; Lin Wei and Liu Xiaodong, Project Designers; and Yin Haiqing, Lu Yongchang, Liang Heng and Gao Jibin, Construction Managers, present highlights of the design and construction of what is now the longest immersed tube highway in the world

Closure joint

To complete the string of 33 elements, the final closure joint was inserted between elements E29 and E30, where the depth of the element invert is at -27.9m below sea level and exposed to waves and currents. No existing closure joint construction methods Route of the vital sea link highway

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MAJOR PROJECTS

Top from left: Bridge/tunnel transition on artificial islands; Steel cylinders vibrated into the soft seabed formed the islands.

Bottom from left: 33 tunnel elements of 11.4m high x 37.95m x 180m long create the six-lane immersed tube highway; Final closing joint lifted into place with a 12,000 tonne floating crane could reliably connect the adjacent tunnel elements, so a prefabricated deployable element of 9.6m long at the bottom and 12m long at the top was developed and inserted into position using a 12,000 tonne floating crane.

Once inserted, 54 hydraulic jacks in two retractable joints in the element extended the joint ends to make contact with the adjacent tunnel elements.

Installation of the closure joint took less than one day. By comparison, the panel method of completing an immersed tube tunnel would take approximately eight months of marine operations. As an advance on this closure method, the retractable joints could be built into the ends of the last two elements without leaving a gap for an insertion end joint.

Element casting and installation

The purpose-built element casting factory took 14 months to establish. Two elements were produced every two months on two production lines, with total element production taking 58 months.

For the first time ever, five curved elements with 5,500m plane curvature radii were launched as part of the casting operation.

Fitting out was undertaken in the shallow dock. The deep dock could accommodate four elements to prevent delays in element installation. The gate in the deep dock was a 60m wide 13,000 tonne gravity structure.

Floating out and sinking of the 33 elements and insertion of the final closure joint took 48 months. All 33 elements of typically 76,000

Left from top: Stainless steel anchor bolt; Forklift delivery to the working platform; The angled haunches help minimise gaps Right from top: Boards bolted into position; Minor control joint in the fire-resistant cladding system; Promaseal FyreStrip limits air leakage through the joint

tonne each were placed during 35 installation attempts with no major incidents.

The tunnel elements were towed within the dredged channel using twelve boats: four tugboats connected directly to the element and eight alongside to control the position of the element whenever large crosscurrents were encountered.

It was extremely challenging to monitor and coordinate in real time the 12 tugboats within the dredged channel. Practice exercises towing a barge of similar mass calibrated the newly developed navigation piloting system.

The current velocity at the trench bottom was sometimes greater than that at the surface. This led to an unanticipated transverse installation offset of approximately 100mm when installing element E10. The forecasting and alerting system was updated to add a window for the period of element connection with the current velocity at the trench bottom monitored and forecast.

Fire protection cladding

As part of the finishing works, a team of specialists from Promat, comprising personnel from Promat China and coordinated by Promat Asia Pacific Regional Tunnel Manager Rick Fox, worked on a structural fire protection system as one of its largest fire-resistant board construction projects.

When designing the fire resistance requirements, the designers evaluated traffic type and traffic volume. Based on this information and on local standards, the designers chose the RABT (Richtlinien fuer Ausstattung und Betrieb von Strassentunneln) curve, which simulates a fast rising, high temperature fire (Fig 1). To simulate a real fire, this fire curve heats to a maximum 1,200°C within five minutes, causing a massive thermal shock to the concrete of the infrastructure, and stays at 1,200°C for two hours. This is followed by a gradual cooling phase of 110 minutes. Failure criteria is reached when the interface temperature exceeds 380°C and/ or the rebar temperature at 25mm below the interface exceeds 250°C. After the official fire test, it was determined that 25mm thick Promatect-H, a non-combustible matrix engineered mineral

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the workface. Boards were lifted onto the platforms by forklift and automatic lifters lifted the boards into position for holes to be drilled and bolts inserted with a hammer and tightened using cordless screw guns to the required torque.

At times, there were up to 60 installing staff on site, often achieving 3m2 per person per hour, with a total board installation of up to 7,500m2 per week.

Fig 1. Chinese application of the German RABT fire curve

Expansion joints

Expansion strips were located at 180m intervals at every segment joint. Designed

by Promat and CCCC, the joint system comprised of 25mm Promatect-H with steel frames and a 25mm ceramic fibre tested by CCCC in the fire test lab of Central South University. The test specimen simulated the designed structure of the element joint for 50mm ceramic fibre used on the project. The maximum temperature limit for water-tight rubber is 150°C. Minor expansion joints were used within the segments themselves at 22.5m centres. These 10mm joints were filled with Promaseal-A acrylic sealant, a flexible fire-resistant sealant and Promaseal FyreStrip was used behind the Promatect-H to supplement the fire resistance of the joint as well as limit air leakage through the joint.

Ultimately, approximately 290,000m2 of Promatect-H and 8,000 tubes of 600ml Promaseal-A acrylic sealant were used in the undersea highway immersed tube tunnel with a substantial amount of Promaseal FyreStrip used to seal various movement joints within the concrete.

Construction of the Hong Kong-ZhuhaiMacao sea link highway is an achievement of modern-day engineering and of inventing solutions to engineering and logistical challenges. Construction of the immersed tube and its transition islands to the landfall bridges either side was completed in December 2017 after overcoming all challenges, including hazardous weather conditions and withstanding the frontal assault of a super strong typhoon. n

References

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Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao sea link project begins – TunnelTalk, June 2011

Hiroshima heavyweight for hard rock in Japan

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Robbins mega-sized slurry machine, measuring 13.7m (44.8ft) in diameter, made its first cut into hard rock in Japan.

The massive machine is the country’s first foreign-made large diameter slurry TBM to excavate hard rock in Japan. The machine is expected to encounter granite with rock strengths up to 130 MPa (19,000 psi) UCS. The epic launch in September 2018, at an urban jobsite was made possible

by Onsite First Time Assembly (OFTA) of the TBM in Japan for the Hiroshima Expressway Line 5 project.

Due to the project location there were also restrictions on delivering the TBM. In order to meet controlled transportation limits within the city, the TBM had to be divided into small transportable weights

and sizes, then assembled in a small jobsite measuring just 30m (100ft) wide x 60m (200ft) long. The 2,400 metric tonne (2,650 US tonne) machine will bore 1.4km (0.9 miles) of the 1.8km (1.1 mile) long tunnel that, once completed, will significantly improve traffic conditions in Hiroshima.

Those involved in the project are excited to see what effect the use of this machine will have on how slurry TBMs are used in the future. “The development of this TBM is a milestone,” said Kiyomi Sasaki, General Manager of Robbins Japan. “It will lead to new tunnel applications worldwide.”

In preparation for the conditions, the machine was designed for 20-bar water pressure. The robust cutterhead was fitted with 20-inch and 17-inch diameter pressure compensating cutters, which

Desiree Willis, Technical Writer, The Robbins Company

MAJOR PROJECTS

board, reinforced with selected fibres and fillers, was required to be fixed directly to concrete surfaces in accordance with the design and regulatory specifications. The board was fixed directly to concrete linings using anchor bolts made of 316 grade anticorrosive stainless steel. The model fire test was then repeated to show consistency of the result when using the Promat method of installation.

It was imperative that the fixings were tested for pull-out strength given the dynamics of the tunnel environment with positive and negative pressures constantly in force. During installation, the pull-out force tests for fixings were carried out by a supervision engineer, with a test ratio of about 0.1% of the total volume of fixings.

Promat started supplying material in March 2016. Final shipments for the thermal linings were complete in late 2017. It was critical that the factory kept up production of the Promatect-H boards with the Promat factory in Australia also required to produce and deliver Promaseal FyreStrip in time for installation.

Board installation commenced in early April 2016 with the product shipped by truck from the Promatect-H manufacturer factory of Eternit in Guangzhou to the Zhuhai port facility where it was unloaded onto a barge for the 20km sea journey to the west island.

Crews of installers of the Shenzhen Baoying Construction Group worked on six elevated working platforms to get to

utilise a patented design to effectively operate under high pressure.

The new Expressway Line 5 tunnel will connect Hiroshima’s urban area with a major national highway network and is expected to improve access to Hiroshima Airport. Tunnel completion is planned for 2020. n

References

• • • •

Twin Crossover TBMs prepare for Mumbai Metro drives – TunnelTalk, July 2018 Rebuilt main beam for water diversion in Chicago – TunnelTalk, March 2018 Mixed ground TBM ready for Mumbai Metro – TunnelTalk, September 2017 Robbins TBM equipped for high pressure water control – TunnelTalk, August 2017

From left: Robbins crews assisted the contractor during Onsite First Time Assembly; The machine launched within deadline; Guerin Nolasco of Robbins Field Service at testing of the segment erector

www.TunnelTalk.com

TunnelTalk ANNUAL REVIEW 2018

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Tideway making strides under the Thames

MAJOR PROJECTS

W

ork on the £4.2 billion Tideway CSO super sewer project under the River Thames in London is well into construction from 24 separate operating sites along its 25km long course. In addition, the first of many excavation headings celebrated its completion.

At Hammersmith on the West Contract for the BMB JV of Balfour Beatty, Morgan Sindall and BAM Nuttall, a 300m long connection tunnel between the Hammersmith pumping station and the middle of the River was completed in February 2019. The Hammersmith pumping station currently spills about a million tonne of untreated sewage into the Thames each year, making it one of the most polluting along the River to be diverted into the new super sewer tunnel.

Sequential sprayed concrete lining (SCL) excavation of the tunnel through London Clay started in August 2018, with a 5.1m diameter for the first 50m and narrowed to 4m diameter for its eventual connection to the main Tideway tunnel beneath the middle of the river.

The sprayed concrete lining at Hammersmith is also the first time a waterproof sprayed concrete has been used in the UK. This reduced the time spent on the

job, as no waterproof membrane is required between the primary and secondary linings.

Meanwhile, construction from 24 sites across London is in full swing. Four TBMs - two each from NFM and Herrenknecht - are to excavate the main super sewer tunnel under the Thames from Acton in the west, to Kirtling Street in the centre, and on to the Abbey Mills pumping station in the east (Fig 1). Once into excavation, the large majority of the spoil from the advancing TBMs will be removed from site by barges on the river, keeping haulage truck traffic off the local city streets.

The first TBM to launch on the project was one of the two 8.84m diameter NFM EPBMs to work from the Kirtling Street access shaft in Battersea for the FLO Ferrovial-Laing O’Rourke JV for the 12.7km Central Contract. The first TBM made an umbilical launch in late November to excavate the 5km drive to the west from the 30m diameter Kirtling Street access shaft to the Carnwath Road Riverside site shaft in Fulham. The second 8.84m diameter NFM EPBM will excavate 7.7km from Kirtling Street east to Chambers Wharf.

At the Carnwath Road site in Fulham in February 2019, an 8m diameter Herrenknecht EPBM was lowered down

Fig 1. Main route and connection tunnels

Below from left: Hammersmith SCL construction team; Stockpile at the Ridham factory Bottom from left: NFM TBM lowered into the Carnwath Road shaft in Fulham; Herrenknecht slurry TBM heading to London for the Greenwich connection tunnel

TunnelTalk reporting the 35m deep access shaft to progress westward to Acton storm tanks. It will be operated by the BMB - Balfour BeattyMorgan Sindall-BAM Nuttall JV to excavate the 7km drive for the West Contract.

On the East Contract, the Costain-VinciBachy JV will operate an 8.8m diameter Herrenknecht slurry TBM to complete the 5.5km East Contract drive from the Chambers Wharf shaft at Bermondsey to the Abbey Mills pumping station.

The JV has also launched a 6.4m diameter Herrenknecht slurry machine to excavate the 4.5km x 5.6 m i.d. Greenwich connection tunnel to link much of southeast London to the main super sewer tunnel (Fig 1). Following factory acceptance at the Herrenknecht factory, the machine arrived and started tunnelling in early 2019.

On the West Contract, in addition to the Hammersmith SCL connection tunnel, another smaller diameter refurbished Lovat EPBM will be operated by the Balfour Beatty-Morgan Sindall-BAM Nuttall JV to excavate the 1.1km long x 2.6m i.d. Frogmore connection tunnel at Wandsworth (Fig 1).

Segment production for each contract is also underway. Segments for the 6.5m i.d. West Tunnel are being produced at the Morgan Sindall precast factory at Ridham Dock in Kent. Dramix 4D8060BG steel fibre from Bekaert Maccaferri is in the concrete mix for the reinforced segmental lining. The factory at Ridham also produced 4,000 tunnel rings for the 7.8m diameter Lee Tunnel project in London, and 3,300 rings of 5.5m diameter for the Northern Line Extension in Battersea.

For Tideway Central, FLO has engaged Pacadar of Madrid, Spain, to cast the 7.2m i.d. lining at a facility at Thamesport Kent on the Isle of Grain. The plant is equipped with 45 moulds supplied by cbe of France to cast the seven segments plus a key in each 350mm thick x 1.8m long x 8.5m o.d. x 7.8m i.d. ring of lining.

Segments for the 7.2m i.d. lining rings for the East Contract are being manufactured by Tarmac and Max Bögl at a precast factory at Tallington near Stamford in Lincolnshire.

The super sewer tunnel is scheduled to take seven years to build and will intercept 34 combined sewer over flows, and connect existing sewer lines to the new tunnel via transfer adits. Flow will be delivered to the Beckton sewage treatment works passing through the completed 6.4km long x 7m i.d. Lee Tunnel between Abbey Mills and Beckton (Fig 1).

The new super sewer infrastructure is being financed and built by Bazalgette Tunnel Limited (BTL), a consortium of investors comprising Allianz, Amber Infrastructure, Dalmore Capital and DIF, which will also maintain and operate the facility once completed. BTL started the project in November 2015 and is expected to bring the facility into operation in 2024. n

References

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•

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TunnelTalk ANNUAL REVIEW 2018

Connection construction underway for Tideway – TunnelTalk, September 2017 Funding secured for 25km London super sewer – TunnelTalk, July 2015

www.TunnelTalk.com

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Beneath the heart of central London and following the route of the River Thames, London’s complex new super sewer — the Thames Tideway Tunnel — will dramatically reduce river pollution, meaning cleaner water and better protection for marine wildlife.

At AECOM, our growing team of tunnelling experts is cutting through complexity to make imagination a reality. Join us. smarturl.it/tunnel_ jobs

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Germany approves Fehmarn fixed link Patrick Reynolds for TunnelTalk

MAJOR PROJECTS

A

fter many years in negotiation and study, German authorities signed environmental approval for construction of the 17.6km long highway and rail undersea connection with Denmark. At the end of December 2018, the Ministry of Transport in SchleswigHolstein, the landing state for the fixed link in Germany, announced that approval for the Fehmarnbelt tunnel was ready to be signed. A finalisation procedure then gave Femern A/S the opportunity to suggest amendments to the factual content. The process was completed in time for the signed approval to be handed to Femern A/S in the city of Kiel on 6 February 2019.

The long-awaited approval is seen as the last major milestone in preparations to build the link although German authorities are anticipating an appeal against the decision in the Federal Administrative Court of Leipzig. Project owner, Femern A/S, and the company’s German advisors, confirm that they are prepared to assist the German approval authority in Kiel should such a court proceeding take place. It is also keeping valid its contingency plan for start of construction, by contractors already selected, in 2020.

“This is a very important step for us as we work towards completing the Fehmarnbelt tunnel, and it shows that the project is now a priority also in SchleswigHolstein,” said Claus Baunkjær, CEO of Femern A/S. The German approval relates exclusively to the construction work on the German side. Activities on the Danish side are regulated by the Danish Construction Act for the Fehmarnbelt project, which received majority approval in the Danish Parliament in January 2011.

In a briefing by Jens Villemoes, media spokesman for the developer, told TunnelTalk that Femern A/S aims to use the next few months to investigate the German environmental approval in depth to help produce updated options to further improve its readiness to execute the huge project. Among the points of review are possibilities for accessing funds approved by the EU (European Union) and examining if some early starts could be possible for particular main works.

Denmark has been leading development of the project between the coastal towns of Rødbyhavn and Puttgarden and construction of the drydock for casting the 89 concrete immersed tube elements will be in Denmark at Rødbyhavn.

Villemoes told TunnelTalk that the current review involves the developer’s legal, environmental and technical advisors “to assess possible impact on the project finances and schedule. We expect to present a plan for our owners during Spring 2019.”

The detailed review also involves the contractors who have been signed up since 2016 to undertake the construction contracts. The tunnel, portal and ramps contract is held by the Vinci-led consortium and that for dredging and reclamation work is with a Boskalis-led group. To prepare for main construction works, Femern A/S recently completed agreements with the contractors for extensions to the validity periods of the contracts, taking them up to the end of 2020.

“As a result of the detailed review and update, any additional costs are expected to be contained within the existing construction budget,” said Villemoes. “While some changes might be minor, such as possibly related to environmental compensation and noise level protections, the effects on costs have to be calculated and provided for.”

Early works in Denmark could include setup of the tunnel element factory and construction of the work-harbour. Only when the updated scenarios are presented will Femern A/S decide what, if any, of the possible early construction starts to pursue.

Currently, small preparatory works are underway in the portal region in Denmark, including utility, road and drainage works, archaeological studies, and relocating of a lake on the tunnel alignment. Inland, the road and rail authorities are also improving networks for connecting to the undersea link.

With Fehmarn as a strategic transport link for Europe under the TEN-T programme, the EU has remained supportive of the huge project.

The estimated DKR 52.6 billion (€5.5 billion, US$8 billion) project, being promoted and funded substantially by Denmark, is expected to be completed by the revised target date of 2028. n

References • •

Fehmarn Link mega-project contract awards – TunnelTalk, March 2016 Innovations for the Fehmarnbelt tunnel option – TunnelTalk, May 2010

Renewed momentum for Helsinki-Tallinn fixed link TunnelTalk reporting

T

he reality of the 100km under sea link between the capital city of Finland, Helsinki, and the Estonian capital

Fig 1. Major elements of the FinEst fixed link vision

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TunnelTalk ANNUAL REVIEW 2018

city Tallinn across the Baltic Sea has been taken up by the FinEst consortium founded

by Finnish business entrepreneur Peter Vesterbacka. The link is recognized by the European Union in its TEN-T rail network interconnectivity programme as part of the Baltic Rail Corridor connecting Scandinavia with the main core of Europe.

The FinEst project is independent of the fixed link options being developed by the Governments of Finland and Estonia and is a private initiative based on a public-private partnership concessionaire model. A feasibility study by FinEst suggests that its planned high speed rail link could be constructed over 15 years at a cost of €16 billion.

Members in the FinEst promoting group include consulting engineers Pöyry, Fira, AINS Civil Engineering and the FinEst

Bay Area Development corporation.

While an immersed tube concept is expected to provide the central 100km long undersea link, the project includes a wide range of infrastructure engineering to create a proposed man-made island off the coast of Finland and four new stations at Tallinn airport, on the artificial Island, at OtaKeila and at the Helsinki-Vantaa Airport (Fig 1).

The vision is to create a new metropolitan hub of two million people at the heart of the Baltic Sea area, connecting the leading technology and business hubs of Finland and Estonia. n

References

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European connectivity masterplans – TunnelTalk, April 2015 Links across the waters – TunnelTalk, January 2010

www.TunnelTalk.com

TBM boring complete for Follo Line in Norway

www.TunnelTalk.com

anticipated through the harder rock in the north drives,” said Anne Kathrine Kalager, Tunnel Production Manager on behalf of Bane Nor, “but we were prepared for that very hard rock of up to 300MPa and the TBMs have been tailor made for these tough conditions. We gathered all the knowledge and experience we have of hard rock TBM tunnelling in Norway to work with our contractor and prepare these four ladies for their tasks.”

Experiences of tough TBM jobs in the 1980s and 1990s, particularly for hydro schemes in Norway, had resulted in an emergent preference during the early 2000s for drill+blast excavation.

The decision to adopt TBM boring with a one-pass precast segmental lining for the Follo Line marked a return of TBM tunnelling to Norway and has brought with it many advantages.

“Had we selected drill+blast excavation, on the single tube double track configuration, as is standard for drill+blast railway tunnels in Norway, we would have had to progress excavation from both portals and in both directions from seven intermediate adits to complete excavation in the same time as employing four TBMs,” explained Kalager. “The

Shani Wallis, TunnelTalk double shield method had the advantage also of erecting the precast segmental lining simultaneously with rock excavation and the machines worked in the double shield mode – gripping and thrusting off the tunnel walls rather than pushing off the segments – for all of their progress.”

In preparing for the hard rock conditions, Bane Nor worked with the original tender submission by the contractor to increase the robustness and stiffness of the 10m diameter TBM cuttterheads, increase the capabilities and design life of their main bearings and develop cutters and extra wear plating on the cutterheads and shield bodies to counteract the abrasivity and hardness of the gneiss rocks. The machines were also equipped with the facilities to manage high volume water ingress through potential fractures and joints in the massive rock formations.

Discussions with the contractor and with Herrenknecht, the manufacturer of the four TBMs, were that these additions to the tender design of the TBMs were necessary – and they were. The features on the four strong, powerful, and well equipped TBMs completed their drives with no unexpected stops. “The success of the machines is

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F

inal breakthrough of the last two of four 9.9m diameter double shield TBMs employed on the Follo Line railway project in Norway finalised a total 37km of hard rock tunnel boring within 30 months.

From start in September and October 2016, the first two machines completed a double TBM breakthrough at the north Oslo end of the alignment in September 2018.

Following launch of the second two TBMs in November and December 2016, the final double-TBM breakthrough, into the transition portal at the surface approach to the central station of the city of Ski in the south, was achieved in February 2019. The breakthroughs leave behind 18.5km of twin tube, fully permanently lined infrastructure, ready for mechanical and electrical fit-out.

The breakthroughs celebrate the dedicated work of the tunnelling crews and management of the Spanish/Italian Acciona/Ghella Joint Venture, and reward the efforts invested by the Bane Nor Norwegian national railway authority in a successful hard rock TBM project.

The drives to the south broke through according to schedule and the two TBMs heading north completed their drives much earlier than expected. “This could have been because slower rates were

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a good example of having a competent team on both sides – the client and the contractor,” said Kalager.

Approximately 4,250 cutter changes were needed on each machine as the 20 x 19in disc cutters on each cutterhead excavated the hard, abrasive granite at pressures of up to 32 tonne each.

“I have never had to deal with such hard rock before,” said Francesco Giampietro, TBM Manager for the JV. The best progress of the TBMs under these extreme conditions was 19 rings or about 34m/day.

The potential high volume water ingress was an anticipated aspect of the project and the four machines are equipped with drilling rigs for systematic probing and pre-excavation grouting.

Every morning, a 45m probe hole warned of water ingress ahead and triggered cycles of pre-excavation grouting.

“We did not need to stop the water completely,” said Kalager. “Our precast gasketed and backfilled lining provides a water tight finish, but we needed to manage potential settlement on the surface while boring under urban areas.

To backfill the annulus, the Acciona/ Ghella JV used a two component grout mortar, rather than pea gravel and mortar, and pumped the two component materials from the surface through long feeder lines to reservoirs on the TBM backups. Grout with the accelerator B component was injected through the tail

seal as well as through the segments to ensure adequate lining backfill to keep pace with the double-shield mode excavation rates.

The four TBMs progressed in opposite directions from a central job site and access point. All the material from the excavation process was contained at the site, with suitable rock being reprocessed through the on-site crushing plant to be used in the on-site segment casting yard.

The remainder has been stockpiled to be used to prepare the foundation of a new urban development on the site once the project is completed.

With breakthrough of the final two TBMs, the Acciona/Ghella JV moved on to electrical and mechanical installations of the railway, which are also part of its contract.

At the peak, 1,000 persons went through the gates of the large access and construction site, including to the on-site segment casting factory.

“Thanks to the strong emphasis on quality, safety, innovation and expertise, we have delivered a world class result,” said Fernando Vara, Director of the Acciona/ Ghella JV. “We faced some challenging ground conditions, but have been able to deal with it and we are pleased to manage such a huge and demanding TBM project.”

Having completed their work successfully, the four TBMs were dismantled and shipped back to the Herrenknecht factory in Germany.

“The tunnel being celebrated is by far the largest part of the Follo Line Project,” said David Borenstein, Director of the Follo Line Project for Bane Nor. “Some sections did present challenges, but TBM excavation is executed on schedule. We are pleased with the work and with the cooperation we have had and will continue to have with the Acciona/Ghella JV.” For Bane Nor, the new high-speed underground railway will reduce by 50% the travel time between Oslo and Ski from 22 to 11 minutes. All civil works on the project, including drill+blast excavation contract to take the underground line through the Ekeberg Hill and into underground platforms at the Oslo central station, are to be finalised by Spring 2021 and the new Oslo-Ski rail link ready for service in 2022.

For the tunnelling industry of Norway, other projects are being investigated and developed to apply the advantages of mechanical excavation using TBMs designed and equipped to be fit-forpurpose in the hard rocks that are the foundation of the mountainous Nordic country. n

References • • • •

First simultaneous breakthrough for Follo Line – TunnelTalk, September 2018 Ulriken TBM breakthrough inspires in Norway – TunnelTalk, January 2018 TBM tunnelling begins on Norway’s Follo Line – TunnelTalk, September 2016 Pre-excavation grouting – a Nordic focus – TunnelTalk, June 2017

Norway considerations for next big rail link Patrick Reynolds for TunnelTalk

D

espite TBMs success on the Follo Line and Ulriken rail tunnel projects, the rail authority of Norway is debating drill+blast for its next scheme.

After weighing the geological risk, drill+blast is being considered as more appropriate for the Ringeriksbanen rail tunnel and the E16 road tunnel scheme, located to the west of the capital city Oslo.

As a drill+blast operation, the Ringeriksbanen rail tunnel for Bane Nor would consist of parallel 23km tubes, one large 123m2 profile for the double track railway and a 60m2 escape and service tunnel.

The E16 road tunnels for the national roads authority Statens Vegvesen (NPRA) are 3.2km twin tubes running beside a double-track stretch of railway tunnel.

Given the three tunnel layout, and the geological and hydrogeological risks, and after studying the TBM experiences of the Hallandsås rail tunnel in Sweden, the Storebelt undersea rail project in Denmark, the HATS2A sewer tunnels in Hong Kong, and the Uma Oya multipurpose scheme in Sri Lanka, it is being considered that numerous zones of weak rock plus high hydraulic heads on the new project exceeds current capabilities of gasket seals for segmentally lined TBM tunnels such as applied on the Follo Line.

The core choice between the tunnelling methods is fundamentally linked to groundwater control and the flexibility, adaptability and associated logistics required of extensive drilling and grouting, which adds more risk to the construction schedule.

With advance of the project now on hold, the drill+blast or TBM+segmental lining debate can continue. n

References

• •

Mechanised breakthrough inspires Norway – TunnelTalk, January 2018 Ryfast mega-project breakthroughs – TunnelTalk, October 2016

Below: Rail, road triple tubes at Vik, north of Ringeriksbanen; Right: Fig 1. Ringeriksbanen rail tunnel south end

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www.TunnelTalk.com

Assembly of the first TBM ever to operate in Nepal

Shani Wallis, TunnelTalk

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www.TunnelTalk.com

Nepal proving TBM applicability in Himalayas the tunnelling works and the segment casting factory and among the 45 Chinese engineers in technical and management roles, Foreman Jin Haikuan speaks fluent Italian, having worked for five years with Italian contractor Impregilo on the Kárahnjúkar hydro scheme in Iceland from 2004 to 2009. While there he learned his TBM operation and maintenance skills on the three Robbins machines used to complete the project’s 60km of exacting hard rock TBM excavation.

At Bheri Babai, Jin is TBM Manager and is constantly at his office console at the tunnel portal that relays TBM operating parameters and cctv monitoring cameras to screens. Jin and his team run also an efficient cutter and tool maintenance and repair workshop on site.

To begin with, there was caution as the TBM made its first meters into the mountain.

The ridge dividing the rivers rises to more than 820m above the TBM alignment and while the start of the slight up gradient TBM drive was in sedimentary sandstone, the caution was for an identified thrust zone of up to 400m wide at 5.6km into the drive.

To cope with anticipated ground conditions, the double shield TBM has a gauge cutter diameter of 5.06m and a shield taper from 4.99m at the front to 4.91m at the back, providing an annulus around the hexagonal segmental lining of 7-13cm. It has six VFD drive motors for an installed power of 3,027kW and a maximum trust of 20,826kNm. The cutterhead is fitted with 33 x 17in cutters and has a rotation of up to 11.4 rev/min. Maximum torque on the cutterhead is 3,475kNm. The segmental lining, with rebar cages also fabricated on site, has two design types – first a lightly reinforced, non-bolted design for reaches through good rock, and a bolted design with additional reinforcing rebar and two bolts, one on each angled edge of the hexagonal segments for four bolt pockets per segment, to line the water tunnel through anticipated reaches of unstable and faulted conditions.

When excavation started, the first 1,000m was completed in 1.7 months; the second 1,000m in 1.8 months, and across the first eight months, 5.4km had been completed.

“Not only we, but most observers of this project were waiting for our TBM to get stuck or for

progress to slow dramatically,” said Hu, “but it did not. The geology remained favourable in good quality sandstone and mudstone, not very hard and not very abrasive, and we began recording advance rates of more than 800m per month - more than double the anticipated rates at the beginning.”

The TBM crews - working 2 x 12hr shifts/day, 7 days/week, with one day off at shift pattern change every two weeks - had advanced well through the learning curve. In November 2018, when TunnelTalk visited the project, Hu explained that: • there had been only six sets of the 33 x 17in cutters changed across more than 9km of tunnelling • that there had been no major encounters of progress-slowing ground conditions, • and that the excavation - with the machine operating in its double-shield mode of simultaneous excavation and segment ring building - had settled into a routine rhythm.

Muck hauling and segment supply trains of 9 x 10m3 rota-dumping skips and two segment cars worked on a two-ring, or two 1.4m long TBM stroke cycle with one California switch installed at the 6km mark and with another on the backup.

These rates called for a change in the segment lining sequencing. Of the lining designs, 94% of the production was for the non-bolted, lighter reinforcement design for good rock conditions, and 6% for the heavier bolted design. As it happened, more of the lighter design was required, but with none available, the stock-pile of heavier bolted design segments had to be used in reaches of good ground, minus inserting the bolts.

There was still the identified thrust zone of bad ground ahead and, as luck and good fortune had it, this also proved benign. There was a no-show of the enormously challenging conditions that everyone expected. “We were through the zone without any change in our normal 30m/24hr day routines,” said Hu. There were sections of poor ground and high water ingress encountered and only one required a 6.5m high x 0.7m wide shotcretesupported passage along the outside of the shield to gain access to the front of the TBM to stabilise a run of soft material at the face.

A programme of post secondary chemical

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dvance rates of more than 1,000m/ month have surprised even the most optimistic projections of 400450m/month for the 5.06m o.d. (4.2m i.d.) double-shield segmentally lined drive for the 12km long Bheri Babai multi-purpose water transfer tunnel in Nepal. Having started in November 2017, the Robbins TBM being used by Chinese contractor COVEC completed more than 89% of the tunnel in one year with breakthrough expected in March 2019.

In the young, highly unpredictable geological conditions of the Himalayas, and with opportunities for geological investigation limited, open face drill+blast excavation is, and has been, the preferred or specified excavation method. Attempts at TBM mechanical excavation have had unhappy experiences in the Himalayas with machines becoming trapped, progress painfully slow through either very hard tough rock prone to rock bursting, or through flowing soft gouge in extensive fault zones, and battling through high groundwater inflows under high heads of pressure.

For the 12km long Bheri Babai water transfer tunnel fears of such considerations kept the project in discussion for years. But with no possibility of opening multiple adits along the alignment, open face drill+blast progressing from the portals only would take up to 10 or 12 years to complete. TBM excavation would progress faster but would carry the high risk of the machine becoming stuck for several weeks or months in likely zones of squeezing, flowing, highly fractured and unstable conditions.

Finally, in 2015, the urgent need to divert water from the Bheri River of abundant supply to the Babai River of high demand and insufficient supply forced the decision by officials of the Department of Irrigation to advance the project - and to advance it as a TBM operation.

COVEC, the China Overseas Engineering Company, as the lowest responsive bidder, was awarded the US$93 million (ex VAT) contract and purchased a Robbins doubleshield TBM for the segmentally lined tunnel.

Among the key architects who believed in a TBM application and the need to take the “great step forward” were Binaya Man Shrestha, Country Manager of The Robbins Company, Nepal; Former Director General of the Department of Irrigation, Shiv Kumar Sharma; Former Director General, Madhav Prasad Belbase; Former Project Director, Shiv Kumar Basnet; and Former Project Geologist, Ajay Raj Adhikari.

Advisor to the project for construction supervision and monitoring is Geodata of Italy, which has been part-owned by China Power Corporation since mid-2017.

The Robbins machine was manufactured in China before being shipped to the port of Kolkata, from there it was transported by a convoy of 56 trucks to the job site.

“The TBM arrived in September 2017 and, after its assembly in a record 21 days, we celebrated its launch in October,” said Hu Tianran, Project Manager on site for COVEC. In advancing the contract, more than 2,000 Nepali nationals have been trained for

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Bhutan seeks bids for hydro scheme Patrick Reynolds for TunnelTalk

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MAJOR PROJECTS

Top: Project Manager Tianran Hu and the COVEC construction crew celebrate impressive TBM progress; Bottom: The Robbins double-shield TBM recorded maximum rates of more than 1,000m/month grouting was also required to control subsequent water ingress.

Since the visit in late November 2018, progress has advanced the heading to 11km and all has continued to move forward well despite now being in the last 2km of harder, 40MPa rock. On going to press, with less than 1km to finish, TBM breakthrough was due by end-March.

With a much better than predicted outcome for the TBM tunnel excavation, the contracts for intake and outlet works and the associated 48 MW hydropower plant are yet to be awarded and must catch up.

“We are working on finalising these contract documents,” said Sanjeeb Baral, current Project Director who joined the project in September 2018 and has been instrumental in accelerating procurement of the remaining works to complete the project.

All officials associated with the project are extremely pleased with the performance at Bheri-Babai, but everyone knows that it is now optimistic caution - rather than the pessimistic caution of earlier times and application of the lessons from the experience, that are required for a successful TBM operation in the Himalayas in the future.

First of all, contractors must send the A-team to projects that are likely to be difficult. Had the Bheri-Babai project turned out to be as difficult as anticipated, Manager Hu and his crew, would have been the right team to manage the situation. It is the contractor’s team that has to get the job completed successfully.

Next, pick the right equipment. Hu explained that he had insisted on all new equipment with his managers. He wanted no cast-offs of old, tired equipment to cause downtime and maintenance delays. Of the Robbins TBM he said: “It is a powerful and robust machine and has caused us no maintenance or operation problems of significance and when we have required support from Robbins, it has been immediate and without complications.”

Finally, there has to be the money available for project progress, and this is the case with Bheri-Babai. There are no funding arrangements with donor countries or international banking institutions. As a high profile project for Nepal, the 10.56 billion Rupee (US$107 million) cost of the tunnel contract (including applicable taxes) is being fully financed by the Nepal Government. There is no hold up of progress payments to the contractor.

For Nepal, for the international tunnelling industry, for the many projects needing to be completed in the countries of the Himalayas, Bheri-Babai is a major success and will be a benchmark reference project for future projects to be built in the mountain massifs of the world - a true winwin-win undertaking. n

References

•

•

Tunnelling for Iceland’s Kárahnjúkar power station complete – TunnelTalk, April 2008 Geotechnical concerns for deep mountain drives – TunnelTalk, May 2012

Operator’s console on the TBM (left) is relayed to the TBM office console

ids were invited in November 2018 across three contract lots for major tunnel and underground power station works at the Kholongchhu hydro project in Bhutan. High in the Himalayas, excavation is based entirely on drill+blast methods.

The development company, jointly established by India’s Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam (SJVN) and local company Druk Green Power Corporation (DGPC) Bhutan, the underground works have been split across three lots.

Lot KC-1 involves the upstream dam and civil works including a 10m wide diversion tunnel, two 4.7m wide intake tunnels and two desilting chambers, each 350m long x 13m wide x 17.5m high, with their main and branch silt flushing tunnels. It also includes the upper 2.3km of the 5.7m wide headrace tunnel plus an access adit.

Lot KC-2 comprises the 11.8km majority of the headrace tunnel to near the surge shaft. The lot also involves excavating four 6.8m wide adits, and a further inflow complex at Chaplangchhu.

Structures include a 10m wide diversion tunnel, a feeder tunnel, desilting chamber, and a 75m deep drop shaft with associated inlet and outflow tunnels.

Lot KC-3 covering the downstream work, focuses on the powerhouse complex, featuring the 123m long x 21m wide x 42.5m high machine hall cavern, and the 130m long x 16m wide x 24m high transformer hall cavern. The contract package also includes the 153m deep x 9.5m diameter surge shaft, valve chamber, and a pair of 1,200m long x 3.3m diameter penstocks and four 605m long tunnels that join the main, 1,521m long x 6m x 6m tailrace tunnel.

The construction licence for the Kholongchhu hydro scheme was obtained in 2015. The power plant is expected to generate almost 2,570 GWh of electricity annually.

The 600MW high-head project is expected to be funded by the developers with 70% debt borrowings and 30% equity input. n

References •

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TunnelTalk ANNUAL REVIEW 2018

Breaking excavation records in the Himalayas – TunnelTalk, December 2012

www.TunnelTalk.com

Urgent infrastructure needs in Nepal

www.TunnelTalk.com

on groundwater resources. When all three tunnels are in operation, the additional flow into the Malamchi River will be 510 mld and this is only just expected to keep pace with demand.

Traditionally, the method of tunnelling in Nepal has been drill+blast with application of TBMs long considered but always avoided. Until very recently, Nepal was considered not ready to apply TBMs and the young geology of the Himalayan mountain range and its foothills considered too difficult to use TBMs with success.

Deformation was considered a particular threat with convergences of up to 12% expected. It was considered that a TBM could manage convergences of up to 9% maximum and so drill+blast has been the adopted method to date.

Even for the Malamchi tunnel, TBM excavation was considered too risky and the 27km of tunnel has been excavated by drill+blast working from eight headings – the two portals and in both directions from three intermediate adits.

For the Bhari Babai project, mechanised excavation was the only way to go. The 12km long tunnel could only be excavated from the two portals. With no possibility of opening intermediate adits along the alignment, Chinese contractor COVEC is using a Robbins double shield TBM and erecting a hexagonal segmental lining to excavate the 12km long x 4.8m o.d. (4.2m i.d.) drive.

A pessimistic approach to predictions provided the project with a well prepared, well managed, and well designed operation for the project and has resulted in progress rates of more than 1,000m/month, more than nearly double the anticipated 400m/ month programme average.

The success of the Bhari Babai project has raised the interest once again of using TBMs in Nepal.

Several additional water supply/ irrigation/hydro multi-purpose diversion

Shani Wallis, TunnelTalk projects are being developed for rivers across the country, all of which flow south into India. Also in design is a two lane road tunnel of about 2.6km long to the west of Kathmandu. Tenders from one Japanese and five Chinese contractors were being evaluated for work to start in 2019. Plans are being developed for a rail line running east west across the country and there is an ambitious vision for a metro system for Kathmandu. More ambitiously, there is a plan by China for a railway from China to India linking through Nepal. Amid all, hydro development will remain a high demand industry for the country. It is said that hydro tunnelling will create 50 years of tunnelling work in Nepal.

Developing a national tunnelling base

Nepal is one of the youngest Member Nations of the ITA (International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association), taking its seat at the ITA General Assembly in 2011.

The Nepal Association currently has about 100 members and six corporate members.

Its executive office is registered at the offices of the Independent Power Producers’ Association Nepal in Kathmandu.

Current Executive Committee members are: • President: Dr Gyanendra Lal Shestha • Vice President: Ram Hari Sharma • Secretary General: Kangada Prasai • Treasurer: Tara Nath Sapkota In supporting the projected demand for tunnelling in Nepal, the NTA is working with the ITA and its training and education foundation and committee, ITACET, to bring the latest in tunnelling design and construction technology to a growing team of young civil engineers. In December 2018, NTA in association with ITACET, held a two-day conference and training session on mulitpurpose use of underground spaces.

At the last ITA General Assembly, President Shestha said: “Through our association with ITA and the ITACET Foundation, I believe that we have a big role to play in the many tunnelling projects required for the rapid development of the country.” n

MAJOR PROJECTS

I

ronically, Nepal, in the majestic Himalayan Mountains, has severe water shortages. In the winter, for example, when demand for electricity is highest, the hydro plants in the nation can run at only 30-35% as there is insufficient water in the rivers for full capacity operation. Nepal currently has an installed hydro capacity of about 1,000MW and 99% of its electricity generation is hydro. There is no carbon fuel generation and solar generation is at the start of development. However in the dry winter months, Nepal has a 500MW deficiency in electricity and meets the shortfall with imports of coal and carbongenerated power from neighbouring India.

“We are feeling the effects also of global climate change,” explained Sandip Shah, Past President of the Nepal Tunnelling Association (NTA). “We are experiencing longer dry winter seasons and flash flooding from exceptionally heavy rainfall in the wet season.”

Nepal has an identified hydro capacity of another 83GW with 43GW of that considered technically viable, but again, ironically, the country would not be able to use that amount of power and would have to export a large percentage to neighbours India and China.

Together with hydro power development, water supply and irrigation is an urgent and growing demand for tunnelling in Nepal. Further irony is that the water is sufficient in river valleys where it is not needed and dramatically deficient in valleys where the demand is high.

To the east of the country, the 12km long Bheri Babai tunnel will deliver 40m3/ sec from the Bheri River valley into the Babai basin to meet its demand for year round irrigation and to maintain the groundwater resource, which is the main source of water for human consumption in the rural areas and in the nearby city of Nepalgunj. With a hydraulic head of 150m, the project is also hosting a 48MW hydro installation.

In the Kathmandu area, the Malamchi water supply project comprises three tunnels, the first at 27km long in Phase 1, and another two at 9km and 2km long in Phase 2, to tap two further rivers. The Malamchi River is the main source of water supply to Kathmandu, a city of 3 million permanent residents plus another 2 million or more migrant population.

The Malamchi River runs at about 100 million litres/day (mld) (about 10-12 litre/sec) in the dry winter season and about 170 mld in the wet season. But the need is more than 350 mld to meet current demand. This shortfall is met by private vendors drawing

References

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Gyanendra Lal Shestha, President, NTA (left) and Sandip Shah, Past President (right) with Shani Wallis of TunnelTalk

• •

Keep your TBM moving against the odds – TunnelTalk, June 2017 Geotechnical concerns for deep mountain drives – TunnelTalk, May 2012 Crossing the Himalayas by rail – TunnelTalk, May 2012

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Mega TBM arrives in Melbourne TunnelTalk reporting

MAJOR PROJECTS

T

he first of two 15.6m diameter mega TBMs arrived in Melbourne, Australia, in early 2019 to prepare for its 4km long drive on the city’s West Gate twin tube highway tunnel project.

After arriving by ship from the Herrenknecht factory in China, the components of the machine were trucked to the north portal of the drive where it will be assembled for launch on the outbound tunnel by mid-2019. The second twin machine from Herrenknecht is programmed to arrive from China in mid-2019 and be assembled and launched before the end of the year to complete the shorter 2.8km inbound tunnel.

Both machines will begin their journeys at their northern portals and progress southwest towards the southern portal junctions to the existing West Gate Freeway (Fig 1).

The two mega machines are procured by the 50/50 design-build CPB/John Holland JV which is engaged by the toll highway concessionaire Transurban under its PPP (private-public-partnership) agreement with the State Government of Victoria. Transurban is commissioned to build and operate the new highway which will provide a bypass, particularly for heavy truck traffic, away from the city centre of Melbourne and create an alternative to the West Gate bridge across the Yarra River. The new highway will relieve serious congestion and vulnerability of the West Gate bridge, which is the only existing crossing of the river that links the city’s northsouth City Link toll highway tunnels on the east, also operated by Transurban (Fig 2).

Arrival of components at the dock

The massive 15.6m diameter cutterheads of the new machines are dressed with 96 x 19in cutters - six sets of twin cutters and 84 single cutters - and a triple-ring hydraulically-operated over-cutter.

In addition there are 152 scraper tools and 16 outer scrapers on each cutterhead.

The machines are designed as EPBMs to work through sedimentary deposits on their alignments under the Maribyrnong River (a tributary of the Yarra River) and with a section of hard rock to be negotiated on the longer 4km long outbound drive.

The TBMs have about 12MW of total installed electrical components. A new substation has been built on the northern portal launch site to supply about 10 MW of electricity from twin mains feed supplies to power each of the TBMs on a 24 hrs/day, 7 days/week schedule. With a variable speed of 0 to 1.9 rev/min in normal operation, and up to 3.5 rev/min for the outbound machine through its section of rock, maximum nominal torque on the cutterheads is 68,000kNm. As the machines advance, 500mm thick x 2.4m long rings of 10 segments each will line the three-lane highway tunnels to their 14.1m internal diameter. The segmental ring is a universal tapered ring with a taper of 40mm (+/-20mm) so that the key can be built in all 20 possible locations.

With major tunnelling works set to start in 2019, legislation has also been introduced

into the State Parliament to provide the framework for the management of the new highway when it opens in 2022. The West Gate Tunnel Bill and amendments to the CityLink Concession Deed is designed to provide a fairer tolling regime for highway users and remove historic clauses that would see Transurban compensated for State projects that divert traffic off its existing toll network.

Estimated in last reports at AUD$6.7 billion, the project has included provision of better city connections, additional noise walls, and extended air quality monitoring.

In speaking of the new highway investment, State Premier Daniel Andrews said: “All it takes is one crash to turn the West Gate bridge into a car park. We desperately need this second river crossing route and we are not wasting a minute delivering it. The West Gate Tunnel will cut travel times dramatically and get trucks off the local streets of Melbourne.” n

References

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Melbourne West Gate highway approved – TunnelTalk, December 2017 Contractor selected and two mega-TBMs needed for Melbourne highway tunnel – TunnelTalk, April 2017 Australia examines terrific regional workload – TunnelTalk, November 2017 Tracking the world’s mega-TBMs of more than 14m diameter – TunnelTalk

Fig 1. New highway link creates tubes of 2.8km and 4km long Inset: Fig 2. Route of the bypass highway

15.6m diameter cutterhead ready for assembly

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TunnelTalk ANNUAL REVIEW 2018

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Wolf Adit access site for the Pfons-Brenner Lot

Brenner Baseline progress

Patrick Reynolds for TunnelTalk

MAJOR PROJECTS

I

n April 2018, Brenner Base Tunnel developer BBT-SE awarded the major tunnelling contract on the Pfons-Brenner Lot to the JV of Porr Bau, Hinteregger, Condotte and Itinera.

The JV beat four rival bids to gain the €966 million contract to build a total 50km of main tunnels on the Austrian side of the binational rail link project under the Alps with Italy. Before bidding, the budget estimate for the lot was given as €1.3 billion.

The Pfons-Brenner Lot comprises about 38km of running tunnels and nearly 9km of the exploratory/service tunnel. All works will be launched through the Wolf Adit, which was completed under an earlier contract by Swietelsky of Austria.

The four other bidders for the PfonsBrenner Lot were: Strabag/Salini-Impregilo JV; Pizzarotti, Implenia Osterreich, Metrostav, BeMo Tunnelling JV; Acciona Construccion and CMC di Ravenna JV; and Astaldi, Ghella, Oberosler Cav Pietro and PAC JV. The Pfons-Brenner Lot is the penultimate major contract award on the Brenner Base

Herrenknecht TBM for the Mules 2-3 Lot for the exploratory service tunnel Tunnel project where excavation is well advanced on many sections.

Salini-Impregilo/Strabag is working on the Tulfes-Pfons Lot in Austria and on the Isarco Underpass Lot in Italy. All major drill+blast tunnelling on the Tulfes-Pfons Lot is complete with work continuing for the 15km long exploratory TBM bore where a 7.93m diameter Herrenknecht machine is expected to finish in spring 2019. The lot has a total of 38km of drill+blast main tunnel works and the Isarco Lot is advancing using drill+blast through ground freezing pre-support.

The Astaldi/Ghella-led JV is working on the Mules 2-3 Lot to excavate 40km of the main running tunnels and of the exploratory tunnel. Awarded in Autumn 2016, the JV will use three Herrenknecht TBMs for the

works, a 6.82m diameter TBM for a 14km section of the exploratory tunnel, and two 10.65m diameter double shield TBMs for the running tunnel drives.

Works by others on the project have included a package of delicate tunnelling totalling 3.7km across a tectonic plate boundary, performed by the JV of Implenia, PAC, Codeis, Oberosler Cav Pietro; and, a TBM bore by Seli for the first section of the exploratory tunnel Italian end.

The last lot remaining to be tendered on the 55km long Brenner Base Tunnel is on Pfons-Sillschlucht (or Sillschlucht-Ahrental) section in Austria, where construction is expected to start in 2019.

Main construction of the Brenner Base Tunnel started almost 11 years ago and is due for completion in 2026. n

References • • •

Brenner project marks progress milestones – TunnelTalk, August 2017 Astaldi/Ghella Brenner Baseline contract award confirmed – TunnelTalk, September 2016 Complex Isarco River excavations in Italy – TunnelTalk, July 2016

Norway advances Rogfast undersea highway

A

t the start of 2018, five groups registered prequalification submissions for the first of three major contracts for the record-breaking 26.7km long Rogfast twin tube subsea road tunnel that will pass 350m under the Bokna Fjord near Stavanger in Norway (Fig 1). The first contract, budgeted at US$365-427 million, excluding VAT, involves a total 21km of intricate excavation for a spiral ramp access tunnel, two 250m deep x 10m diameter ventilation shafts, and portions of the main roadway tunnels below the island of Kvitsøy.

The five groups seeking to be shortlisted to bid the E02 Kvitsøy package are: • Implenia/Stangeland • Marti Tunnel • PNC Norge • Salini Impregilo • Skanska Norge The Norwegian roads authority, Statens

Vegvesen (NPRA) is reviewing the applications towards selecting a shortlist of four potential bidders to progress initial offers through negotiation discussions before making a judgment on final financial offers.

The other two large Rogfast tunnel packages are the Harestad E03 lot at the south end, involving 16km of main tunnel excavation plus a ventilation shaft, and the Laupland E04 lot for 19km of twin tube drill+blast tunnelling (Fig 2).

Drill+blast excavation is specified for the entire Rogfast project with major use of preinjection grouting for water ingress control.

NPRA has confirmed there is much uncertainty regarding geology of the area with weak zones of up to tens of metres wide with extremely low seismic speeds, some of which have not been investigated.

Meanwhile, early tunnelling works on the 700m long Mekjarvik single tube

Patrick Reynolds for TunnelTalk transportation tunnel at the south portal of the project was completed in October 2018 and excavation of the twin 1.9km long Arsvågen branch tunnels off the main tunnel axis at the north portal is nearing completion.

Rogfast is a key part of the country’s E39 West Coast Highway and is planned to open in late 2026.

Also progressing on the E39 highway is the Ryfast subsea tunnel under another fjord into Stavanger. All drill+blast excavation is complete and fit-out is well advanced. n

References • •

Breakthrough on the Ryfast subsea road tunnel – TunnelTalk, November 2017 Pre-excavation grouting – a Nordic focus – TunnelTalk, June 2017

From left: Drill+blast specified for Rogfast; Fig 1. Contract E02 tunnels under Kvitsøy Island; Fig 2. Route of the Rogfast undersea project

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TunnelTalk ANNUAL REVIEW 2018

www.TunnelTalk.com

Martin Herrenknecht and son, Martin-Devid, discuss company strategy

Two generations

of tunnelling at Herrenknecht

S

ince the founding of Herrenknecht GmbH in 1977 by namesake, driving force and CEO Dr-Ing E h Martin Herrenknecht, the company has developed dynamically and shone again and again with technical developments. Meanwhile, Martin-Devid Herrenknecht, engineer and youngest of three children, has joined the family business that currently employs more than 5,000 staff and workers. In an interview, both speak of the strategy for the future. Read the full version of this abridged interview on the TunnelTalk web magazine.

Dr Herrenknecht, how do you see the future?

We have to see how we can keep our competition in check, especially the Chinese competitors. We were also made an offer – €400 million for 25% plus 1 share. We are not selling. If you like, we are the last of the Mohicans producing high-performance, innovative tunnel boring machines in the Western Hemisphere.

From my point of view, the Chinese now have the strategy of throwing machines on the market at dumping prices, or landing whole projects by offering financing and including the construction contracts and the supply of the machinery. This is not entirely unproblematic for the market as a whole and we have our strategy to counter this. First and foremost we want to convince our customers with maximum quality and efficient service. Unfortunately, the crazy thing is that today only the prices count. I am firmly convinced that the area of services will become increasingly important in future.

Where do you see the biggest possibilities for the use of TBMs today?

I am convinced there will be an interesting market in Africa, but Africa needs a different strategy, in development aid. For example, our taxpayer money needs to be used quite differently. In my opinion, the equipment and machinery for construction projects should come from the countries from which aid actually flows. At the same time, at least 60% of the workers employed should come from the country of the project, that is, be Africans.

In Russia, we are seeing that, because of the economic sanctions against Russia, Russian contractors and clients are more or less compelled to buy from the Chinese.

Fundamentally, though, they would much rather work with us. Personally, I believe the sanctions are detrimental and Russia should be given access to finance from

www.TunnelTalk.com

Martin-Devid, tell us about yourself.

Since childhood I have been strongly rooted in the company.

I completed my mechanical engineering studies in Munich, and then with various positions, including with the Plant Zero prototype laboratory at BMW. I joined Herrenknecht on a permanent basis in 2014 as head of projects in China, Mexico and Qatar. One topic that interests me personally is digitalisation and, at our company specifically, pushing projects in research and development. What I especially like is our medium-sized structure, which allows us to launch our own projects. I really enjoy the variety of areas we work in and the diversity of day-to-day business.

Digitalisation in construction, specifically in tunnelling, is an exciting topic. There are wide-raging discussions going on around questions such as: Can digitalisation be financed? Does it make sense for production or for the implementation in a project? What measures and innovations are necessary in machine technology to meet new requirements? Of course, we are also fortunate that we build prototypes and project-specific one-off machines and are therefore always among the first in the development chain. Not to forget the risk we are exposed to within the project business, especially in the discussion about BIM for example, where there is still a great deal of uncertainty, and in some cases bafflement, about what can, or should be used, as well as when, where and how. I find it fascinating to continue developing mechanised tunnelling technology - optimising of concepts without over-engineering the technology. The benefits for the customer, together with safety, efficiency and cost must always be in the foreground.

French contractors in general are very inventive, technology-friendly and push the technology where they can, said Dr Herrenknecht. The Germans on the other hand, are very cautious. If they could, they would like to build a wall around Germany.

Like scared rabbits, they try to stick to the norm. And yet we are exposed to a dynamic where you really have to be on your toes.

There are customers who are very active in driving new developments.

Ghella and Acciona, for example, building tunnels using double shield machines in Norwegian hard rock of up to 300 MPa with a segmental lining. I would not have dreamt of that a few years ago. There was also in Kuala Lumpur the Variable Density TBM and now in Australia or Singapore, where customers express specific wishes, we are called upon to find innovative solutions. These are developments by contractors that have long ceased to occur

Roland Herr for TunnelTalk in Germany. Most of our developments now take place abroad.

In Germany they are over-cautious and as soon as something happens, such as the collapse at the Rastatt Tunnel, the entire construction of infrastructure is called into question. This attitude is very dangerous, as we have seen in the development of tunnelling in Japan. Japan once led the development of tunnelling 20 or 30 years ago, and today Japan has lost all significance on a global scale.

Martin-Devid, has anything come of your contact with Elon Musk?

Elon Musk personally is interested in tunnelling and sought contact with Herrenknecht. He estimated his involvement in tunnelling at about 2%. We were in negotiations for the purchase of a Herrenknecht TBM, but in the end he bought different used machines. He is known for his way of just doing things.

He sets a completely different pace with its own dynamics. His ideas are not new however. We have made considerations in these areas for a long time, and others are doing the same. Ultimately everything has to be technically and economically feasible.

Personally, I think it is great that Elon Musk stirs things up. At the same time, we hope he can stay the course, learn from the mistakes he makes and perhaps also raise his 2% involvement in tunnelling a little higher.

Musk certainly has some ideas that can fascinate, said Dr Herrenknecht. For example, Hyperloop or also Cargo Sous Terrain and CargoCap are projects that are interesting. In my opinion, underground construction is still the best, most environmentally friendly and promising solution. The future of our big cities is definitely underground.

DISCUSSION FORUM

European banks again. Russia is a strategically important neighbour for Europe and Germany.

Dr Herrenknecht, how do you see economic opportunities unfolding?

After an order book of €1.236 billion in 2015 and €1.267 billion in 2016, we were able to achieve an order inflow in 2017 of about €1.308 billion. In tunnelling we will continue to maintain the revenue level and we will further expand the mining division with €100 to €150 million.

What is particularly close to your heart?

The training of the next generation in all different areas of the company, is especially close to my heart. We accomplish this, for example, through technical and professional apprenticeships.

Martin-Devid, as the son of the company founder, where do you see yourself in the company in the future?

For the future, the focus is on safeguarding the company and on the quality of our products and services. It is important to me and to us that the company is sustainable for the long term and continues to expand and when the top responsibility comes, I won’t say no. n

TunnelTalk ANNUAL REVIEW 2018

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The Trusted Name in Underground Ventilation Systems "The world´s biggest aerodynamic test bench"

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Over-specification

In high-risk urban areas, such as in Singapore and Hong Kong, overspecification exists because using the wrong TBM or having an inadequate TBM design can have dire consequences. Often there is a history and a reason for such specifications and these requirements are typically associated with higher total construction costs.

We also see over-specification in urban areas where there has been a long history of the use of TBMs, for example on metro projects in North America and Europe. Again, history comes into play, as the historical performance of projects in the area often dictates the type of TBM and its features.

Over-specification can also happen due to a lack of confidence in TBM specifications

In search of the ideal TBM specification Lok Home, President and CEO, The Robbins Company for a used TBM, or a lack of trust from clients that TBM manufacturers and/or tunnel contractors will offer a used TBM with all the requirements. Perceptions in the industry that used TBMs will not perform as well or will fail to complete the contract fuel this type of over-specification. Such perceptions are often based on a personal history where a used TBM did not perform well, but this is only a perception and does not reflect the reality. In fact, used TBMs account for at least 36% of all currently standing world records for TBM performance.

Most recently, a Robbins TBM manufactured in 1980 achieved three world records in the 6m to 7m diameter range at the Deep Rock Tunnel Connector Project (DRTC) in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. The 6.2m diameter main beam TBM had previously bored at least five other hard rock tunnels including the New York City Second Avenue Subway running tunnels through hard Manhattan Schist.

Design updates of the machine for the DRTC project included a new back-loading cutterhead with 19in disc cutters, variable frequency drive motors, and a rescue chamber. The records broken included: • Most mined advance in one day: 124.9m • Most mined advance in one week: 515.1m • Most mined advance in one month: 1,754m The machine is currently boring the next 28km phase of the DigIndy network.

Under-specification

Under-specification is often the result of inexperienced or first-time clients who have not performed adequate geotechnical site investigations and TBM constructability or risk evaluations to understand the most appropriate TBM for their project. As such they may request the wrong machine for the job, or use a TBM that is not adequately designed for the geology.

We as TBM manufacturers work to provide the best machine for the job, and there are ways to design a machine for a gauntlet of unknown challenges. As such, we have more tools in our toolbox to deal with under-specification than we do with over-specification.

Which is worse?

Over-specification is arguably more detrimental to a project as it may result in the client and/or the tunnel contactor not getting the best offer from the TBM manufacturer and passing this on to the client to optimize project costs. Overly specified projects may be cut and pasted from a previous project, when in fact a more cost effective design could be found for the new project.

Over-specification also bars contractors from a job who may have a pre-existing TBM that could be rebuilt to the requirements. Specifying only new TBMs narrows the field considerably and drives up costs, while also making a contractor’s TBM inventory less profitable.

In general, there are many projects worldwide requiring short TBM tunnels, and not a large enough market for those machines to be used again.

Rectifying the problems

The inconsistency in specifications is most often due to inadequate geotechnical site investigations, evaluation of the geotechnical data, TBM constructability assessment and TBM risk evaluation.

These studies are needed to understand thoroughly the most appropriate TBM for the job. International guidelines would therefore seemingly help to standardize geotechnical reports, TBM constructability assessments, and risk evaluations. The ITA (International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association) working groups and other groups have been working on such guidelines for years.

Over-specification is also a problem of confidence, which is a much harder situation to regulate. Many of those developing the specifications are working from past experience in the area, of what has worked and what has not, and they hope the specifications based on those experiences will guarantee a high level of success. We as an industry must share our stories of success (and failure) in ground conditions more consistently, so that these case studies are available to anyone who

DISCUSSION FORUM

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orrect specification of TBMs can make all the difference to a project’s success — the proper TBM specification will allow for a variety of TBM designs and for pre-existing machines to be considered. The specification will also recommend various design aspects based on the geology. But in markets worldwide, over-specification as well as under specification is a problem.

At Robbins we have seen underspecification on a number of tunnels in mountainous, remote areas with very little geotechnical testing available. We will receive limited data and will then need to interpret which TBM might work best in the ground conditions. Our recommendations are based on our long experience in all types of ground conditions, but are certainly fallible, particularly when very little geotechnical investigation has been carried out. Oftentimes, when we do recommend certain specifications based on our experiences, they are dismissed as too expensive, making correct TBM design an even more difficult prospect.

But what does an ideal specification look like? An ideal TBM specification should consider the minimum technical requirements to address all the risks that have been identified through a risk assessment for a given tunnel. Those results are based on an adequate and comprehensive geotechnical program. If inadequate geotechnical information has been provided then any risk assessment cannot be considered to be representative and complete, and therefore the TBM specifications can be expected to be either overly conservative or overly simplistic.

Left: Lack of confidence can lead to over-specification of TBMs Centre: New back-loading cutterhead for TBM built originally in 1980; Right: A 6.2m diameter Robbins TBM in rebuild

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looks for them. The greater the pool of references, the more accurate will TBM specifications become. The same is true of specifying only new TBMs. By becoming more transparent and sharing case studies of successful used machines, we can overcome the myth that used TBMs cannot get the job done.

Under-specification can be dealt with in a number of ways. Additional geotechnical investigational and testing can be requested or performed, and a TBM can be fitted with ground investigation tools to provide difficult ground solutions. Such ground investigation tools, including 360-degree probe drilling, ground convergence monitors, cutterhead cameras, and more, enable the contractor to create an in-tunnel GBR (Geotechnical Baseline Report) where such a baseline did not exist before. Other methods such as tunnel seismic prediction and tunnel reflection tomography can reveal ground conditions ahead of a TBM with good accuracy.

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Rebuilt or refurbished TBMs

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The rebuilding of TBMs, both the process and the standardization of rebuilds, has become a focus for the industry as more projects with multiple machine requirements and short lead in time frames are being proposed. The focus has been further highlighted by ITAtech, the technologyfocused committee for the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association (ITA-AITES) that produced guidelines on rebuilds of machinery for mechanized tunnel excavation in 2015.

While the guidelines are relatively new, Robbins has a long history of delivering robust machines. About 50% of our annual production comprises rebuilt TBMs and 50% new.

For Robbins, the preferred term is rebuilt, which describes any manner of creating a custom TBM from already existing components.

The ITAtech guidelines introduce different terminologies depending on the extent to which a TBM is rebuilt. They are described here briefly: • Remanufacturing is a process with the aim to start a new life cycle of the product using its current or modified configuration.

• Refurbishment can be considered a full maintenance programme, where defective parts are replaced to extend the life of the product in its original configuration or with small modifications.

The guidelines describe the requirements of each process in order to designate a TBM as either refurbished or remanufactured, but in reality the majority of rebuilt TBMs may be somewhere in between these qualifications.

In terms of the international guidelines, they are certainly necessary and welcomed.

However, the strictness of the guidelines makes them hard to adopt for the majority of TBM rebuilds, which are customized based on project needs. The ITAtech guideline is also missing something else the definition of what makes a TBM new.

While opinions from different suppliers vary, Robbins is perfectly clear on this topic. If

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ITAtech guidelines for rebuild of tunnel excavation equipment you are buying a new TBM, then it is 100% new, with only 100% new components. We strongly believe the whole industry should commit to this definition of what makes a TBM new, and this definition should be added to the guidelines.

Consider the life cycle

It is also essential to consider the total life cycle of a machine, even in its beginning design stages. This is by far the most economical and sustainable way of thinking. Designing machines with ease of rebuilding in mind ensures that the manufacturer does not have to start from scratch every time a machine needs preparation for a new project or drive.

A good example of this concept is illustrated at the Túnel Emisor Oriente (TEO) in Mexico City where the geology along the 62km long tunnel at up to 150m deep is highly variable. One 8.93m EPB was used to bore two separate lots with very different geology. For Lot 1, the machine was used with its original cutterhead, fitted with soft ground cutting tools, and a two-stage screw conveyor, to excavate watery lake clays with great success. The machine bored 4.6km to complete its section of critical path tunnel.

The cutterhead was designed as adaptable for both hard rock and soft ground configurations, and before beginning excavation of the 8.6km long drive of Lot 5, modifications were needed.

Grizzly bars were fitted across the muck openings and heavy-duty abrasionresistant wear plating was added. Wear plating was also added to the screw conveyors so they could be used in open rock-excavation mode. Lot 5 is one of the most challenging on the project, passing at maximum depth and through geology ranging from lake clays to abrasive fullface basalt. Despite the challenges the machine has been able to achieve a project record of 30m in 12 hrs, showing that an EPB can indeed be used in very different conditions.

Over the years Robbins has built a quality assurance system that ensures

that when we deliver a rebuilt machine, either to the original or to a modified configuration, we still adhere to a design life of 10,000 hours. This standard also includes checks to make sure that all the components are in a functional condition of as-new or new. Due to our long experience of rebuilding TBMs, we can offer in principal, the same warranty on a rebuilt machine as for a new machine.

One can argue that project owners typically have only one project and that the condition of the TBM and the suitability of its rebuild is therefore not essential.

This is something that is also reflected in many of today’s tunneling projects, where the commercial consideration is often given far more attention than technical attributes. We would argue, however, that a sturdy and robust design of the TBM from the start will give the project more uptime, higher production rates and better flexibility if unexpected conditions are encountered, making it an efficient and effective insurance against many types of obstacles.

Is used as good as new?

In short, the answer is yes, though like many things the conditions must be right. A rebuilt machine should not be a compromise, in diameter or design. The machine’s rebuilt specifications should fit that project’s geology. Once in operation, maintenance is key, both towards upkeep of the TBM and to keep costs of future rebuilds down.

Maintenance while storing the TBM between projects can also maximize equipment life. Storing components indoors, coating the equipment with anticorrosive spray and making sure the main bearing is filled with oil will maintain the machine for further deployment. Owning and using a rebuilt TBM has added hidden benefits, including familiarity of machine operation and proven performance for that particular piece of equipment.

Overall, there are many benefits to using a rebuilt machine. A lower up-front cost and a shorter delivery time are the obvious benefits, and the learning curve is also lessened when a crew is familiar with a particular TBM’s operation.

TBM design for the long haul is simply a cost effective, energy efficient and sustainable way of thinking about tunnel boring. The undeserved reputation of used machines having lower advance rates is simply a function of the rebuild process or lack thereof. With a properly rebuilt machine, rebuilt specifically for the geology of the new project, used TBMs can - and have - demonstrated that they are fully capable of world record excavations. n

References • • • • •

TBMs and conveyors - a speedy combination – TunnelTalk, April 2015 Rebuilt main beam for water diversion in Chicago – TunnelTalk, March 2018 Demonstrating the value of refurbished TBMs – TunnelTalk, October 2015 Training the key to reducing in-tunnel incidents – TunnelTalk, October 2017 Keep Your TBM moving against the odds – TunnelTalk, June 2017

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Characteristics of a successful/unsuccessful project

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2. Perhaps more importantly: • The ability of these participants to adjust to changes as the project develops over time.

For any particular project with a specified client, the capability of the designer, and the contractor, can be influenced to a certain extent by the procurement method. For example, selection of contractor or design-build team via the low bid method makes no attempt to evaluate capability by any qualitative means, whereas a two-phase procurement process includes the determination of a satisfactory technical proposal and a best value selection process that considers factors other than price in making the final selection.

Given the nature of long duration projects, it is unlikely that all possible events will be identified in advance.

From the WTC Open Session discussion of what makes a successful project, the single common thread appears to be the ability for the parties involved to communicate with each other in a positive manner, that both recognize each party’s specific concerns and objectives, while focusing on the successful outcome of the project itself. This ability to communicate requires an in depth

William Edgerton, Principal, McMillen Jacobs Associates understanding of human behavior, and the dynamics of group decision-making; which, by the way, are not topics typically covered in engineering schools. Indeed, to generalize, these are skills that engineers do not have in great supply.

Nonetheless, virtually all large construction projects, not only those for underground infrastructure, require such skills, and, in our opinion, it is not feasible to scale up from smaller, shorter projects with fewer stakeholders to manage these megaprojects.

To the extent that these skills are learned on the job, given the typical length of underground projects, very few individuals will have more than one or two of these projects in a lifetime. The solution to this is not obvious, but addressing the above two factors will have the largest impact on the likelihood of successful outcomes of the future large underground projects. n

References •

WTC 2018 – TunnelTalk, April 2018

Review of insured risk codes of practice

rofessionals in the international tunneling and underground space design and construction industry were invited to contribute to the process of reviewing and revising the International Joint Code of Practice for Risk Management of Tunnel Works.

The aim of the work was to review the penetration and effectiveness of the Code around the world and to revise the practice guidelines as necessary and required.

Preliminary areas for review consideration included separating the principle of the Code from the detail, adding a section on instrumentation and monitoring, recognising the role of BIM and more closely aligning the Code with other recognised risk standards such as ISO 31000.

To assist in the process professionals provided feedback via an online survey on the application and experience of working with the Code or any other risk management approaches.

The work is being spearheaded by the International Tunnelling Insurance Group (ITIG) which comprises representatives from other industry bodies including the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association (ITA), the British Tunnelling Society (BTS) and the International Association of Engineering Insurers (IMIA).

The international Code grew out of the work completed 15 years ago by the BTS and the Association of British Insurers (ABI) in the UK to produce the

Initial work into the topic

Revision for international application

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TunnelTalk Reporting first collaborative code of practice for risk management in tunnel works. In 2003, and in response to a series of significant tunnelling incidents and insurance losses, the BTS and ABI released The Joint Code of Practice for Risk Management of Tunnel Works in the UK known colloquially as the Joint Code of Practice (JCOP). This group was effectively the fore-runner to ITIG which formed after release of the JCOP and oversaw the launch of A Code of Practice for Risk Management of Tunnel Works in 2006. Known as the international Tunnel Code of Practice (TCOP), a second edition was released in 2012 to incorporate official acknowledgement by the ITA and IMIA. The stated objective of the Code(s) is “to promote and secure best practice for the minimisation and management of risks associated with the design and construction of tunnels, caverns, shafts and associated underground structures.” It is intended as a project management tool to promote best practice in risk management and reduce the occurrence of accidents.

It has been the inspiration behind the approach to risk management on numerous underground projects around the world, whether formally in contract documentation or as a benchmark reference document.

With nearly 15 years of experience since the first publication of the JCOP, the scope of the review includes: • the experience of tunnelling projects before and after the release of the

TunnelTalk ANNUAL REVIEW 2018

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ontract practices as being a factor in whether a project has a successful outcome or not was a focus of discussion at the WTC (World Tunnel Congress) 2018 in Dubai. Some of the recommendations relate to the contract form, such as the new FIDIC/ITA Emerald Book (p33), which includes specific clauses related to underground works, and some of the recommendations are for the use of specific tools which can be specified by contract, such as Geotechnical Baseline Reports, Risk Management and BIM. Other ideas for improving outcomes focus on the delivery method, whether design-bid-build, design-build or any of the other related options. Some, perhaps all, of these things might be useful. However, from my perspective, there are two primary factors that outweigh all others: 1. The capability of each participant to perform its designated scope. That is: • For the client-owner to provide the real estate and funding, • For the designer to provide a quality design in a timely manner, and • For the contractor to manage labor and logistics efficiently.

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Code and with and without application of the Code; • regional variations in the application of risk management methods; and • other developments in risk management practices, including health and safety and environmental standards and legislation, and how they may have impacted the environment in which tunnelling projects have been delivered.

The survey attracted more than 100 responses from contributors in more than 20 countries of the world with about two thirds representing the tunnelling industry and the remaining third representing the insurance industry.

More than 500 qualitative comments were received and a high number of

respondents, 67%, requested to be in some way involved in any revision of the Code.

A substantial majority of more than 90% of responses reported that risk management, supported by other initiatives such as Geotechnical Baseline Reports, health & safety legislation and the sharing of lessons learned, has had a positive impact on the industry, is widespread and is applied on most projects and in most areas of the world.

“However it appears that more work is required to derive the full benefit at site level, to optimise the management of risk, as opposed to the processes of risk management,” said Patrick Bravery, Chairman of ITIG. Other notable trends were concerns with competence

and expertise of both technical and risk professionals.

A 73% majority of respondents expressed a preference for an update or revision of the Code with consideration to instrumentation and monitoring and to BIM. Other qualitative comments contained many valuable suggestions.

“As the next step, ITIG will review all the feedback and analyse the extensive qualitative commentary in particular,” said Bravery. “Given the generally positive feedback, it is not envisaged that the fundamental concept, scope or structure of the Code will be changed.” n

References

•

VIDEO: Examining the growing costs and risks of underground project insurance – TunnelCast, March 2016

TBM developments a main focus at NAT Shani Wallis, TunnelTalk

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ajor new large diameter TBM excavation projects and developments of the TBM technology and operation were the main focus of proceedings at the 2018 NAT, North American Tunneling conference, in Washington DC. Of the 20 technical sessions held in four simultaneous tracks across two and half days, two were dedicated to TBM technology and in others - including sessions on innovation, transportation case histories, water and wastewater project delivery, and rock tunnelling - TBM application and operation had a high representation. Sessions on risk management and contract strategies also highlighted these topics from the point of view of TBM tunnel project excavation.

Other technical sessions included discussions on project controls and challenging design issues as well as dedicated sessions to resiliency of cities, application of sequential excavation methods, and the design of precast concrete segmental linings.

Several papers focused on major new projects for large diameter TBMs including the single bore BART to San Jose project in California on which the platforms for three underground stations will be included in a stacked configuration in the singletube, double-track tunnel, and the large diameter single-tube, double-track tunnel with stacked platforms included at stations, planned for downtown Seattle for its new $5.5 billion West Seattle to Ballard link light rail extension (Fig 1).

Also designed as a single-bore, twin-track running tunnel will be the new Scarborough subway extension in Toronto. As a significant departure from the traditional twin tunnels arrangement, concerns for operational safety at stations and the need for crossovers led the Toronto design team to prepare a stacked station platform alternative that would keep the station platforms on each side of the large diameter running tunnel and in a staggered configuration with the TBM being moved

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sideways by 3.6m and re-launched on the adjusted alignment (Fig 2).

A single-bore double-track TBM tunnel as well as elevated guideways, is being considered for a new cutting edge project to provide maglev train travel between Washington DC, Baltimore and on to New York City. Reaching operating speeds of 500km/hr (311 miles/hr) the maglev trains would shorten travel times between Washington and Baltimore to 15 minutes and Washington to New York City to an hour.

The evolution and challenges of designing the lining of the 17.4m diameter SR99 double deck highway tunnel in Seattle was the topic of a paper in the precast concrete lining design session. Of four papers that discussed the design and construction of the large 43ft 3in diameter TBM bored alternative to the immersed tube options for the Thimble Shoals crossing of Chesapeake Bay, the presenter explained that the bolts of the segmental lining will be removed and only the bolts of the first 21 rings for the tunnel from the two artificial islands, which are specified as stainless steel, will remain in place permanently. In response to a question as to when the standard bolts will be removed and why, the presenter explained that the timing of taking the bolts out is yet to be confirmed but it would be after the TBM drive is completed. A question as to why take out the bolts was answered because the project owner wants to eliminate any potential for the standard

bolts to corrode and drop out onto the highway traffic. Discussions over the coffee break identified whether engineers were proponents of taking segmental lining bolts out or leaving them in place. Incidences of segmentally lined tunnel failures came into the discussions including the failure in 2017 of the Rastatt railway tunnel drive in Germany and the Foshan metro tunnel collapse in China.

The next tunneling conference to be organised by the SME will be the 2019 RETC conference in Chicago from 16 to 19 June when the program, designed more for the construction side of the industry (NAT focusing more on design and planning) will include sessions on tunnelling in difficult ground conditions, control of ground water and gas infiltration, drill+blast excavation, tunnel rehabilitation, shafts and mining, as well as case studies and the experiences of operating TBMs of all types on projects from across the USA, North America and internationally. n

References • • • • • •

Funding and single-bore secured for BART to San Jose – TunnelTalk, May 2018 Large diameter EPBM for Thimble Shoals parallel tunnel – TunnelTalk, August 2017 Rastatt collapse raises a list of queries and concerns – TunnelTalk, September 2017 Fatal collapse of metro heading in Foshan – TunnelTalk, February 2018 Cost benefits of large-diameter bored tunnels – TunnelTalk, April 2015 In search of resilient cities – TunnelTalk, December 2011

Left: Fig 1. Stacked station platforms in a single-tube metro configuration; Right: Fig 2. Staggered side platforms design for the Toronto subway extension

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Delivering the Support You Need

Reliable Ground Support

You can count on our System Solutions Customized for your challenging tunneling projects!

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Evacuating along elevated platforms

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levated walkways have been proposed as a way of increasing safety in rail tunnels and to avoid evacuating passengers from trains directly to the track area. To develop guidelines for the design of elevated walkways, the Swedish Transport Administration commissioned an experiment carried out by RISE, the Swedish Research Institute, and Brandskyddslaget, Sweden’s leading fire protection consultants. The experiement was carried out in 2016 at the Skarpnäck subway station in Stockholm to record human behaviour when evacuating the metro running tunnel along an elevated platform. A total of 111 people, approximately half men and half women, ranging from 18 to 77 years old and including three wheelchair users participated in the experiment.

To simulate an elevated walkway, a 93.6m-long screen wall was built along the edge of the station platform. The width of the walkway for different tests was established by altering the distance between the wall and the edge of the platform. A train was parked next to the walkway along the first half of the elevated platform. The platform was level with the train floor, making the height difference between the walkway and the track 1.4m.

The experiment comprised five tests. In tests one, three and five, the entire test group moved from one end of the elevated platform to the other. In tests two and four, the test participants were divided into two groups; group A moved along the elevated platform as before, and group B began inside the train and joined the flow on the platform once group A passed the train doors. Reference tests were conducted in a 30m-long corridor built with two screen walls on the southern end of the platform. Walkway widths tested were 1.2m, 1.05m and 0.9m. After the experiment, the participants were asked to complete a survey to further assist the findings.

The flow rate was measured at four points: • the reference corridor, • the first half of the elevated platform, • the second half of the elevated platform, • the doorway of the train.

As could be anticipated, the flow rate decreased with the width of the walkway at all analysis points.

Eva-Sara Carlson, Anne Dederich, Mia Kumm and Artur Zakirov, RISE, Sweden

Above: Evacuation walkway created for the tests; Below: Formations by participants on different walkway widths

Survey feedback

Test results

The flow rate at the first part of the walkway, where the train was parked, was higher than the flow rate at the last part of the walkway where the platform was open to the track and higher also than the flow rate in the reference corridor. The gathered video material and survey clearly showed that the difference in height between the elevated platform and the track area affected the test participants, and so the difference in flow rate between the first and second parts of the walkway can be attributed to the drop from the platform to the track. A possible explanation for why the flow rate was lower in the reference corridor is different lighting conditions.

To get an indication of the distribution between the flow on the walkway and the flow out of the train, the merging ratio was observed at the point where group B stepped

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parked next to the walkway than they did when it was open to the track area.

When the participants were asked about their ability to pass others, 41.8% answered that they never felt a need to overtake someone in the experiment. In a real evacuation situation, due to a fire for example, it can be assumed that the need to overtake others would increase. This is partly related to the fact that people who are related to one another try to stay together to a greater extent than the participants of the experiment did. Some of the participants who chose to keep to their own pace during the test, despite the fact that this separated them from friends and family, stated that they would not have done so in a real situation, where they would have adjusted their speed to stay together.

out of the train and joined group A on the walkway. In general, the flow rate out of the train was larger than the flow rate along the walkway. This was true in both group test scenarios.

The participants did not walk close to the platform edge. No one used the 10cm closest to the track area.

This was true for the full length of the walkway, independent of the width.

The participants walked closer to the platform edge when there was a train

Of the test participants, 32.7% stated that they did not overtake anyone during the experiment, but that they would have liked to do so on one or more occasions if they had had the opportunity. Together with those who answered that they overtook others, but with some difficulty, during the experiment (a total of 14.5%), 47.2% stated that they experienced problems related to overtaking others.

When there was enough room for participants to walk independently of one another, they generally chose to do so close to the screen wall. Those who knew one another prior to the experiment often chose to walk side by side, while the others generally preferred to walk in single file. In tests with a 1.2m walkway, participants walked in two columns. In those with a 1.05m walkway, participants still walked in two columns but in a staggered fashion; in the test with a 0.9m walkway, they walked in single file.

Of the three wheelchair users, one felt uneasy due to the width of the walkway and/or the difference in height between the elevated platform and the track area.

As a result, this person only participated in tests one and two in which the width of the footpath was 1.2m, and did not participate in the tests in which the walkway was narrower. This person stated that the width of the walkway was of great importance to a sense of safety. The fact that this person stopped and hesitated where the walkway opened up to the track area indicates that the height difference to the track also was of great importance.

In order to make evacuating along elevated walkways more effective, the possibilities for people to overtake others needs further review. Further studies should also investigate how elevated platforms can be designed, and with what aids they can be equipped, in order for height differences to have less effect. n

References • •

Maximising fixed fire protection systems – TunnelTalk, August 2017 Focusing on fire safety in Switzerland – TunnelTalk June 2016

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he UAE host city Dubai was a particularly apt location for the 2018 World Tunnel Congress (WTC) and 44th General Assembly of the 74 Member Nations of the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association (ITA). Dubai is a glittering conurbation of concrete and glass rising from the desert, among them the Burj Khalifa tallest building in the world.

As well as reaching high into the air with its urban planning and development, the city has recognized the vital role of underground space for its sustainable future. Dubai has projects underway to build out its underground metro system and expand its sewerage and drainage systems.

The 15km metro Red Line extension, with a 4km and two underground stations section, is to be opened in time to support the city’s hosting of the international Expo event in 2020. A 10m diameter Herrenknecht EPBM is excavating a single tube, double track running tunnel for the underground alignment.

Two 11.05m diameter TBMs have also been procured from CREG for a major stormwater management project in Dubai (p82).

At the conference, the Sir Alan Muir Wood Lecture was delivered by Ed Cording of the USA. In his presentation, Cording, as a geotechnical consultant and Professor Emeritus of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign, tracked the research and development of the ability to control ground movement and surface settlement when using modern TBMs to excavate tunnels beneath sensitive urban areas and city centres.

He described the operation of several benchmarking TBM projects that illustrate without any doubt that the these machines can excavate tunnels through soft ground conditions and avoid any surface settlement damage and without the use of supplementary processes such as compensation grouting.

Emerald Book development

At the 2018 ITA Open Session in Dubai, a panel discussion explored the topic of Contractual Practices for the 21st Century and the development of the ITA/FIDIC Emerald Book of conditions of contract being developed specifically for tunnelling and underground works.

The discussion engaged the fact that construction of tunnels and underground structures is seen as very expensive, always over cost and difficult to manage by owners. The ability of the various forms of contract to control the variables and manage the risks involved is considered an important influence on the outcome of underground excavation projects and taking this further the ITA is working in collaboration with FIDIC, the International Federation of Consulting Engineers, to publish a set of conditions of contract that are specific to the management and control of underground construction projects.

To be published as the Emerald Book, Matthias Neuenschwander, Chair of the FIDIC-ITA Task Group 10, described the most important features of the new conditions of contract as:

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Dubai hub for international networking • A balanced sharing of the ground related risk: the owner shall bear the risk of the ground being better or worse than anticipated, and the contractor shall bear the risk of the time and cost for excavation and support in the expected ground conditions.

• Provisions for dealing with unforeseeable ground conditions will be included in the General Conditions of Contract: a good contract should also state how to proceed in order to find solutions when something unexpected occurs.

It will be a Form under the accepted and widely used FIDIC standard, with the endorsement of the ITA. An existing FIDIC set of General Conditions of Contract for design-build construction works has been adopted, and only a minor portion of the clauses required adaptation in order to suit the nature of underground works.

Apart from the particular clauses created especially for the use in underground works, the Emerald Book includes (as do other FIDIC forms) a provision for a standing Dispute Avoidance and Adjudication Board (DAAB). This is a committee of independent experts who in case of a dispute shall in a short lapse of time issue an adjudication. This adjudication should be binding to the parties unless and until challenged and overturned by an arbitration or an ordinary tribunal. This provision has proven effective worldwide for more than 40 years, shortening time and cutting costs of disputes.

The Emerald Book will be accompanied by a Guidance for the Preparation of Tender Documents, to assist owners in the tasks they should perform in order to produce a call for tenders that will lead to a robust and balanced contract.

The Emerald Book is expected for publication in early 2019.

In other ITA news, the General Assembly welcomed Keith Bannerman of Australia as the new Chair of the ITA Young Members and Denmark was announced as the uncontested host of the WTC in 2021 after Malaysia in 2020 and Italy in May 2019.

The proceedings of the WTC and of the ITA General Assembly in Dubai had an air of optimism and progressiveness about it. Like the city itself there was a sense of can-do and high ambitions for both the industry Professor Emeritus and for the ITA as the industry’s leading Edward Cording voice of influence. n

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Appeal overturn of original Glendoe collapse ruling Patrick Reynolds for TunnelTalk

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cottish and Southern Electricity (SSE) won an appeal against the Hochtiefled JV to recover repair costs associated with the Glendoe power tunnel collapse in Scotland, UK, in 2009. Hochtief had previously defended itself successfully but, on appeal, SSE won its case with a 2 to 1 majority of the judges in favour of allowing it to claim £107.6 million of recovery repair costs and £1 million for business losses. The turnkey contractor is looking to options that could see the dispute reach the Supreme Court in London, UK. The fault zone collapse at about two-thirds along the 6.2km long x 5m diameter headrace, occurred a few months after the project was commissioned.

With SSE and the design-build contractor in dispute over the cause of the collapse, the utility called a separate contractor to complete repairs which took three years and involved a bypass tunnel and extra support works.

The Hochtief-led JV for the 100MW hydro plant used a TBM for the unlined headrace. The ongoing dispute focused on the physical conditions that did or did not exist prior to handover of the tunnel to the client and at the start of the 2-year defects liability period. Significant effort went into contract arrangements and definitions, especially for what constitutes a ‘defect’, contractually, under the design-build procurement.

In the first judgement in 2017, Lord Woolman ruled against SSE concluding that: • the collapse “was not due to a defect that existed at take over”; • all parties inspected the rock throughout the completed tunnel, and found no reason for systematic or additional reinforcing of the TBM tunnel; • the cause of the collapse was impossible to determine; • the resulting risk should be placed with SSE as Employer’s Risk under the contract.

He did award a capped £1 million to SSE for losses suffered when the 180GWh/year power plant was out of action.

In its appeal SSE argued there was a contractually defined ‘defect’ that placed the tunnel collapse at the Contractor’s Risk, and that therefore - and since the tunnel had been handed over before the collapse - the contractor should meet the repair costs.

The appeal court judges ruled in favour of SSE with much of the focus on the legal arguments and opinions looking at execution of the contractor’s design, and therefore how a ‘defect’ is classified and what design life means under the contract used on the project.

On the physical aspect of defects, the opinion of the judges covered the visibility or not of obvious hydraulically erodible rock during construction, and what that meant for selecting the best support under the design, allowing for engineering judgment at the face. They also covered the contract having had technical staff on both sides of the contract discussing the rock and support, and therefore implementing the accepted contractor’s design as tunnelling advanced.

The one dissenting judge of the appeal supported the original hearing, finding that “no-one had identified a fault that presented a threat”; that while some erodible rock may have been shotcreted, “it does not follow that the erodibility of the rock was visible or detectable by the geologists onsite,” and that the power company failed to prove that shotcrete was sufficiently lacking at the failure area.

The other two appeal judges concluded that there was manifestly a fault in the tunnel at handover because - after no extra alterations after hand over - the tunnel failed.

They differed on the question of identified erodible rock in the fault area. One said that the erodibility of the rock may not have been visible or detectable, and the other said his opinion was to assume erodible rock “existed and was detectable”.

They concluded that the contractor was at fault, noting the contract called for a design life of 75 years for the civil works and said it needed to be possible to achieve, if not guaranteed, in the contract. How it was to be judged as possible would be up to the owner, checking all was in order during Headrace was designed the two-year defects period. as an unlined TBM But the tunnel failed during that excavation with period, meaning the design life minimum requirement did not have the possibility of for rock support being achieved. In conclusion, the appeal accepted the SSE claim to recover costs. n

References

• Judgment for contractor over Glendoe collapse – TunnelTalk, January 2017

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TunnelTalk ANNUAL REVIEW 2018

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ne year after the critical collapse, work on the new Rastatt high speed railway tunnel beneath the mainline railway between Germany and Switzerland and through horizontal ground freezing support on the Rhine Valley rail route continues towards a much delayed completion. When the leading east TBM drive of the new twin tube tunnel collapsed on 12 August 2017, intensive work was carried out to reinstate traffic on the surface railway as soon as possible. About 10,500m3 of concrete was pumped into the collapsed east tunnel and a massive concrete slab of 270m long x 1m thick, comprising about 3,000 tonne of concrete and 540 tonne of reinforcing steel, was built to restore the damaged surface tracks (Fig 1). Lines were installed to inject more concrete in the event of any subsequent subsidence.

On 2 October 2017, traffic on the Rhine Valley railway rolled again and, after 3,672m of its 4,030m drive, the trailing west tunnel TBM continued to reach the surface railway tracks in early December 2017, where it has been in a waiting position since. With investigations into the cause of the collapse still ongoing, excavation of the last 60m and 360m of the east and west TBM drives respectively remains on hold while construction work on other elements of the project continues.

As an immediate measure after the collapse, a concrete plug was inserted and about 160m was backfilled with concrete, through the backup, including a muck haulage train of muck skips and locos, and into the TBM shield to the collapsed tunnel face. At the beginning of February 2018, the first work began on dismantling the 2,000m3 concrete plug after the rails for the TBM supply trains from the north working access portal were dismantled and a temporary invert installed to host wheelbased excavators and haulage trucks. After dismantling

L

eaving with a deal; leaving without a deal; leaving on 29 March with or without a deal – all was still hanging in the balance on going to press. With this political uncertainty, which started more than two years ago in June 2016 when UK voters voted in a referendum to leave the European Union, the preparedness for the situation - one way or the other – seems equally divided.

There are those who feel that the perceived impact of the UK separating from its, currently, open borders with its 27 neighbours of the European Union (EU) will be much less severe than predicted. Yes there will be a period of disruption, they say, while the paperwork and the new situation becomes the norm, but they say the EU and the UK are now inextricably linked economically if not politically. The EU exports more goods and services to the UK than vice versa and the idea that the EU would impose tariffs on goods to the UK would begin a tit-for-tat trade war that would be of no good to either side – much like President Trump in the USA who has instigated a trade war with global trading partner China. The opinion seems to be that business, in the end, will bring a pragmatic resolution to proceedings where politicians on both sides of the Channel seem unable to arrive at an orderly departure.

But how prepared is business to take up that mantel?

Goods and services delivery

Reports are that up to 60% of construction materials for UK projects are sourced from the EU. As a result, major UK businesses, relying on just-in-time delivery of vital materials from EU suppliers, are stockpiling in readiness of supplychain delays while others are only now addressing the real ramifications of a UK outside the EU reality.

With the UK outside the EU and without a deal, the UK becomes a foreign importing country, just as with imports from all other non-EU countries including China, USA, Australia, India, Canada and so on. In that case, all UK companies will require an EORI Economic Operator Registration and Identification number, and engage an import agent to handle customs paperwork and pay the duties imposed. According to the UK Government website, it takes 5 to 10 minutes to apply for an EORI

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Rastatt a year after collapse

Roland Herr for TunnelTalk

From left: Fig 1. Details of leading TBM drive collapse by Deutsche Bahn; Core drillings to help clarify cause of collapse piezometer for groundwater measurements.

On the basis of the drilling results a concept for completing the new ground freezing TBM rail tunnels can be developed.

In the meantime, evidence to clarify the causes of the collapse was ongoing, as was the arbitration procedure agreed between DB and the construction JV for continuation of the collapse recovery. A report on the reasons for the collapse was not expected until into 2019, said a DB spokesman.

The consequences of the closure of the mainline railway for passenger and freight rail traffic totalled economic losses of more than €2 billion. As a direct result of this economic impact, DB conducted an internal

disruption report. In addition, the European freight railway associations are collaborating to develop a handbook for optimum reaction in the event of an incident and to provide guidelines for uniform processes and better communications for cross-border railway operations. The German railway sector also planned guidelines for construction site management to improve processes associated with the country’s programme for modernising its rail network. n

References

• •

Ground freezing TBM drive collapse in Germany – TunnelTalk, August 2017 Rastatt collapse raises a list of queries and concerns – TunnelTalk, September 2017

Political upheaval and Brexit number and it could take up to three working days to grant if checks are needed.

Further warnings are that: • shipments will be no longer possible for companies that are not registered in the UK and unable to apply for an EORI number; • shipments need to be prelodged at customs and the customer’s customs agent will have to presubmit paperwork to British customs before arrival of the goods into UK; • companies will have to ensure that invoices are sent to customers immediately once goods are loaded, with documents sent directly to their agent for attention; • a Safety and Security Declaration (ENS) has to be submitted by the carrier before arrival of goods into UK. • companies sending goods into the UK must provide the carrier with a copy of all documents for presentation at customs.

The fear is that this major change to the free movement of goods across EU borders will cause chaos and major delays at border custom controls. Another warning is that European road hauliers are increasing rates for transports to the UK and their services are being booked up well ahead of time.

Employment ramifications

Another major consideration is for UK contractors and companies who have EU employees, working under the free movement of people within the EU. Large manufacturing industries in the UK have reported a significant move of EU employees leaving the UK to return to their home countries or to other EU countries. EU countries are celebrating what they have

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called a reverse brain-drain, with skilled workers returning to boost their economies.

The 2017 National Infrastructure and Construction Pipeline report for the UK predicts about £600 billion of public and private investment over the next 10 years to meet growing demand and upgrade existing infrastructure. To meed this demand, a report by the Construction Products Association estimates that about 30% of the UK-born construction workforce are aged over 50 years and finds that 11% of the UK construction workforce are non-UK nationals. Reliance on foreign workers in London is estimated as high as 45% from abroad. In some areas and some construction sectors it suggests that foreign and EU workers is as high as 60-70%.

The free movement of people from EU countries was a major concern for the majority who voted in the UK referendum to leave the EU, but the high reliance on EU employees and workers was rarely part of the debate.

A change in UK immigration laws to impose working visas or stringent immigration laws will impact this reality significantly.

In addition, the lack of skilled employees and workers in the UK to replace the reliance on foreign and EU nationals has been a particular concern among UK education and training institutions and organisations.

For companies and contractors working in the UK, the comment is ambivalent. One UK engineer who admitted to voting out in the referendum said, “We will still be able to engage and allow immigration of professionals from Europe, as we will have to meet the needs in capacity and expertise and provide for construction and supply competition.”

TunnelTalk reporting A professional construction engineer from Germany working in the UK said: “We are used to the processes for preparing the legal paper work for staffing projects in other parts of the world where visas are required.

We have a department in the company dedicated to managing those processes and so the UK would become another country within the list for that department.”

There can be no doubt however that the predicted changes in immigration laws would have an immediate impact on the UK construction industry. EU construction companies working on projects in the UK will spend time and money making the employment status adjustments and such adjustments will factor into EU companies bidding for projects in the UK in the future.

A final consideration for a departure of the UK from the EU is the disruption or severing of the current links with laboratories and research and development institutions in Europe. With a lack of such facilities in the UK there is a reliance on these European organisations to fulfil the testing and development of materials which, it is predicted, could become less efficient and available as it is currently.

With the UK set to leave the EU on the 29 March 2019, there is a great deal of uncertainty still and much to consider and prepare for in the event especially of a no-deal exit. n

DISCUSSION FORUM

the concrete plug, backfill concrete was also removed although no decision was yet made for uncovering the 93m long TBM. A shaft was then built onto the segmentally lined tunnel to serve as an escape route and to advance the nine cross passages in the completed lengths of the parallel tunnels from the north portal.

Since mid-May 2018, the Ed Züblin/ Hochtief JV and project owner Deutsche Bahn (DB) have been conducting a drilling program to broaden the investigation of the geological conditions in the collapse zone. A total of about 60 boreholes of up to 25m deep were drilled over a length of about 300m of the rail tunnel route, nine of which will become

References • •

UK votes to leave EU and face consequences – TunnelTalk, June 2016 Tunnel contracting in the UK – TunnelTalk, July 2017

TunnelTalk ANNUAL REVIEW 2018

35

DISCUSSION FORUM

Why do final phases blow budget and schedule?

In response to the TunnelTalk Editor’s Desk question about why underground projects tend to slip during the finishing phases, I would submit that tunnel boring machines and ground conditions have rightfully earned their place in most risk assessments today, but as an industry we do not always give enough weight to the hard things that project teams must still overcome after excavation is out of the way. These include complex design and construction coordination between civil work and systems installations, handovers from one contract to another, commissioning, and readiness to operate the completed facility.

Sometimes working backwards can help shine a light on these challenges. For example, start with the desired opening date for the new facility, then work backwards from there, noting all the detailed steps in reverse, including the owner’s acceptance process, testing of each system, construction staging area handovers, etc.

When you complete this exercise, using realistic durations, you may find that work should have started six months ago and you are already late!

Seven-time World Champion chess player Jose Raul Capablanca said it best: “In order to improve your game, you must study the end game before everything else. For, whereas the endings can be studied and mastered by themselves, the middle game and opening must be studied in relation to the end game.”

James Wonneberg Resident Engineer, McMillen Jacobs Associates Co-Founder of GraphicSchedule

Chinese branding and price pressures

The economic powerhouse that is China is about plan, plan, plan! They have the ability to deliver at a price (even though that price is subsidised), but they can also deliver quality and service. Acquisitions such as the takeover of Australian contractor John Holland, is a way of acquiring not only a foothold in the industry, but also expertise.

What the rest of the world needs to do is to adopt the same approach to its economies no matter how small. The lesson is focus, work hard, improve and learn.

At the end of the day it is about the passion of the individuals to achieve, create and win. We should not be afraid of competition, but embrace the fact that it makes us think twice about it, and perhaps plan to improve.

Basil Fuller Semi-retired, Tunnel Products Australia

Impressive muck re-use on Brenner Base Tunnel

Can I point out that in regard to the TunnelTalk article about using aggregates from tunnel excavations (October 2018) that on the Italian side of the Brenner Base Tunnel, this project is doing just precisely this - reusing a large portion of excavated muck as feed stock in the manufacture of two different sizes of segmental lining to be supplied to the TBM bored sections.

On the Mules 2-3 contract the excavated muck is transported by two separate conveyor belts running parallel from the boring operations back out along the pre-existing exploratory and service tunnel between Mules and the Aica portal and on to the segment manufacturing facility at Hinteregger. From the muck storage area, a large proportion of this material will be used in the adjacent segment fabrication production.

The completed and cured segments are conveyed by rail on a 900mm gauge construction railway back through the same exploratory and service tunnel shared with the twin conveyor belts and on up to the working faces of the TBM operations. With the imminent commencement of boring by the two main running tunnel TBMs by the end of 2018, muck reuse will ramp up to an impressive throughput on this massive project.

Philip G Graham

36

TunnelTalk ANNUAL REVIEW 2018

Feedback and

Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao statistics

Thanks for the excellent TunnelTalk video showing construction of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Tunnel, that includes many good details.

The project was developed for preliminary design (for authority approval and procurement) by a JV of HPDI of CCCC (commercial lead), STEDI and COWI (technical lead) in 2008-2009 and constructed under a design-build contract by a JV of CCCC, HPDI of CCCC, FHDI of CCCC, AECOM, STEDI and COWI from 2010 to 2018. The owner HZMB, had support from TEC. The distance of the immersed tube, portal to portal, is 5.6km and longer if the length of the two artificial islands is included for the distance from bridge to bridge connection.

The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao undersea link is the world’s longest road immersed tunnel; the Busan-Geoje link in Korea is its deepest road immersed tunnel; the Bosporus rail link in Istanbul, Turkey is the deepest immersed tunnel; and the San Francisco Bay crossing for the BART metro system is the world’s longest immersed tunnel.

Tommy Olsen Project Manager, Tunnels at COWI, Copenhagen Area, Capital Region, Denmark

Our message must be clear

I have seen the TunnelTalk video report regarding the BTS 2018 conference and I have been left deeply concerned with a couple of statements made by two of our colleagues: “Tunnelling is not a science,.” (0:36 on video, Raffaele Zurlo – CEO, BBT SE) and “Tunnelling is not safe.” (1:38 on video, Tomas Otterberg, Senior Product Manager, Epiroc).

I personally believe that there was a part of the message missing in translation and maybe the speakers have meant: “Tunnelling is not a dark science,” and “Tunnelling is not as safe as it could be.”

I hope this is what they were intending to communicate, otherwise some housekeeping may be needed among our tunnelling community.

Robinson Leon-Diaz Jacobs, Associate Director Tunnels

DTSS Phase 2 TBMs all from the same manufacturer, all but one slurry machines

It is interesting to read that all TBMs for the DTSS project in Singapore have been selected as a) supplied by Herrenknecht and b) all but one slurry machines, with one EPBM (p79). The pros and cons of the first decision have been explored by others and in the TunnelTalk Editor’s Desk comment, however the choice of using all slurry machines is interesting.

Of course, the choice between slurry and EPB depends on many factors, the geology probably being the main one. This has been discussed and explored by many articles and papers over the years.

Nevertheless, there are many situations where either EPB or slurry can be adopted. This is especially true in the mixed and abrasive ground which can be found in Singapore. In the past, in Singapore, EPB has often been the choice (though admittedly not always). It is a more economical TBM to purchase and does not require the space and expense of a surface slurry treatment plant.

Often, in benign and straightforward conditions, EPB is without doubt the right choice. However in more demanding conditions of abrasive ground and perhaps greater depth, the slurry TBM option can give more security due to its greater control of face pressure and the reduced wear that it suffers.

On the recently completed cable tunnels in Singapore, slurry TBMs were the choice for most, if not all, of the contracts and these were generally completed successfully. Now that slurry has been selected for almost all of the DTSS Phase 2 tunnels, one wonders whether it is the clients and designers in Singapore, or the contractors, that have now come to the conclusion that, in the difficult Singapore geology, the increased investment at the outset in the use of slurry TBMs, giving more security and reliability, saves cost in the long run, and is the right choice in difficult and demanding conditions.

Finally it would be interesting to know whether the decision to use all the same type and supplier of TBM was a coincidental one, made independently by all the five different contractors, or whether it was a strategic decision led by the client, while, without doubt, leaving the responsibility for the machines with the contractor.

Richard Lewis YL Associates Limited, Hong Kong

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Letters to the Editor Use of refuge chambers in underground works environment TunnelTalk reporting

A

fire that claimed the lives of six miners seeking safety in a South African copper mine, begs questions of how and why the disaster happened and what can be done to prevent future incidents.

Mining company Palabora said the incident occurred when an underground conveyer belt caught fire. When smoke was seen by a logistic belt operator the workers were reportedly instructed to evacuate the area to the closest refuge area.

The resident rescue team was reportedly not ready to complete the rescue, and a team from a neighbouring mine was called. This team took several hours to arrive and managed to recover one living and two deceased workers.

High temperatures that rose to 67˚C, made further rescue efforts impossible. The fire was reported to have been extinguished, but temperatures remained in excess of 50˚C in areas. Protective clothing worn by rescuers slowed the rescue operation as it provided heat protection for a limited period of time only.

A further three miners were confirmed to have died in the refuge area.

It is reported that ventilation pipes to the refuge area had been damaged causing breathing difficulties for the occupants and communication lines were also compromised.

Questions were asked as a result as to how the workers died in a refuge area, what sort of refuge was it, and how the refuge compares to rescue chambers being used and increasingly specified for worker safety on underground

Upgrading safety procedures and facilties

Interior of state-of-the-art refuge chamber civil engineering projects.

A publication by Working Group 5 on Health and Safety in Works of the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association (ITA) titled Guidelines For The Provision Of Refuge Chambers In Tunnels Under Construction states that a refuge chamber is a place of relative safety in a shaft or tunnel where tunnellers can be accommodated with access to basic life support services until rescued or it is safe for them to exit the tunnel.

It also states that a refuge chamber is not designed to protect against direct exposure to fire, hence in the event of a fire in the vicinity of the refuge chamber, tunnellers should not use the chamber but should evacuate the tunnel.

The differences between the logistics of deep mines and civil tunnelling environments are evident and while there have been miraculous underground rescues, including the rescue of the miners in Chile and more recently the group of young soccer players from the cave in Thailand, the safety of miners and crews working deep and long distances underground is paramount for

While the incident in South Africa (above) does not involve a MineARC Refuge Chamber, the Palabora Mining Company has developed a strong working relationship with MineARC Systems. Since installing the first MineSAFE Refuge Chamber at the mine in 2013, MineARC Systems has continued to work towards establishing a safe underground environment for all personnel, with the installation of further portable chambers that are supported by a service and maintenance schedule.

Direct communication with the company indicates that the workers took refuge in a Lift 1 refuge bay supplied only with a permanent fresh air supply and with no additional life support redundancies as per the South African Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) Guidelines for Refuge Bays. Lift 2 at the Limpopo mine has three portable MineARC Refuge Chambers.

After the conveyor belt blaze erupted, three personnel made their way to one of the permanent fresh air bays. It has been reported that the compressed air supply to the shelter was compromised affecting the positive pressure of the fresh air supply of the bay. With no sealable door, as well as a lack of any breathable air supply redundancy, gas detection or air-conditioning, a combination of overheating and smoke inhalation contributed to cause of deaths. High levels of CO and CO2, as well as a reading of 70°C temperatures were detected inside the fresh air bay during the rescue attempt. Unfortunately three additional workers who were unable to make their way to a fresh air bay also perished during the incident. It was also indicated that Lift 2 was not affected by smoke, however personnel used the Lift 2 MineARC Refuge Chambers as a precautionary measure before being evacuated.

Palabora Mining Company is compliant with the current South African safety regulations. For refuge bays however, and following this incident, the company is in the process of taking the necessary actions to avoid a similar outcome in future. This involves MineARC Systems conducting a full risk assessment of all fresh air bays on site with the aim to bring the company’s emergency response protocol (ERP) up to globally recognised safety standards.

Mike Lincoln, General Manager, MineARC Africa

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Guidelines for the provision of refuge chambers for civil tunnelling projects the sustainability of the mining and the civil underground excavation industries as well as of the public when underground public infrastructure is opened for operation. n

References •

•

Project growth fuels refuge chamber demand – TunnelTalk, June 2015 Monitoring for safety refuge chambers – TunnelTalk, June 2013

Warnings for provision and use of refuge chambers

Refuge chambers are complex pieces of equipment which must be equipped and operated correctly if they are to save lives. It is vitally important they are properly maintained and that all potential users are fully competent in their use. Otherwise an irrespirable atmosphere can build up in the chamber or the chamber can overheat and turn what is supposed to be a place of relative safety into a death trap.

The ITA Report 14, Clause 1.8, recommends that persons can remain in a refuge chamber for a minimum capability of 24 hours in a standalone, i.e. self-sufficient mode. In externally supported mode, the capability is much longer as the chamber is powered and supplied from the fixed installed tunnel supply lines.

Whilst this was a mining incident, the lessons from it should be taken on board by the tunnelling industry. The issues in question are fully covered in the ITA Report 14 Guidelines for the provision of refuge chambers in tunnels under construction.

Dr Donald Lamont, Animateur ITA WG5

Integrity of ventilation in safety chambers

Very interesting article. Can someone please offer some thoughts on why ventilation pipes appear to have been damaged such that they fail to perform the function for which they were designed?

Kevin Grover

Integrity of air supply lines

All pipes that supply air to rescue chambers should be of a screwed thread type connection. The use of small bore clamped connections, with rubber seal inserts, could fail due to the heat, resulting in air loss at connection.

Raymond Kryhul, MCD Group, UK

TunnelTalk ANNUAL REVIEW 2018

Unexpected cavern encountered in France p61 Sevastopol Bay immersed tube planned p69

Renewed momentum for Helsinki-Tallinn fixed link p16 TBM rebuild for Albany Park, Chicago p54

Original bids for Bangalore Metro Phase II underground cancelled p76

Breakthroughs for Suez Canal underpasses p83 George A. Fox Conference, New York, USA

JANUARY

Designers engaged for UK HS2 stations p64

FEBRUARY

Record advance for Istanbul Metro p70

MARCH

Record breaking TBM performance for Jilin, China p74

TRIBUTES 2018 p98

Lesotho Highlands Phase II preparations p81

TBM excavation begins for Kuala Lumpur Line 2 p72

Russia plans construction of Sakhalin Island fixed link p70

Final elements installed for Marieholm crossing, Sweden p66

• Zdzislaw T (Richard) Bieniawski 1936-2017 • Franz Pacher 1919-2018 • Don Deere 1922-2018 • Christian Grantz 1929-2018 • George D Yoggy 1937-2018 • David Donaldson died 2018

TunnelTalk Annual Review 2018

TIMELINE OF THE YEAR A month-by-month snapshot of major tunnelling and underground construction industry events during 2018 Launches and breakthroughs, contract awards and planned projects, key industry news and developments, mergers and acquisitions, honours and tributes, conferences and events, and much more...

T: +43 (0)7232 34 5520 E: office@alba.at www.alba.at

Intermediate breakthroughs for Perth TBMs after settlement concerns p46

California High Speed Rail progress p53 Appeal overturn of original Glendoe collapse ruling p34

Brenner Baseline: Major contracts awarded as work progresses p24

APRIL

DSI Australia acquired Fero Group p95 COWI purchased select ILF US tunneling assets p94 UK approved Silvertown highway tunnel for London p63

Breakthrough for first TBM drive in Albania p68

MAY

Breakthrough ahead of schedule at Jilin, China p74 North American NAT conference p30 UCA of SME Awards, USA, p97

WestConnex progress as M4-M5 link awarded p47

JUNE

Funding secured for single-bore BART extension to San Jose p52

BTS Gala Dinner, London p97 UK potash mine: Shaft sinking progress and first TBM drive awarded p62 World Tunnel Congress, Dubai, p33 New merger for Bauer and MAT p96

MWD fills funding shortfall for two-tunnel WaterFix p56

l Erection plant l Machine requirements l Microtunnelling l Drill&Blast tunnelling l Air pressure supply l Concrete formwork engineering l Special civil engineering l Shot concrete engineering l TBM tunnelling l Freezing engineering l Wearing protection TEE l Pipe-Systems GUARAN ALITY OF QU l Draining

l Installation de chantier l NATM creusement l Béton Projeté/Gunite l TBM-creusement l Le microtunnelier l Alimentation d’air comprimé l Travaux publics spécialisés l La technologie à tube l Coffrage l Système de tuyauterie l forage & dynamiter l La technologie à givrer

A.S.T. Bochum GmbH fon: 00 49 (0) 2 34/5 99 63 10 • www.astbochum.de

Dual-mode TBMs used for Czech rail upgrades p71

Poland: First TBM rail tunnel awarded p71

BREATHE THE DIFFERENCE +49 2043 4811-0 mail@cft-gmbh.de

www.cft-gmbh.de

Sweden pushed ahead with more road and rail transportation contracts p66 TBMs ordered for Singapore DTSS Phase 2 p79 ISO certification for gaskets manufacturer p85

Double breakthrough in Lucknow p76

cibe Innovative Thinking

Global Infrastructure Cost Consultants www.cibe.associates 03330110666

Cost Innovate Benchmark Enable

Double TBM breakthrough for Follo Line twin-tube p17 Impressive TBM progress rates recorded in Nepal p19

TBM confirmed for Hampton Roads undersea link p51

InnoTrans, Berlin, Germany Success for China-Canada partnership p89

Company developments at Normet p87

Hydro development projects in Lao p78

JULY

TBMs accepted for the Dubai stormwater project p82

AUGUST Refuge chamber installations considered after South African mine fatalities p37

TBMs completed Red Line of Tel Aviv Metro p80

SEPTEMBER

Cross passage sinkhole halted work in Perth p46 Final TBM breakthrough for KAT2 on Koralm rail line, Austria p68

Twin Crossover TBMs prepared for Mumbai Metro drives p75

Twin bore confirmed at Biakal for Siberian Silk Road railway p69

Rastatt a year after collapse p34

Crossover TBM powered through in Akron p52

Norway called proposals for Rogfast deep undersea highway p24 Tight squeeze for Singapore sewer drives p78

Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao sea link opens p11 Grand Paris Metro progress p61 JIMT acquired 50% of Terratec p92

Bhutan hydro tunnels bids sought p20 New Zealand selects contractor for wastewater project p48

BTS Conference, UK p8 Auckland called Rail Link proposals p49

WestConnex final contract for Rozelle interchange awarded p47 Second transit tube planned for San Francisco Bay p52 bauma CONEXPO, Delhi, India, p8

Winners of the 2018 ITA Awards p45 Los Angeles sewer bid result p54

Chinese EPBM shipped to Qatar p82

Thames Tideway TBMs launched p14

OCTOBER

NOVEMBER

Tough drive through in Atlanta p58 Threatened termination of KVMRT Line 2 underground works p72 Geomechanics Colloquium, Salzburg

More money and time confirmed to complete Crossrail p64

DECEMBER

Munich rail plans and progress p60 Mega slurry TBM ready for Chunfeng project p74

INTO 2019 • Seattle SR99 highway opened p50

bauma China, Shanghai, China

• Fehmarn fixed link approved p16 • Melbourne mega TBM arrived p22

Canada saluted top class engineering p98

• Rail progress in Stuttgart p60 • Kuala Lumpur KVMRT Line 2 continued p72 • Follo Line TBM boring completed p17 • Hampton Roads contract awarded p51 • Chinese TBM a first in Africa p80 • Mühlhäuser acquired NFM p84 • Normet management changes p87

Heavyweight for hard rock in Japan p13

Milan progressed Metro Line 4 p59

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• CREG partnered with Metalliance p91

Winners of the eight categories of the 2018 ITA Awards were recognised by ITA President Tarcisio Celestino (centre)

Winners of the 2018 ITA Awards

F

ollowing a day-long conference of presentations by the finalists of the 2018 series of the ITA Awards, the winners were announced at the gala evening banquet held in Chuzhou, Nanjing city in China and in conjunction with the 20th CTUC, Chinese Tunnels and Underground Works Conference. The eight Award categories created a conference programme of presentations ranging from safety initiatives and technical innovations to projects in three categories of scope and value, from the smallest, but nevertheless complex and demanding, to the largest of more than €500 million.

Major Project of the Year of more than €500 million was awarded to the immersed tube tunnel of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao sea link in China.

At 5.6km long, it is the longest highway immersed tunnel in the world. It required several innovations to meet the many challenges presented by the logistics and stringent design criteria (see video report p8 and article p11).

Category finalists: • China’s Mega Water Project: Jilin Yinsong Water Supply (China) • West Qinling Tunnel on Lanzhou-Chongqing Railway (China) • Liantang/Heung Yuen Wai Boundary Control Point site formation and infrastructure works (Hong Kong, China) Project of the Year of between €50 million and €500 million was awarded to another project in China, the Queershan Tunnel on the National Road 317. Design and construction engineers had to overcome the technical challenges associated with construction at high elevation and under extreme cold climate conditions to provide a yearround highway route through the high mountains between China and Tibet.

Category finalists: • Gongbei tunnel of the Hong Kong-ZhuhaiMacau bridge (China) • Foshan Dongping Tunnel (China) • Vamma 12 hydropower project (Norway) A shallow tunnel excavated beneath operating railways in Tehran, Iran, was the winner of the Project of the Year of up to €50 million. The €6.5 million Zarbalizadeh road tunnel passes under the Tehran Metro Line 1 and the north-south mainline railway. A multi-drift NATM sequence excavated safe passage without settlement damage or interruption to services.

Category finalists: • Kaikoura earthquake recovery main north line tunnels (New Zealand)

• Trenchless construction of Bukit Panjang MRT entrance and underpass (Singapore) • Maroggia railway tunnel enlargement project (Switzerland)

• Excavation of a tunnel with traditional methods, through rocks containing natural asbestos, safeguarding workers and preserving the external environment (Italy)

A large section 10.95m high x 11.9m wide horseshoe-shaped EPBM, designed and manufactured by CREG of China and used for the first time in China, was awarded the Technical Innovation Project of the Year. Advantages of the multiple cutter head TBM include reduced TBM manufacturing costs, increased utilisation ratio of the tunnel cross section, and reduced excavation and construction materials.

Category finalists: • TBM entry works under sea level near the Bosphorus (Istanbul, Turkey) • Velstertunnel Project; Integrated BIM for failure free retrofitting of a motorway tunnel: innovation creates a fixed link between contractor and stakeholders (Netherlands)

The Rock Blasting Museum in Norway is the winner of the Innovative Underground Space Concept of the Year. Located near the Winter Olympic Park in Lillehammer, the underground museum was created 25 years ago by the main stakeholders of the industry and is an informative journey through the history of Norwegian tunnelling and rock blasting. This is possibly the only purposebuilt tunnelling museum in the world.

Category finalists: • Underground pedestrian passage under Heiniucheng Road in Tianjin (China) • Ecological civilization construction and intensive land use of metro project (China)

The Technical Innovation Product or Equipment of the Year Award was presented to the engineers in China who have developed a multifunctional energy-storage and luminescent material (LUMA) for sustainable and energy-saving lighting for tunnels. LUMA as a product provides a non-flammable, anti-corrosion, self-cleaning finish that alleviates contamination to tunnel walls from car exhausts and increases in-tunnel visibility and air quality. It is estimated that LUMA has helped save RMB22 million in energy costs since its introduction in 2016.

Category finalists: • FlatMesh wireless system (UK) • Backfill grout for dilative soils (Germany) • Hard-rock TBM-mounted system for geological forward- prospecting (China) A semi-automatic drilling robot developed

by Bouygues of France in collaboration with Dragages of Hong Kong was awarded the Safety Initiative of the Year. The ROBY 850 replaces the human involvement in the process of setting out and drilling the holes for the brackets and fixtures in transportation tunnels and was first used for the M&E fit out of the Liantang/Heung Yuen Wai Boundary highway tunnel in Hong Kong.

Category finalists: • MineARC’s Aura-FX digital gas monitoring technology (Australia) • Site formation and infrastructure works for development of Anderson Road Quarry (Hong-Kong, China)

From the shortlisted group of very talented young engineers that includes He YingDao (China), Jack Muir (New Zealand), Senthilnath G T (India), Fredrikke S G Syversen (Norway), Mandy Ang (Malaysia) and Morteza Javadi (Iran), it was Giuseppe Gaspari of Italy who won the 2018 Young Tunneller of the Year.

Gaspari, born in 1983, holds a Degree in Civil Engineering, a Master in Geotechnics and a second level Master in Tunneling & TBMs. He has worked on projects in Italy, Singapore and Canada. He has been a steering board member for ITA-Young Members since 2016; an Executive Committee Member for WTC 2019 in Naples, Italy, and is a founder and president of the SIG, Italian Tunneling Society, Young Members. Congratulations to all.

The Lifetime Achievement Award for 2018 was presented to Dr Evert Hoek of Canada for his outstanding career in the science of rock mechanics. Hoek is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in the UK, a Foreign Associate of the USA National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering. Due to prior travelling commitments, Dr Hoek was not able to accept his award in person but sent his sincere thanks for the recognition by the ITA via video link.

The 2019 International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association (ITA) Awards will be held in the USA, when again the conference day of finalist presentations will draw together the best of the best from around the world. n Visit TunnelTalk.com to know of previous ITA Award winners since 2015.

From left: Horseshoe-shaped EPBM; Zarbalizadeh road tunnel underpass; LUMA energy-storage and luminescent material; Giuseppe Gaspari; Dr Evert Hoek

www.TunnelTalk.com

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Tough year for Perth airport link Shani Wallis, TunnelTalk

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y the end of 2018, the TBMs working on the 8km long Forrestfield-Airport link in Perth, Western Australia, were preparing to break into the Radcliffe Station box to mark completion of about 5km of the twin running tunnels. At the end of the year, owner of the project, the Public Transport Authority of Western Australia (PTA) also announced a year delay on completion of the new link due to problems encountered during the year that had to be overcome by design-build contractor, the Salini Impregilio-NRW JV. Most serious of these occurred early in the year when both TBMs were on hold to investigate two incidences of ground disturbance.

AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND

Ground losss investigation

The lead TBM had entered the airport precinct and was passing through the Ascot formation of non-cohesive granular material when two incidences of detected ground disturbance caused excavation to be suspended on 14 February. The trailing TBM was stopped on 28 March as it came within 40m of the lead TBM. According to information from the project owner, the disturbances were reported by project management staff to the contractor and took the form of surface depressions of about a metre deep in the vicinity of the cutterhead.

The PTA, the Salini Impreglio-NRW JV and the Perth Airport operator, worked together to allow full tunnelling operations to resume as soon as possible.

The two TBMs on the project are Herrenknecht variable density slurry TBMs which were specified for the project by the owner PTA after seeing the technology in operation on the Kuala Lumpur metro project in Malaysia.

The VD multi-mode TBM system is designed to operate in various combinations of EPB and slurry excavation techniques.

The two 7m diameter TBMs were launched from the Forrestfield working site in July and September 2017 and, “have been specifically designed for the Forrestfield project,” said Public Transport

Authority spokesman David Hynes. “Perth presents challenging geological conditions for tunnelling, with some elements of uncertainty to be expected in adapting the TBMs to varying ground conditions. This is the first time tunnelling has occurred in the non-cohesive granular material of the Ascot Formation and it was always known that this would present challenges.”

After a thorough investigation of the two incidences of ground loss, it was changes in operation of the TBMs that permitted them to restart. These changes included: changes to the pressure in the excavation chamber when excavating in the Ascot formation; continuous operation (no weekend stoppages) especially when tunnelling beneath airport infrastructure; and slurry and bentonite quality adjusted to reduce potential slurry losses.

The lead TBM restarted in mid-April and the trailing TBM was underway again before end of April and broke through into the Airport Central station box in May. After a month-long maintenance program, the machines moved across the station box to continue their journeys to Redcliffe Station some 2km further along the route (Fig 1).

Cross passage ground loss

In September 2018, work on the project was again suspended when ground loss at the breakout junction of the first cross passage to be excavated between the twin tube running tunnels created a sinkhole on the surface, bringing TBM progress to a halt and closing Dundas Road to traffic.

The incident caused no injuries or loss of excavation equipment but the TBMs some 3km and 2.5km ahead of the location remained on hold while the situation was recovered and access for the MSV multiservice vehicles to the advancing headings could be reinstated.

The cross passage being excavated was the first of 12 cross-passages required on the 8km twin tube alignment and is about 200m from the Forrestfield portals from where the two TBMs working on the project were launched in 2017. The oval cross passages, of about 5.7m high

Top: Fig 1. The lead TBM was stopped as it started its passage under Perth airport property from the east; Bottom: Fig 2. The parallel TBM drives pass under the airport to a station beneath the new central terminal

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x 4.7m wide at the widest point, vary in length and lie up to 26m deep to invert level. The ground is supported by blocks of pre-excavation jet-grouting and each cross passage is programmed to take up to two months to complete.

Cross passages under the airport property to link to the Perth Airport Station will be supported with ground freezing.

In addition to the 12 cross passages there are three emergency egress shafts and the cross passage connections to the running tunnels from the Abernethy emergency egress shaft had been completed successfully prior to the sinkhole incident.

The troubled cross passage is under a cover of about 9.4m to crown level and is about 4.8m long (measured between centrelines of the running tunnels or 8.2m long measured from crown-to-crown or invert-to-invert) (Fig 3). The jet-grout block had been installed around the cross passage profile and segments at the breakout points in both running tunnels had been removed prior to the incident.

According to PTA spokesman Hynes; “the inflow appears to have been from the bottom corner at the breakout interface between the cross passage and the running tunnel.” Despite remedial efforts, groundwater and silt continued to flow into the cross passage and into the running tunnel to create the sinkhole. “No equipment was lost and backfill concrete did not flow in to the cross passage or the running tunnel,” said Hynes.

The ground loss caused movement of about 10 rings of segmental lining near the point of the cross passage. Additional bracing was installed to support the tunnel while recovery work continued.

The AUS$1.176 billion lump sum design-build construction contract with the Salini Impregilo-NRW JV for the AUS$1.86 billion Forrestfield-Airport Link project was awarded in April 2016 and includes a ten year maintenance period from once the project is inaugurated. n

References

•

First VDM prepares for launch in Perth – TunnelTalk, July 2017

Top: Fig 3. Ground ran from a lower corner of the cross passage breakout; Bottom: Backfilling the sinkhole

www.TunnelTalk.com

TunnelTalk reporting

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onstruction of the AUD$16.8 billion WestConnex mega project in Sydney, moved ahead with award of the final underground contracts.

In December 2018, the final designbuild component of the project, for the complex multi-level Rozelle interchange and Iron Cove underground link, was awarded to a joint venture of John Holland and CPB Contractors. The AUD$3.9 billion contract will provide an underground motorway interchange to the WestConnex M4-M5 underground highway link as well as an underground bypass of Victoria Road, between Iron Cove Bridge and Anzac Bridge, and a link for the proposed future Western Harbour Tunnel (Figs 1 and 2).

Before that, in June 2018, construction of the twin tube mainline tunnel to link the new M4 and M5 underground highways was awarded to the Lendlease Engineering/Samsung C&T/Bouygues Construction (LSB) JV. The design-build contract includes up to 7.5km of twin fourlane tunnels plus associated ramps and supporting operational facilities to create a seamless underground motorway to bypass the city centre to the west (Fig 2).

Work on the transforming WestConnex highway began in 2015 with roadheader excavation through Sydney sandstone creating 22km of twin three- and fourlane tunnels.

Excavation of the 5.5km three-lane twintube tunnels on the M4 underground section between Homebush and Hubberfield was awarded in 2016 to the CPB Contractors/ Samsung/John Holland JV (Fig 2).

Excavation, including 50 cross passages, was completed in December 2017 using 21 roadheaders and 11 Robodrill bolting rigs.

WestConnex final contracts awarded Following the first underground breakthrough in July 2017, a further five across four construction access sites were achieved.

Paving and M&E installations are now under way for the M4 underground road to open to traffic in 2019.

Excavation of the 9km of twin threelane tunnels for the new $4.335 billion M5 underground highway, from Kingsgrove to a new St Peters Interchange was awarded in 2016 to the CPB Contractors/Dragados/ Samsung JV (Fig 2). Towards the end of 2018, roadheader excavation, including 75 cross passages, was nearing completion.

After reaching peak production by a fleet of 20 roadheaders and 11 Robodrill bolters working on a 24hr/day 7day/week basis from four construction sites.

The first of six breakthroughs on the project was achieved in May 2018 and the last in December 2018.

With excavation complete, the team is moving on to M+E fit-out, and road deck paving. The completed M5 highway is programmed to open to traffic in 2020.

Precision guidance

For excavation work on the project, a major contribution has been the software and hardware guidance systems supplied

by VMT to ensure the roadheaders excavated the designed tunnel profile accurately and bolters positioned their tunnel support correctly.

Having bid to provide navigation systems to the WestConnex M4 and M5 projects, VMT was awarded both. The

From top: Fig 1. Vital segment to link M4 and M5 underground highways; Fig 2. WestConnex will provide an unbroken 22km of underground highway challenge was then for VMT to deliver, commission and support some 57 navigation systems between May 2016 and 2019. The contracts required VMT to supply:

Top: Roadheader excavation of the underground highway with its rockbolting and shotcrete primary lining Middle: M4 contract - excavation, access to the surface and three-lane highway profile Bottom: M5 contract - portal area works, underground crosspassage junction and topheading side drift excavation

www.TunnelTalk.com

TunnelTalk ANNUAL REVIEW 2018

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AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND

• TUnIS navigation equipment for all roadheaders and bolters • TUnIS servers and software for each site office for the collection, analysis and management of machine data.

• Permanent service on site for system commissioning and support, plus training of surveyors, site engineers and operators.

In terms of performance, the VMT engineers on site agreed that the project was one of its biggest challenges to date.

The newly developed TUnIS roadheader software, previously SLS software, was being used for the first time but the programmers completed a good job to deliver the software before start of tunnelling.

In terms of the new hardware, previous hardware used on roadheaders had become obsolete, and needed to be updated.

The particular environment in tunnels and the continual vibration of the excavation machines had to be accounted for. By the end of M4 and M5 excavation all hardware had proven reliable.

One of the biggest challenges for VMT was the intense operation to install, survey and commission such a large number of units within a short deadline. Having completed the installation, the second part of the process was to train all the people how to use it. With operators, surveyors, electricians and engineers all involved with

VMT navigation systems positioned the machines for precise profiling for the roadheaders and accurate installation of bolting patterns maintaining the VMT guidance equipment, more than 100 people were required to learn the systems from VMT engineers.

In addition, the need to integrate the data output of the navigation systems from such a large number of units in operation across the duration of the projects, with the main office monitoring software internet connected, meant that VMT needed to effectively redesign the new navigation systems. This required significant development of the basic

Preferred contractor selected for Auckland interceptor TunnelTalk reporting

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he Ghella-Abergeldie Harker JV was selected as the preferred bidder for construction of the Central Interceptor wastewater tunnel in Auckland, New Zealand. It is selected from four contractors, the other three being CPB Contractors; the Pacific Networks JV of McConnell Dowell, Fletcher Construction and Obayashi; and a JV of Vinci, HEB Construction and Soletanche Bachy.

The new 4.5m diameter tunnel will run for 13km from Western Springs to a new pump station at the Mängere Wastewater Treatment Plant (Fig 1). As the largest to be undertaken in New Zealand, the new tunnel will reduce combined sewer overflows into Waitemata Harbour by at least 80% and direct all flow to the Mängere treatment plant.

The project has been on the Watercare agenda for many years and its funding is secured in the company pricing plan. “The Central Interceptor is part of the NZ$5.8

billion we will be spending on upgrading and expanding our infrastructure over the next decade,” said Watercare Chief Executive Raveen Jaduram.

“We had already completed the detailed design so all four contractors had a very clear understanding of our project, resulting in better pricing and less risk for both Watercare and the contractors,” said Jaduram.

Following due diligence to work on a range of conditions and issues relating to its bid, the Watercare team was to take a preferred bidder recommendation to its Board in the first quarter of 2019.

“The project is similar in many ways to the 3km long Hobson Bay wastewater tunnel that was completed between 2007 and 2010, but on a larger scale,” said Jaduram.

Construction will begin in 2019 and continue until 2025. n

References

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Underwater works for Hobson Bay – TunnelTalk, February 2009

roadheader navigation system and its internet connectivity.

The type and range of information that the systems are required to collect and process includes operating data, such as power consumption, hydraulic pressures and other operational factors, that can be used to monitor machine performance remotely. Information such as the path of the cutterhead in relation to the face and the pre-designed profile of the tunnel cross-section enables cutter effectiveness in relation to the local geology to be established and the accuracy of the cut to the required profile to be understood. This information could also be used for operator training purposes.

“The WestConnex projects have been very much the biggest challenge faced to date by the company,” said Alexander Höfer, VMT Product Manager. “Our staff in Australia and at the head office in Germany were all part of the achievements.”

“Teamwork with the contractors has also proven a major factor in the successes achieved,” said VMT Project Engineer, Dan McPhail.

When completed by 2023, the 22km of mainline underground highway will accommodate tens of thousands of vehicles per day, bypassing up to 52 sets of traffic lights on surface routes and reducing an average peak journey between Parramatta and Sydney Airport, for example, by up to 40 minutes.

Australia is continuing its ambitious programme of underground infrastructure with underground works for road and rail progressing and being planned in each of the States. As a projection, the Australian Industry Group has estimated an annual growth rate in roadwork projects in the country at about 21% for 2018-2019, and about 19% for rail projects. The Australian Government plans to invest about AUD$75 billion (more than US$56 billion) in public works, including roads, rail and other transport infrastructure, between 2018 and 2027. This constitutes about 9% of the nation’s gross domestic product. n

References •

•

Fig 1. New interceptor to be built up to 110m under the city

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Australia examines terrific regional workload – TunnelTalk, November 2017 WestConnex secures Aust$1.7 billion in funding – TunnelTalk, December 2016

www.TunnelTalk.com

Proposals called for Auckland rail link TunnelTalk Reporting

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www.TunnelTalk.com

Above: Open cut work to gain access under the Post Office building Inset: Open cut work along Albert Street Rail Link is the largest infrastructure project ever undertaken in New Zealand and is on track to be completed in 2024. n

References •

Alliance procurement of New Zealand Waterview project – TunnelTalk, July 2017

AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND

roposals from two shortlisted tenderers for construction of the Contract 3 stations and tunnels for the City Rail Link project in Auckland were called in October 2018. The two groups competing for the competitive alliance procurement contract are: • Downer New Zealand, Vinci Construction, Soletanche Bachy, with engineers AECOM, Tonkin & Taylor, WSP Opus • CPB Contractors, UGL (NZ), and engineers Beca, McMillen Jacobs and Jacobs New Zealand The request for proposals phase is programmed to be completed by February 2019 with a contract award by the end of March 2019.

Contract 3 of the new underground rail line for the city comprises about 3.4km of 7m diameter twin bored running tunnels to link two underground stations at Aotea and Karangahape with a grade separated junction within mined caverns to connect with two cut-and-cover tunnels to form a connection with the existing North Auckland rail line at the existing Mt Eden Station (Fig 1). Aotea station will be constructed in a 300m long cutand-cover box to about 15m deep and the Karangahape Station will be a mined station at about 32m deep comprising two platform caverns and a concourse cavern leading to escalators and lifts to the surface (Fig 2).

Construction work on the underground rail project started in 2016 with award of the first two and most challenging contracts located at the city centre end of the line to convert Britomart station from its current terminus configuration to a through station (Fig 1).

Under Contract 1, awarded to the Downer NZ / Soletanche Bachy JV in 2016, the station is completely trans-configured from a five-platform terminus station to a two-terminus platforms and two throughtrain platforms station.

Work has continued with excavation of a 14m deep trench that will contain the project’s twin rail tunnels under Britomart Station and Lower Queen Street. Box excavation is scheduled to be finished by mid-2019.

Meanwhile, the Connectus JV of McConnell Dowell and Downer, has been advancing a length of open cut work along Albert Street to connect eventually to Britomart Station. Fletcher Construction is working on a cut and cover alignment for the rail link through the Precinct area of downtown and the Commercial Bay development.

Funded jointly by the New Zealand Government and the Auckland City Council, the 3.45km twin-track underground City

Above: Fig 1. Route of the new underground railway line Below: Fig 2. Topography of the new line

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Seattle underground highway opened TunnelTalk reporting

THE AMERICAS

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50

he Seattle foreshore and the city’s traffic flow was transformed forever when traffic on the elevated Alaskan Way viaduct was redirected through its replacement double-deck highway tunnel under the heart of the city on the weekend of 2 and 3 February 2019. After seven years in construction, the supersized 17.4m o.d. TBM bored tunnel opened in grand celebrations and makes way for demolition of the ageing, earthquake-damaged structure that has blighted the seafront for more than 60 years.

As part of the project, the Battery Street Tunnel on the route to the viaduct will also close forever and be backfilled to avoid any further access. Several ideas had been considered for alternative uses for the tunnel, but its age and condition would require significant structural and system upgrades to be safe for any ongoing use. As a result, project owner WSDOT (the Washington State Department of Transportation) had a legal obligation to decommission the tunnel.

Leading up to the grand opening weekend and through 2018, the SR99 tunnel contractor, STP - Seattle Tunnel Partners - completed the double-deck roadway and installed and tested thousands of components that together make up the tunnel operating systems.

Systems include more than 300 CCTV cameras as well as automatic ventilation systems, to keep air quality and visibility high, and automated sprinkler systems designed to extinguish fires at source.

The tunnel is designed for all types of traffic, including heavy goods vehicles, and its ventilation system is based on longitudinal jet fans for normal operation and supplemental exhaust systems to operate in emergencies.

As vehicles push fresh air through the tunnel using the piston effect, electronic sensors on the tunnel walls will automatically activate jet fans to pull fresh air from the portals along the two road decks of the tunnel.

If there is a vehicle fire within the tunnel, large exhaust fans at the base of the ventilation stacks at the tunnel portals will be activated to suck exhaust and smoke through louvers on the tunnel wall, into the ventilation corridor on one side of the tunnel and out through the stacks at the ventilation buildings.

The ceilings of the 2km long doubledeck roadways are also lined with more than 13km of fibre optic heat sensors. If heat is detected by a fire, staff in the traffic management centre will activate the system of tunnel sprinklers, which are installed in 100 separate safety zones allowing only sprinklers in the zone of the fire incident to activate.

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Route of existing and new SR99 highway \In a two-minute test of the deluge sprinkler system, 6,400 gallons of water poured out of the overhead sprinklers along a 216ft section of the upper road deck.

If there were to be an emergency, flashing lights lead evacuating drivers and passengers to the exit doors into the safety corridor built into the side for the large diameter tunnel which is equipped with its own positive-pressure ventilation system that keeps it supplied with fresh air at all times.

In total, the SR99 highway tunnel has approximately: 150km of electrical wiring; 34km of sprinkler pipes; 25km of lights; 21km of fibre optic cables and 13km of linear heat detectors.

Once all installed, the thousands of components involved will be tested and tested again. First to make sure they work as they should, then to make sure they work as a system, and then to ensure that all systems are integrated and function as a single integrated operational network.

STP reached substantial completion of its contract in October 2018 and turned over control and ownership of the tunnel to WSDOT which continued systems testing and training of tunnel operations and emergency response staff.

In May 2018, Kiewit Infrastructure West was awarded with the contract to remove the viaduct, close and seal the Battery Street Tunnel, and rebuild surface streets near the tunnel north portal. Demolition of the viaduct will continue until end 2019/early 2020.

TunnelTalk has followed development and progress of the viaduct replacement tunnel since its earliest days of feasibility and has tracked all the challenges and triumphs of the project. TunnelTalk’s

From top: Jet fans installed to provide longitudinal ventilation; Exhaust ventilation will activate in event of in-tunnel fire reporting on the project’s development, construction contract and TBM selected to complete the excavation, the breakdown and repair of the TBM, the relaunch of the repaired machine, the steady progress to final breakthrough in April 2018, and the strained relationships between the parties to the project in efforts to recover the extra costs of the delays and the TBM repair and recovery, is all chronicled in the online TunnelTalk.com reference archive. n

References •

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Seattle replacement tunnel approved TunnelTalk, April 2009 Alaskan Way contract signed – TunnelTalk, January 2011 Technical parameters of mega EPBM – TunnelTalk, December 2012 Management changes for Bertha restart – TunnelTalk, February 2016 Insurers refuse TBM breakdown claim – TunnelTalk, August 2015

Below (from top): Impression of revived Seattle waterfront; Earthquake damaged viaduct to be demolished

www.TunnelTalk.com

It will be a TBM bored tunnel to increase capacity under the Chesapeake Bay shipping channel

TunnelTalk reporting

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n May 2018, it was confirmed that a TBM, rather than a second immersed tube, would provide the urgently needed parallel carriageway for the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel crossing under Chesapeake Bay between Hampton and Norfolk in Virginia.

In February 2019, the design-build contract for the new TBM bored tunnel was awarded to Hampton Roads Connector Partners, the group led by Dragados USA with lead designers HDR and Mott MacDonald and partner contractors Flatiron Constructors, Vinci Construction, and Dodin Campenon Bernard.

The new 7,500ft (2.2km) long tunnel for the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) will provide a second two-lane carriageway between the two man-made transition islands to the trestle bridges either side and will run parallel to the existing immersed tube that was built in the early 1970s.

The decision to adopt a bored tunnel solution overturned a project study in 2008 that suggested a TBM operation would be unlikely on account of the looseness of the geology in the upper layers of a bored tunnel alignment and the deeper alignment of a TBM tunnel that would result in a significantly longer tunnel. Modern TBM machines overcome both of these concerns.

The specified TBM decision was also based on confirmation that two of three shortlisted competing teams would bid only on the bored-tunnel option. A competitive bid for the project was submitted

by Hampton Roads Capacity Constructors comprising Fluor Enterprises, Lane Construction, Traylor Bros and Dragages with lead designer AECOM. A third shortlisted competitor was removed from the process after confirming a bid based only on an immersed tube.

The project was estimated at between US$3.3-3.8 billion and the contract with the Dragados-led team is for a fixed price of $3.3 billion and a fixed completion date of 1 November 2025, a date that will not arrive soon enough for users of the current two-lane bi-directional crossing between the four-lane carriageways on the trestle bridges across the Bay either side.

Although the immersed-tube method has created 10 of the existing highway crossings of Chesapeake Bay, technological advances have made bored tunnels feasible in the region’s soft

Hampton Roads undersea TBM drive awarded soils. The preference for the immersed tube option was broken in July 2016 when the 5,710ft (1,740m) long parallel tunnel to double capacity of the immersed tube under the Thimble Shoals channel in the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel crossing was awarded to the US$755 million design-build TBM alternative presented also by Dragados in joint venture with its US subsidiary Schiavone.

The Dragados/Schiavone Chesapeake Tunnel JV (CTJV) has procured a 12.8m diameter Herrenknecht EPBM for the 1,740m long Thimble Shoals drive and is yet to confirm the TBM supplier for the Hampton Roads project where the geology is said to be slightly different but the concept for completing the two projects is similar. n

References

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Hampton Roads crossing plans revitalized in USA – TunnelTalk, July 2017 EPBM for Thimble Shoals parallel tunnel – TunnelTalk, August 2017 Thimble Shoals tunnel contract award – TunnelTalk, July 2016

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26/01/2017 19:23

BART to San Jose and second transbay crossing Shani Wallis, TunnelTalk

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THE AMERICAS

TBM of about 45ft (13.7m) diameter would be needed to excavate a single-bore option approved by project owners for the 5 mile (8km) extension of the BART rapid transit system to San Jose and Silicon Valley in Northern California. The single-tube, double-track tunnel would also accommodate the platforms for two of the four stations on the extension that lie beneath downtown San Jose (Fig 1).

The single-bore option is promoted by consulting engineer HNTB among others, and was approved by the VAT Board of Directors and by the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, responsible for delivering the BART

extension into downtown San Jose and Santa Clara, and by BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) Board of Directors as operator of the San Francisco rail system.

The single-bore design is described as meeting industry and BART facility standards for operations and safety and as minimising construction impacts of the more traditional twin-tube single track running tunnels and associated open-cut station box construction. It is also reported as expecting to shorten the four-year construction program by 10 months and reducing construction costs by about $50 million.

Funding for the $4.8 billion project will be sourced via multiple funding vehicles including US$730 million in State funding from the gas tax of California, a request for $1.5 billion in Federal Government grants including from the New Starts program, and the balance from the 2000 Measure A half-cent sales tax ($1 billion), the State of California and its Traffic Congestion Relief Program (TCRP) ($160 million), the 2016 Measure B, half-cent sales tax ($1.5 billion), and a maximum of $750 million from the Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program.

Construction is programmed to begin in 2019 towards starting services in 2026.

As a next step in project development, VTA organised a forum for 15 May 2018 to Left: Fig 1. BART extension to downtown San Jose; Below: The transbay tube route

provide information about the upcoming RFP (request for proposals) for general engineering consultants and to invite DBE (disadvantaged business enterprise) and SBE (small business enterprise) firms to participate in the project’s procurement phases.

Early steps are also being taken by BART to create a second rail crossing under San Francisco Bay, although it is too early to say if it will be an immersed tube. For now, BART and Capitol Corridor partners are calling it the second Transbay Rail Crossing. Construction is intended to start within the next 10 years as projections show demand for Transbay transit will outpace capacity by 2040 in medium or high demand growth scenarios.

At a presentation to the Board, BART and its Capitol Corridor partner showed that a companion to the existing Transbay immersed tube crossing could link together the megaregion of the peninsula, Silicon Valley and San Francisco city with East Bay, Sacramento and Central Valley communities.

BART plans an economic impacts report and intends to use a feasibility study to narrow multiple alternatives for the second crossing to a short list of two to four options.

Next steps include awarding a contract for the feasibiility study in mid-2019. Tenders are invited to provide Strategic Advising and Program Management Services for the new crossing on a five-year agreement, with a unilateral option to extend the agreement for up to four additional five-year periods, for a maximum agreement term of 25 years. n

References • • •

Crossover TBM powers through in Akron Desiree Willis, Technical Writer, The Robbins Company

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ough ground conditions were overcome along the 2km drive by the time the 9.26m (30.4ft) diameter Robbins Crossover XRE TBM crossed the finish line to complete the Akron Ohio Canal interceptor sewer in late August 2018. The XRE TBM faced-down soft, mixed and full-face shale rock

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TBM was designed specifically to attack the anticipated geology along the alignment that transitioned from soil to partial face shale and into full face shale rock.

“One of the most challenging aspects of this job was that we launched right into the most difficult part of the drive,” said David Chastka, Project Manager for Kenny Construction, a JV partner on the project with Obayashi. “We had 60m of soft ground and then right into a mixed face for 180m. It took a lot of effort to fight through that first 240m.”

As well as combining features of EPB and hard rock single shield TBM types, the Crossover XRE machine, the first such machine to operate in the USA, was fitted with a cutterhead that could be configured for hard rock or soft ground conditions.

The machine operated in closed mode in soft ground and mixed face conditions, and once it hit solid rock crews switched excavation to open mode. A Robbins continuous conveyor muck removal system maintained high availability throughout and

Single bore option for BART to San Jose – TunnelTalk, June 2017 A slow road for BART to San Jose – TunnelTalk, May 2007 Seismic retrofit for BART – TunnelTalk, March 2004

supported better than anticipated advance rates. “The machine had the power and made advance rates that we never thought we were going to achieve,” said Chastka.

“It was particularly successful in hard rock when advance rates once in full-face shale rock reached a high of 34m in one day of two 10-hour operating shifts.”

After achieving breakthrough, the machine was disassembled for removal from its retrieval shaft.

“The Ohio Canal CSO interceptor is a significant investment in our infrastructure,” said City of Akron Mayor Daniel Horrigan.

“Projects of this kind are inherently difficult, and we were pleased to work with Robbins as a local Northeast Ohio firm on this significant project.” The TBM was designed and built in the Robbins factory in Solon, Ohio.

“The amount of daily cooperation and hard work asked of the local unions, City staff, the Kenny-Obayashi JV and The Robbins Company was important in reaching our common goals,” said Don Smida, Robbins Field Service Technician. n

References •

First Crossover TBM for the USA – TunnelTalk, June 2017

www.TunnelTalk.com

www.TunnelTalk.com

Excavation methods will need to address several active fault zones that exist near the tunnel alignments and karst features identified in the marble limestone units.

For the 38-mile to 44-mile (61km to 71km) Palmdale to Burbank section, three alignment alternatives are being studied, each involving tunneling beneath the Los Angeles National Forest and within the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument (Fig 4).

The westerly SR14 alignment consists of seven tunnels ranging up to 9.5 miles (15.3km) long while the E1 and E2 easterly alignments have four and two tunnels, respectively, ranging up to 20 miles (32km) long. Ground cover ranges from less than 400ft (122m) to more than 1,000ft (305m).

Geologic conditions range from massive, very strong granitic and gneissic rocks to weak alluvial soils. Several formation contacts, geologic contacts and fault crossings are anticipated and could be highly weathered and behave as conduits for groundwater flow.

It is anticipated that rock masses will be hydrothermally altered due to tectonic activity. Crushed or sheared rock and high groundwater inflows are expected within the three fault zones crossed by the alignment.

Potential hydrostatic groundwater pressures of more than 50 bar could be encountered beneath the National Forest.

Groundwater control will be important in water-bearing soil and rock and especially where inflows may result in unacceptable environmental impacts. The entire study area crosses a complex geologic zone of structural folding and faulting in which additional considerations include: influence of high groundwater pressures on the tunnel lining design; wear of tunneling Fig 3. Bakersfield to Palmdale through the Tehachapi Mountains, proposed tunnels in purple

California High Speed Rail designs Randy Anderson, California High-Speed Rail Authority and Steve Dubnewych, WSP USA equipment; variable ground conditions associated with cohesionless alluvium fault zones; and crossing of the active San Gabriel and San Madre fault zones.

A fault chamber or special tunnel lining design is needed for crossing active faults to avoid rupture and possible collapse of the operating tunnels due to displacement induced by a seismic event.

A design-build approach is expected to be adopted for procurement and construction of the tunnel elements of the project. Geotechnical investigations currently underway will provide data required for preparation of geotechnical baseline reports (GBR) to support the procurement and construction processes.

The Southern California tunnels will trail the northern segment by several years with geotechnical investigations continuing to support the planning and environmental process and eventually contribute to preparation of procurement contracts. n

References

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Passenger demand exists for US high-speed rail, TunnelTalk, November 2015 Governor signs California HSR funding bill – TunnelTalk, July 2012

THE AMERICAS

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onstruction has started and is progressing on the 119 mile (191km) Central Valley section of the California High Speed Rail project, and the San Jose to Merced segment of about 113 miles (182km), in Northern California, will be the next to go into construction.

The California High Speed Rail (HSR) system will require up to 60km of complex tunnel excavation to provide a new rail service of more than 800 miles (1,287km) to connect Sacramento, the San Francisco Bay Area and the San Joaquin Valley to Los Angeles, the Inland Empire, Orange County and San Diego (Fig 1). The San Jose to Merced section cuts through the rugged California Coast Range at the Pacheco Pass in Northern California, while in Southern California the route passes through the Tehachapi and San Gabriel Mountains.

Several alternative routes are being considered for the Pacheo Pass tunnel, and a comprehensive geotechnical investigation program is underway. Three to four tunnels ranging from 1.7 miles to 10.5 miles (2.7km to 17km) long, under a cover of 200ft to more than 1,000ft (61m to 305m) and of about 28ft (8.5m) internal diameter will be required for the twin tube configuration (Fig 2).

Previous tunnels constructed in the area encountered thick-bedded, moderately to widely fractured sandstone and intensely fractured siltstone and shale as well as a Franciscan Complex mélange and greywacke, with some siltstone and chert.

Ground instability, raveling conditions, overbreak and squeezing ground are predicted conditions, and precautions to deal with methane gas will be required in the Franciscan Complex. Groundwater inflows are likely not to be an issue, although deeper alignments could encounter significant groundwater pressures.

In the south the Bakersfield to Palmdale section of approximately 80 miles (130km) travels through the Tehachapi Mountains and descends into the Antelope Valley, traversing urban, rural and agricultural lands (Fig 3).

Tunnels are required to meet both grade and horizontal curvature limitations and to minimize impact on existing infrastructure.

Nine tunnels have been identified along the alignment with configurations of either single bore double-track tunnels or singletrack twin-tube bores ranging from 0.3 miles to 2.5 miles (483m to 4km) long and for a total length of 8.8 miles to 9.7 miles (14km to 16km) depending on the selected alignment.

A wide range of conditions will be encountered through short lengths of weak sedimentary material containing large hardrock boulders. The longer hard-rock tunnels will likely contain zones of heavily fractured, weathered and altered rock. Evaluations of surface outcrops indicate a range of very good to poor conditions. Rock fractures may also connect to underlying sedimentary rocks that yield oil and gas and to oil and gas wells to the southeast of Bakersfield.

The three most northerly tunnels will likely be situated below the groundwater table where water inflow, tunnel stability and tunnel dewatering will be issues to manage.

Below: Fig 1.

Dedicated highspeed rail route; Right: Fig 2. San Jose to Merced Pacheco Pass tunnels

Fig 4. Longest tunnels are on the Palmdale to Burbank route through the San Gabriel Mountains

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Los Angeles effluent outfall bid result

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THE AMERICAS

TunnelTalk Reporting

ragados emerged as the lowest of five bids received for the 7 mile long x 18ft i.d. (11.25km x 5.5m i.d.) effluent tunnel in Los Angeles. With a bid of US$630.5 million, the bid comes in just narrowly under the second bidder and more than $30 million below the highest bidder (Table 1). The engineer’s estimate for the design-bid-build contract is $664 million.

The new 18ft i.d. TBM excavated tunnel is the main element of a longterm plan by the Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County to provide sufficient capacity and make redundant two existing effluent conveyance tunnels built more than half a century ago. The existing tunnels, connecting the treatment plant in the city of Carson to the sea outfalls on the coast, came into service in 1937 and 1958 and cannot be taken out of service for inspection and maintenance or repair as they now run at full capacity constantly.

The new tunnel, following public right of way where possible, is longer than the more direct route of the two existing tunnels, and passes through the seismically active Palos Verdes Fault zone (Fig 1). The full 11.25km length of the new tunnel will be excavated as a single heading drive as there are no

Table 1. Public bid opening Bidder Dragados USA Inc FCC Southland Mole JV Lane Obayashi JV Skanska Kenny JV Frontier-Kemper/Michels JV

results Bid price $630,500,000 $630,860,959 $653,000,000 $655,997,000 $665,700,000

Fig 1. Routes of the two existing tunnels and the new tunnel across the Palos Verdes Fault zone

opportunities on the route to sink intermediate working shafts. For passage across a number of fault splays within the 75,000ft (2.3km) wide Palos Verdes Fault zone, a 16ft (4.9m) i.d. steel pipe will be back-filled into the primary precast segmental lining.

During certain times, flow in the new tunnel will have to be pumped rather than flowing by gravity and this will subject the tunnel to higher internal pressures and place the liner into a tension situation. Since internal flow pressures will not be consistently high, fitting long sections of secondary steel lining would be costly. As an alternative the tunnel will feature the first use in the USA of a posttensioned segmental lining. Up to 40% of the alignment will feature post tensioning which will require production of the segments with a tensioning pocket through which a tendon can be fed and both ends joined and tightened to a specified force.

Designed for the owner by Parsons Corporation in association with McMillen Jacobs Associates, the TBM tunnel is likely to take up to 54 months to complete. The type of TBM and its cutter head diameter required to accommodate the 18ft (5.5m) i.d. is being left to the successful contractor.

Within their tenders, the competing bidders were required to price various specific items including hyperbaric interventions for tool changes, the potential for having to free the TBM from squeezing ground, the handling and disposal of contaminated ground and removal of any abandoned oil wells that might be encountered on this Southern Californian drive. n

References • •

Details of Los Angeles effluent outfall tunnel procurement – TunnelCast, December 2015 Breaking new ground on LA outfall tunnel – TunnelTalk, June 2015

Rebuilt machine for another drive in Chicago Robbins News Release

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rebuilt Robbins main beam hard rock TBM achieved a best day of 39.5m and a best five day week of 146.4m during excavation for the Albany Park stormwater diversion tunnel in Chicago, USA. The TBM, owned by project contractor Kenny Construction since the 1990s and used on several projects before, was rebuilt and modified for the Albany Park project with

help from Robbins, who repaired an existing cutterhead and added segments to increase the machine from 5.2m to 6.2m diameter.

“Rebuilding TBMs has always been a core part of the Robbins business,” said Steve Smading, Robbins Engineering Manager. “A rebuilt machine with updated systems offers financial and schedule advantages without increasing risk. Boring diameters can be increased or decreased and machine configurations changed. A

From left: The 6.2m diameter Robbins main beam used at Albany Park; Rebuilt by Kenny Construction with modifications from Robbins

single shield can be reconfigured as a double shield, or vice versa, and a main beam TBM can be reconfigured as a shielded machine.

Soft ground machines can be configured for different geologies and can be set up as either slurry or EPB.” More than 50% of Robbins main beam gripper TBMs have been used on three or more projects and many are reaching more than 50km of use. The TBM used for the Albany Park project was used previously for tunnel drives in the Dominican Republic, Saudi Arabia, New York and Chicago, completing a total of at least 19.5km.

For the project in Chicago, extensive modifications were made underground to the machine. “During boring we encountered approximately 30.4m of fractured ground that had to be supported with rolled channels, straps, and 19 full circle steel rings,” said Clay Spellman, Project Manager for contractor Kenny Construction. The drive was through dolomite with an average compressive strength of 64MPa UCS. n

References

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Demonstrating the value of refurbished TBMs – TunnelTalk, October 2015

www.TunnelTalk.com

Salini Impregilo News Release

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alini Impregilo and its US subsidiary The Lane Construction Corporation achieved breakthrough in March 2018 at the Dugway Storage Tunnel in Cleveland, Ohio. The $153-million project will help reduce the flow of raw sewage into Lake Erie.

The Herrenknecht TBM broke through after a 4.5km journey that had started in July 2017. The 8.2m tunnel, up to 70.1m deep, is lined with 7.3m i.d. precast segments. There are six shafts of varying diameters and depths on the project, as well as four gate structures, four control vaults, eight vent vaults, three drop manholes, one diversion structure and 550m of connecting tunnels and pipelines of various sizes, depths and lengths.

Delay in sinking the launch shaft was caused by difficult ground conditions, which included water bearing silt. After attempting several methods of water control, Salini Impregilo turned to ground freezing. Once through the water bearing silt, a concrete collar was poured around the area for stability.

The Dugway Storage Tunnel, set to go into service in 2019, is the second of seven tunnels commissioned by the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District to reduce CSOs under its 25-year, $3 billion project Clean Lake. n

Breakthrough at Cleveland clean up operation Breakthrough at Ohio interceptor

References •

Cleveland awards second CSO storage tunnel – TunnelTalk, November 2014

The world’s leading Tunnel Consultants

Elevated thinking, Underground Design. Management.

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TBM SEM | SCL | NATM Ground improvement Ground support Waterproofing Rehabilitation

Washington DC . New York . San Francisco . London Salzburg . Santiago de Chile . Singapore

www.gzconsultants.com

Funding secured for two-tunnel WaterFix in California

Shani Wallis, TunnelTalk

THE AMERICAS

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istoric decisions on the sharing of fresh water resources in California were made during 2018. At its April Board meeting, Directors of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) voted with a 60.8% majority to provide an extra US$6.5 billion in funding to finance full scope construction of the California WaterFix project that will secure supply and delivery of potable water from the bountiful north of the state to the needy south.

The extra funding secured construction of two parallel tunnels of 40ft diameter x 35 miles long (12m x 56km) and three new intakes on the Sacramento River to complete the full 9,000cfs (cubic ft/sec) capacity project in one fully-funded US$16.7 billion single construction programme (Fig 1). The funding shortfall option was to excavate one tunnel of 40ft diameter x 35 miles and two intakes for a 6,000cfs capacity and build the second tunnel and third intake under a second construction stage. Building one tunnel is not half the flow capacity as it is the system as a whole, with intakes, retention basins and pumping installations, the governs capacity of the scheme rather than the flow capacity of the tunnels in isolation.

The project is designed to upgrade the State’s water delivery system and aqueducts that deliver water from Northern California to farms and agricultural businesses in the Central Valley and to the residential and commercial users in the mega-conurbations of Southern California, including Los Angeles and San Diego.

About 30% of the water that flows to taps in Southern California comes from Northern California via the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta system of open canals, which is now in decline. Its 1,100-mile levee system is increasingly vulnerable to earthquakes, flooding, saltwater intrusion, sea level rise and environmental degradation.

The full capacity project of the California WaterFix has been studied for many years and in late 2017, the project beneficiaries – the water supply wholesalers and delivery authorities – were asked to commit their share to fund the near US$17 billion project to build two long tunnels and their infrastructure, to carry water under the Delta to pumping stations where it will be lifted into the existing water canals for conveyance to the south (Fig 1).

As the principal beneficiary serving nearly 19 million people in six counties of Southern California, MWD agreed its 26% share or about $5 billion. Realising the risks that the second phase would never be built, it increased its funding commitment to $10.8 billion, more than doubling the agency’s initially planned investment. A second vote by the Board in July 2018 again confirmed the MWD funding of about two-thirds of cost of the full scope project.

Funding of the full scope avoids the negatives associated with splitting the project in two. Under the staged approach, the cost of building two intakes and one tunnel, at about $1 1.1 billion, would delay investment of about $6 billion for the $17

From top: Fig 1. Schematic of the full project with the three intakes and two long conveyance tunnels; Fig 2. Projected schedule of the full $17 billion project realization over 18 years

billion full scheme. The reduced scope: • could save a possible year or two on the 18 year program of the full project, but • would result in potential permitting delays associated with changing the current project into a staged approach; • it would result in the permitting processes needing to be repeated for the second phase of a staged approach; and • the cost of completing the elements of stage two at a later date would be significantly more expensive in real terms.

MWD, as the primary investor in the project, has taken on the responsibility for ensuring the project is completed as originally proposed and studied.

The extra funding vote by the MWD Board, however, was far from a foregone conclusion. Those speaking against the proposal were speaking on behalf of the many households in Southern California that will find the increase in water rates a financial burden in reality.

Others criticized the fact that for its twothirds funding, MWD customers receive about a quarter of the project’s water supply, saying that MWD is paying for water to Central Valley farmers who have currently rejected their commitment to project funding.

MWD feels it will eventually secure deals with farmers to pay for their water delivery and recoup some of its contribution.

Members who found they could not support the proposal voiced concerns about: • the management of MWD to control the program • the cost of the construction project, and • the financial commitment now and into the future.

Those in support of the project cited the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans when authorities knew that ageing levees needed major overhaul but waited too long to commit to funding necessary reconstruction work and suffered the dreadful consequences.

The final vote in support of the extra funding for the full scope project is cited as a commitment to the future, and to one of the largest tunneling and construction projects in the world at present. The current 18-year realisation for the project has construction starting at the end of 2020, once all required permits are in place, and the full project in service at the start of 2035, after 13 years in construction (Fig 2).

Although legal battles against the project are anticipated, MWD staff are working with other agencies to move the project forward, to establish a Design/Construction Joint Powers Authority to manage the implementation of the project and another Joint Powers Authority to manage the project’s funding and financing. n

References

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California WaterFix procurement update – TunnelTalk, January 2018 WaterFix construction preparations and sequences – TunnelTalk, September 2017 California WaterFix clears State planning process – TunnelTalk, July 2017

www.TunnelTalk.com

All done after tough drive in Atlanta Desiree Willis, Technical Writer, The Robbins Company

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roject teams watched as a 3.8m diameter Robbins main beam TBM completed an 8km long journey through hard rock conditions to create a water supply tunnel for the city of Atlanta, Georgia.

Hard granitic rock of between 117 and 310 MPa presented a challenge for the 19in disc cutters from the outset. “There was ground so hard that it would take eight hours to advance 1.5m,” said Larry Weslowski, Tunnel Superintendent for the PC Russell JV. The beginning of the job was tough, but he added that once through the learning curve, “Rates just kept increasing and towards the end they achieved a best day of 38.4m.”

The structure of the project team is credited with the overall project success

despite its challenges. “There was great leadership and supervision within the team and that provided the determination to overcome obstacles and succeed,” said Weslowski.

The project is the third such large construction project in the USA to use the CMAR (construction manager at risk) procurement structure. The PC Construction/ HJ Russell JV was selected as the CMAR and in turn purchased the Robbins TBM for the long tunnel drive. JP2, a JV of Stantec, PRAD Group, and River 2 Tap, as designer for the construction works, including tunnel and shafts, specified a hard rock TBM for the excavation. Assembly and operation of the TBM was then subcontracted to the Atkinson/Technique JV.

The robust TBM was assembled at the Bellwood Quarry site with the help of Robbins personnel and using the Robbins onsite first time assembly (OFTA) process.

“OFTA helped with the scheduling and the guys built everything as per the specs,” said Weslowski. “It was a challenge but there was no negativity during the process.”

As well as very hard rock conditions, other challenges included groundwater inflows.

“We also encountered groundwater contamination that required remediation, which was completed successfully,” said Weslowski.

With tunneling complete, the US$300 million project for the City of Atlanta Department of Watershed Management is on track to meet its scheduled project completion date of September 2019. The project will turn the inactive Bellwood Quarry into a 9.1 billion liter raw water storage facility connecting with the Chattahoochee River and various water treatment facilities. n

From left: 19in cutters tested by hard granite; OFTA assembly in the Bellwood Quarry; Project team celebrates TBM breakthrough

Agua Sur project receives first EPBM Terratec News Release

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he first of two 4.66m diameter Terratec EPBMs was dispatched to Argentina to work on the Buenos Aires potable water supply system.

The EPBM will be deployed by Italian contractor CMC di Ravenna on the 13.5km long tunnel carrying drinking water from the newly expanded General Belgrano water treatment plant in the city of Bernal to the city of Lomas de Zamora.

4.66m diameter Terratec EPBM

The tunnel is a key component of the multi-billion-dollar Agua Sur system currently being built by Argentinian national water and sanitation company AySA. Financed by the government and the Development Bank of Latin America, it is the largest water infrastructure project in Argentina in 40 years and will provide access to fresh water for four million inhabitants in the southern metropolitan area of Buenos Aires.

The Terratec EPBM has been specially designed to deal with the variable soft ground geology along the project alignment, which ranges from silts to sandy silts with some cobbles expected. The TBM high-torque soft ground cutterhead features a spoke-style design with a 49% opening ratio and cutting tools consisting of fixed and back-loading knife bits.

The tunnel will be excavated at an average depth of 25m, beginning on a 400m radius curve and continuing along an essentially straight alignment, reaching a maximum slope of +/- 2.0%. The 250mm thick, 1400mm wide segmental lining rings consist of six segments (four parallelograms and two keys). n

References •

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TunnelTalk ANNUAL REVIEW 2018

JIM Technology buys 50% of partner Terratec – TunnelTalk, October 2018

www.TunnelTalk.com

Milan Metro sees TBM progress on Line 4

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Map of Milan Metro with detail of Line 4

www.TunnelTalk.com

Patrick Reynolds for TunnelTalk

Work begins on the west section of Milan Metro Line 4

Successive breakthroughs to complete the east section in 2018, achieving progress rates of 10m15m/day.

The twin running tunnels on the 6km long east section were excavated using refurbished 6.36m diameter EPBMs, previously used in the Middle East.

Twin tunnels for the 4km long west section are underway using two refurbished 6.36m diameter EPBMs that were previously used on Line 5 of the metro. The 5.50m i.d. tunnels are lined with 1.4m wide rings of six segments, each 280mm thick, said di Paola.

Starting from a working shaft at Ronchetto, near San Cristoforo station, both TBMs are proceeding eastwards towards the Parco Solari station, at the edge of the central section, where they will terminate. Ahead of them, at Parco Solari, the two larger 9.15m diameter TBMs will be launched, also to

drive eastwards, to bore the deep tubes in the central section towards Tricolore.

Located in the historic centre of the city, the 5km long central section will have the deepest stations and running tunnels on Line 4 where principal challenges are the practicalities of working in the city centre and also accommodating archaeological excavations.

The design solution is to use larger TBMs to create 8.15m i.d. tunnels able to accommodate station platforms and therefore only require slender, central box excavation and minimal surface works. The TBMs will build 1.5m x 350mm wide rings of seven segments each.

Salini Impregilo and Astaldi are working on a 50:50 JV to complete the civil works and tunnelling, operating as a subcontractor, named Metro Blu, to the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract awarded to MM4 consortium. Led by Salini Impregilo and Astaldi, MM4 includes Ansaldo and Sirti, both of which have their own subcontracts from the EPC contractor.

The EPC contract was awarded by a special purpose vehicle, M4 S.p.A, which holds the concession to build and operate Line 4. The concessionaire is 67% majoritycontrolled by the City of Milan Government, and includes private sector shareholders Salini Impregilo at 9.6%, Astaldi at 9.6%, the Hitachi Rail sister companies Ansaldo STS and Hitachi Rail Italy (formerly AnsaldoBreda), with Sirti and ATM holding the remaining shares and contracted to provide operations and maintenance services when the short metro trains are scheduled to start running in 2023. Once opened, the new line is forecast to carry 86 million passengers per year.

Astaldi also helped to build Line 5 of the metro, the first fully automated mediumcapacity metro line in the city which became operational in mid-2017. n

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xtensive tunnelling is underway by the Salini Impregilo/Astaldi JV to complete the second stage of works on Metro Line 4 in Milan, Italy.

Line 4 is a 15km long, fully-automated, driverless light rail system with short trains to run underground, east-to-west, across Milan.

Main construction work has been underway since 2013 with cut and cover excavations for most of the 21 stations along the route running from Linate Airport in the east to San Cristoforo in the west, and with limited surface works and different, and deeper, station layouts in the historic central stretch.

Also known as the Blue Line, the new route’s stations are much shorter and more compact than earlier metro lines in Milan.

A key factor in the change comes from advances in technology to use shorter, fourcarriage trains for Line 4.

TBM tunnelling on Line 4 has been split into three sections – east, central and west – to suit the station construction needs and the deeper alignment in the central section.

The stations are between 400m-800m apart along the route.

Excavation is by Herrenknecht EPBMs, boring at depths of 12m or 20m, depending on the section of the project.

The groundwater table along the alignment is about 8m-10m below the surface, said Marco di Paola, construction manager with Line 4 concessionaire, M4 S.p.A. “Milan is located on a flat area, occupied and modelled in the Pleistocene Epoch by different glacial phases, during which debris was deposited from the Alpine mountain range,” he said, adding that, lithologically, the excavation zone for Line 4 is dominated by Fluvio glaciale Wurm, consisting of sandygravelly terraced soils with deposits of weakly silty zones.

Four EPBMs are excavating the twin tube running tunnels in the east and west sections, and two machines of 9.15m diameter will bore the deeper tunnels of the central section, with the tunnels being larger to house station platforms. The excavation works are supported from two sites – Manufatto Ronchetto and Manufatto Sereni, said di Paola and spoil removal is by conveyor.

The first TBMs on the east section completed the last of their drives earlier

References

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Final breakthroughs for Seli in Milan – TunnelTalk, July 2013 Lovat TBM excavating Metro Milano – TunnelTalk, November 2008

To limit open cut works on the surface, platforms for central section stations are in larger diameter running tunnels

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Cross city line for Munich S-Bahn TunnelTalk reporting

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major capital investment in surface and underground rail infrastructure is underway in Munich to create a second city centre S-Bahn route by Deutsche Bahn (DB). The new 10km route includes a 7km underground section to link the main railway Hauptbahnhof, Marienhof and Ostbahnhof Stations. The running tunnels will pass beneath the U-Bahn metro lines and will reach depths of more than 40m near Hauptbahnhof (Fig 1).

The first two main contracts on the project, covering the western and much of the middle sections, have been awarded to JVs with the same partners in each – Wayss & Freytag, Züblin, Max Bogl and Bauer Spezialtiefbau. The combined value for

the two lots is about €865 million (US$980 million) with Wayss & Freytag leading the JV on the Lot VE30 underground works, valued at €676 million, and Zublin heading the team on the Lot VE10 surface and portal works in the west, valued at €189 million.

Also awarded is the main tunnelling and underground package of Lot VE41 to a JV of Implenia and Hochtief, with Implenia in the technical lead role. The €400 million (US$455 million) contract is for excavation of the Marienhof Station and connecting tunnels directly behind the Munich City Hall. Work comprises excavation of a large box structure to accommodate 210m long platforms at a depth of about 40m. Work is due to start by mid-year 2019. The tendering procedure for the tunnels east of Marienhof has yet to start.

In total, the project will involve about

14km of slurry shield drives, working under groundwater with pressures up to 4.5 bar, as well as cross passages, sections of shotcrete works and about eight shafts, explained Albert Wimmer, team leader for tunnelling on the project for DB. The underground works will be in tertiary sediments of clays, silts and marls, alternating with mica-rich sands overlaid by quaternary glacio-fluvial gravels.

The emergency escape tunnels and the station platform tunnels are to be excavated using open face NATM sequences, in part supported by compressed air conditions and in part using ground freezing.

The €3.85 billion (US$4.36 billion) project will pass through Hauptbahnhof, the Marienplatz area and finish at Ostbahnhof.

With only half the number of stations as the first line, the new route will offer short travel times across the middle of the city and is planned to come into operation in 2026. n

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From left: Fig 1. Second S-Bahn route under Munich; New S-Bahn Hauptbahnhof Station

Rail progress in Stuttgart Patrick Reynolds for TunnelTalk

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fter successfully completing its third drive for the western tube of the 9.5km long twin tube Filder Tunnel on the Stuttgart-Ulm railway line project in Germany, the 10.8m diameter Herrenknecht multi-mode TBM was turned to start the 3.4km final drive of the eastern tube.

Initially, no mechanized tunnelling was planned for the Filder Tunnel, but client Deutsche Bahn (DB) was persuaded of the advantages of mechanized tunnelling over a large part of the route using a convertible multi-mode machine.

The 10.82m diameter multi-mode Herrenknecht TBM is being used by the Porr, Hinteregger, Ostu-Stettin and Swietelsky JV on a contract that called for carefully staged excavation of a total of 19.1km of single track running tunnels. Two initial TBM drives, in closed EPB mode were excavated on the south side of a geological transition that cuts across the alignment and finished at a cavern excavated by sequential excavation methods in the transition zone. TBM drives 3 and 4 are advanced in open mode on the other side of the transition cavern.

After manoeuvring through two 90 degree turns the TBM is expected to complete the parallel 3.8km tunnel back to the transition cavern in summer 2019.

The Filder Tunnel is the longest on the new railway line between Stuttgart and Ulm, which will link the new central railway station with the Filder Plain.

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By mid-2018, three-quarters of the total 120.4km of main underground excavations on the Stuttgart-Wendlingen-Ulm mega rail project was complete, adding 28.1km during the last 15 months and with several TBMs and drill+blast breakthroughs marking milestone advance.

The new rail line for national rail company DB is to be operational in 2022, reducing by almost half the journey between Stuttgart and Ulm in southwest Germany.

On the rural Wendlingen–Ulm section, an 11.34m diameter Herrenknecht TBM has completed the Bossler Tunnel and two additional Herrenknecht machines are advancing the parallel drives of the Albvorland Tunnel, which is the last major underground section contract.

Excavation of the parallel tube of the Bossler Tunnel by the Porr, Hinteregger & Sohne, Ostu-Stettin and Swietelsky JV completed the 8.8km full length of the second drive after the 11.34m diameter TBM was re-launched in April 2017.

Contractor Implenia is operating twin 10.82m diameter Herrenknecht EPBMs to excavate parallel 8km and 7.7km long x 9.6m i.d. tubes for the Albvorland Tunnel.

The contract also includes excavation of two short twin tunnels – the 495m long Kleine Wendlinger Curve and a 520m long freight train link.

Conventional excavation of the 9.5km Steinbuhl and 11.7km Albabstieg twin tunnels on the Wendlingen-Ulm link were completed by mid-2017 and final in-situ

TBM u-turn at Filder Tunnel

concrete lining of the Albabstieg Tunnel by JV contractor Züblin/Max Bogl was completed in May 2018.

Elsewhere on the Stuttgart 21 city section of the project, a total 12km of drill+blast tunnelling for the Oberturkheim Tunnel was completed by the Porr, Hinteregger, Ostu-Stettin Hoch- und Tiefbau, Swietelsky JV, while the 9.1km of tunnelling for the Bad Cannstatt Tunnel by the Hochtief, BeMo, Wayss & Freytag JV is also complete, as is all 6km excavation of the Feuerbach Tunnel following breakthrough of the first of the parallel tunnels in March 2018 and of the second tube in early July 2018.

To finalised the project, excavation of 7km in total of the project’s Airport Tunnels started in 2018. n

References • •

Great strides at Stuttgart-Ulm rail scheme – TunnelTalk, April 2017 Dual-mode TBM faces Stuttgart-21 challenge – TunnelTalk, July 2014

www.TunnelTalk.com

TunnelTalk reporting

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Robbins News Release

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rebuilt Robbins 3.5m diameter main beam TBM encountered and successfully passed through an unexpected cavern during its drive on the Galerie des Janots water tunnel project in La Ciotat, France. The machine, launched in 2017 by contractor Eiffage Civil Engineering, was 1km into the 2.8km drive when the cavern, measuring 8,000m3 was discovered to the left of the planned route.

“We hit the corner of the cavern and had to erect a 4m high wall for the grippers of the TBM to react against as it progressed across the void,” explained Marc Dhiersat, Project Director for Eiffage. The TBM was able to navigate out of the cavern in eight strokes and without significant downtime for the operation.

“It is certainly unusual to come across a cavern of this size and at 60m below the surface, although the geology of karstic and volcanic formations has the potential for underground cavities,” said Detlef Jordan, Robbins Sales Manager Europe. Karst cavities were a known risk during the bore, but the cavern was not shown in vertical borehole reports.

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Fig 1. Network of metro lines and extensions for Paris Metro

Grand Paris Metro progress ordered two CREG TBMs for its contract.

In addition, Herrenknecht is to supply 10 TBMs to the project. The first was launched in April 2018 on a 2.2km drive from the site of the future control center of Line 15 South in Champigny-sur-Marne to Villiers-sur-Marne. The second, launched in September 2018 from Nois–Champs also on Line 15, is working on a 4.7km drive to Br–Villiers–Champigny, one of the future stations of the Grand Paris Express.

A third TBM is due to launch from Bagneux in 2019 on an 8km-long x 8.7m diameter bored tunnel between IssyVanves-Clamart and Villejuif-Louis-Aragon Stations for the Vinci, Spie Batignolles TPCI, Dodin Campenon Bernard JV, a

further three TBMs will launch on Line 15 South in 2019, and four more will begin in 2020. A further six Herrenknecht machines will launch in 2019 for excavation of running tunnels on Line 16.

Contracts to be awarded in early 2019 will be for Line 17 between Le Bourget RER Station and Triangle de Gonesse Station and for Line 18 between Orly Airport Station (included) and Palaiseau Station (included). n

As it was possible to encounter further caverns, the machine is fitted with a geotechnical system to predict ground conditions using focused electricity induced polarization.

Early in the drive, the TBM and its crews encountered difficult ground conditions consisting of limestone with powdery clays which required immediate

support of resin-anchored bolts and steel arches, topped with a 10-15cm thick layer of shotcrete.

The Janots tunnel will replace old deteriorating pipelines that currently contribute to an estimated water loss of 132 million gallons of potable water/year. The completed tunnel passes between 15m and 180m under Le Parc National des Calanques. n

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ocieté du Grand Paris is on target and making good progress with its €25.9 billion (US$29 billion) Grand Paris Express expansion of the Paris Metro, which is designed to connect stations orbitally and prevent the need to travel into central Paris and out again to reach urban destinations.

To October 2018, 13 contracts had been awarded – eight on Line 15 South, three on the extension of Line 14 south to Orly Airport, and two on Line 16 to the north and east of the city (Fig 1). There are now approximately 100 construction sites in operation across greater Paris of which 65 are civil engineering works and 35 are enabling works for relocation of underground utilities and networks. As these works progress, further tenders on the project are expected to be announced in early 2019.

One of the contracts for Line 16 is awarded to Salini Impregilo for a value of €718.8 million, involving 11.1km of running tunnels and construction of four stations: Aulnay, Sevran-Beaudottes, Sevran-Livry and Clichy Montfermeil. The second Line 16 contract, awarded to Eiffage for a value of €1.84 billion, involves excavation of more than 19km of running tunnels and construction of five stations: Stade de France, La Courneuve Six-Routes, Le Bourget RER and Le Blanc – Mesni l and Saint-Denis Pleyel.

For Salini Impregilo, the Line 16 contract added to the €203 million contract was awarded in a joint venture with partner Nouvelles Générations d’Entrepreneurs in 2018 to extend Line 14 to Orly Airport for when Paris hosts the Olympic Games in 2024. The contract, awarded by La Régie Autonome des Transports Parisiens (RATP), is one of four contracts that will make up the 14km Line 14 extension and involves excavation of 4.1km of running tunnel from Pont de Rungis station to the site of a new station at Orly. Salini Impreglio/NGE has

References

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Paris Metro contract for Salini Impregilo – TunnelTalk, March 2018 Paris advancing its mega metro expansion – TunnelTalk, July 2017 Paris awards last of Line 15 South contracts – TunnelTalk, July 2017

Unexpected cavern encountered

Uncovered cavern measures 8,000m3 in size

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UK potash mine well into construction Shani Wallis, TunnelTalk

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ajor progress during the last quarter of 2018 and into the start of 2019 signifies commitment to the multibillion project by Sirius Minerals, the company developing the Woodsmith potash fertiliser mine in northeast England, and its funding and construction. More than 1,000 workers are now engaged across the different project sites and under current contracts. At the close of 2018, the company reported a cash balance of £290 million providing liquidity to fund project progress and announced near finalisation of its US$3.0 billion (£2.4 billion) Stage 2 debt component financing.

Also announced in early 2019, was factory acceptance of the Herrenknecht TBM to be used by Strabag on the first of three contracts to complete the 37km long mineral transportation system (MTS) to carry the product from the minehead at Whitby to the materials processing and shipping facility at Wilton (Fig 1). Strabag was awarded the first 13km long reach of the 4.9m i.d. segmentally lined conveyor belt transfer tunnel in April 2018.

The 6m diameter TBM will launch in the second quarter of 2019 from the transition portal at the process-handling site at Wilton, and will advance to the Lockwood Beck intermediate shaft on a 24 hr/day, 7 day/week schedule. It will launch from a starter tunnel into competent Redcar Mudstone.

A second and third TBM drive expected to start in 2020 under separate contracts, will complete the MTS towards the Woodsmith mine site and from the mine site towards Lockwood Beck. The underground conveyor system under the North York Moors National Park was a major concession for securing planning permission to develop the mine.

The Strabag contract is a lump sum with fixed rates for tunnel advance based Fig 1. The three TBM drives of the MTS

on a defined and agreed geotechnical baseline report (GBR).

In December 2018, the contract with Strabag was varied to include the engineering and fit-out of the transportation tunnel. This will include installation of the long conveyor belt to transport up to 20 million tonne of polyhalite a year from the mine to the processing and shipping facility.

At the Woodsmith Mine site the 45m deep foreshaft of the 1,500m deep x 6.75m i.d. service shaft to the 70m thick seam of potash is excavated and the winder building is nearing completion ready for installation of the permanent winder which has been fabricated ready for delivery to site. For the 6.75m i.d. x 1,500m deep potash production shaft, the diaphragm walls of the foreshaft have been installed and core excavation has started.

Also at the minehead side, shaft sinking contractor DMC Mining Services is progressing the 360m deep access shaft to the mineral transport tunnel using a VSM (vertical sinking machine) supplied

by Herrenknecht and launched in October 2018. The third MTS TBM will also launch from this shaft. Performance of the VSM is providing confidence in the assumed advance rates of the shaft boring roadheader that will be used to sink also the main service and production shafts. The VSM technology is expected to accelerate excavation of two deep shafts by six months over drill+blast and other excavation alternatives.

DMC Mining Services is also excavating the Lockwood Beck intermediate working shaft on the MTS which will provide access for the second TBM drive and operate as a permanent ventilation shaft. Preparatory works include excavating the shaft collar to 20m deep, installation of a grout curtain to 60m deep and start of piling for the shaft’s temporary headframe and winder house.

At the potash processing and shipping facility in Wilton on the coast, contractor McLaughlin and Harvey has taken possession of an old steelworks site to start building storage and ship loading infrastructure.

The contracts awarded to DMC and Strabag ends the previous Sirius Minerals association with AMC, a joint venture between Thyssen and Redpath for construction of the deep shafts, and

with the 50/50 Hochtief/Murphy JV that was selected in mid-2016 as the preferred bidder for the MTS tunnel.

Sirius explained in a statement that AMC was the preferred shaft sinking contractor since June 2016 but that discussions to finalise the contract in July 2017 had become protracted. As a result, Sirius approached a number of alternative contractors and DMC, it said, proposed a significantly more efficient and safer shaft sinking solution and better commercial terms and risk sharing options.

The transfer terms from AMC to DMC included novation of engineering and design work to date and procurement of the shaft winders that are on order from a related AMC entity. Diaphragm wall activities by Bauer for the three shafts at the mine head site were originally engaged by AMC and are now contracted directly to Sirius.

As preferred bidder of the MTS tunnel, Hochtief/Murphy said it was, “to carry out front-end engineering designs over a 12 month period” and enter into negotiations for the final design-build construction contract.

Strabag was part of the competitive tendering processes for a single MTS development contract along with other rivals. Sirius is working with a number of parties in relation to the Phase 2 second and third MTS drives.

Sirius Minerals is a privately owned, publicly traded company on the London Stock Exchange. Stage 1 funding of US$1.2 billion was completed in 2016 and comprises £370 million of equity placing, US$400 million in convertible notes and a strategic investment commitment by Hancock Prospecting of Australia.

For Stage 2 financing, Sirius Minerals restructured the total US$3 billion debt facility to comprise an uncovered debt capital markets tranche; a commercial bank tranche; and a follow on guaranteed bond tranche. This structure is designed to reduce the risk of any guaranteed bond tranche to the taxpayer as, by the time of engaging the third tranche, the project is expected to be past the major construction risks and more potash sales agreements will be in place.

To end of 2018, Sirius had concluded supply agreements for resale of a total 8.2 million tonne per annum (Mtpa) of POLY4.

Sirius expects to reach the polyhalite seam in 2021 and to be producing 10 million tonnes of fertiliser per annum by 2024. n

References

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Civils award for UK potash mine mega-project – TunnelTalk, June 2016

Woodsmith mine site with shaft sinking ongoing

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Silvertown Tunnel approved for London Patrick Reynolds for TunnelTalk

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espite ongoing debate over the handling of hazardous materials near its south portal, the UK Government gave consent for construction of the 1.4km long, twin-tube Silvertown road tunnel under the River Thames in south east London.

The nub of the debate at Silvertown was between TfL and the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) over managing hazardous materials consents at the Brenntag Inorganic Chemicals Ltd industrial site and the Greenwich Gasholder Station near the approach road to the south portal of the tunnel. In granting approval, the UK Department for Transport said any legal challenges to its approval had six weeks to be lodged with the High Court.

In its decision letter, the Department for Transport acknowledges the disagreement over hazardous materials consents at neighbouring industrial sites could delay completion of the scheme but expressed hope, given the length of the construction period, that the differences can be overcome during the project period.

TfL is procuring the project on a design, build, finance and maintain (DBFM) model that will include development and funding risk. In March 2017 three groups were shortlisted to progress to the request for proposals (RFP) stage. Since then, Strabag has been awarded the first of three major tunnel contracts for

New Silvertown road underpass of the Thames in London approved development of the Woodsmith potash mine materials transportation handling tunnel in north east of the UK and has withdrawn from its Silvertown shortlisted group with Skanska and lead designer CH2M. The Cintra Global Ferrovial Group of Spain and the group led by Hochtief PPP Solutions of Germany are to vie for the project.

Transport for London (TfL) stated that project completion date is set for 2022-23.

The earlier schedule for planning assessment of the Silvertown Tunnel expected the approval process to conclude

by late 2017, allowing time for contract award and construction start by mid-2018.

But extra time was then needed to study new air quality rules. Within these months, the differences between TfL and HSE on how best to resolve their differences on handling the hazardous materials consents at the neighbouring industrial sites remains. n

References

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Silvertown Thames highway crossing shortlist – TunnelTalk, March 2017

Artist’s impression of new HS2 underground stations

Designers and contractors engaged for UK HS2 stations

HS2 News Release

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rup and WSP have been chosen to design the four new stations for Phase I of the new HS2 high speed rail link in the UK. With contracts worth a combined value of £70 million, Arup is to design the Birmingham Interchange and London Euston stations while WSP is awarded Old Oak Common and Birmingham Curzon Street Stations.

In early February 2019, construction contracts for the two London stations were awarded. For the Euston terminus station works, the joint venture of Mace of the UK and Dragados of Spain is selected as the preferred bidder while for the Old Oak Common preferred bidder status goes to the consortium of Balfour Beatty and Vinci and Systra of France.

The brief for the new station designers was to create plans that are people-centred with shopping and business facilities, all with easy to navigate step-free access from street-to-seat. Arup will partner with Grimshaw Architects for the London Euston design and WSP is working with Wilkinson Eyre Architects on Old Oak Common.

London Euston Station currently caters for 42 million passengers a year – more than double the design capacity. Under a contract valued at £1.3 billion, Mace/Dragados will more than double the existing station’s capacity, building 11 new platforms and large underground SCL works to create links to London Underground Lines and connect passengers to the station’s intercity over ground train services.

At Old Oak Common, Balfour Beatty/ Vinci/Systra will create the best connected railway station in the UK. The near £1 billion contract includes construction of six 450m platforms in a 1km long underground box and an over-bridge to provide direct access to London’s new Crossrail Elizabeth Line for journeys to Heathrow Airport and central London, and to mainline rail services from London Paddington to Wales and the west of England.

Competition for the contracts was submitted by the Costain/Skanska consortium for Euston and from the BAM Nuttall/Ferrovial Agroman JV, Bechtel and Mace/Dragados for Old Oak Common.

Under HS2 rules bidders could only secure one station contract.

Dragados is currently working in the UK on Bank Station redevelopment for London Underground and completed the largest underground excavation contract on the Crossrail project. Balfour Beatty and Vinci are currently working in JVs on the Thames Tideway super sewer tunnel in London and are in JV as preferred contractor on a section of the HS2 route near Birmingham (Table 1). n

References

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Construction bids invited for HS2 stations – TunnelTalk, September 2017 Civil contract awards for UK HS2 Phase One – TunnelTalk, July 2017

Table 1. Award of civil construction contracts for HS2 Phase 1 S1 and S2: Euston Tunnels and Approaches and Northolt Tunnels SCS JV - Skanska Construction UK Ltd, Costain Ltd, Strabag AG C1: Chiltern Tunnels and Colne Valley Viaduct Align JV - Bouygues Travaux Publics, VolkerFitzpatrick, Sir Robert McAlpine C2 and C3: North Portal Chiltern Tunnels to Brackley and Brackley to South Portal of Long Itchington Wood Green Tunnel CEK JV - Kier Infrastructure and Eiffage Genie Civil SA N1 and N2: Long Itchington Wood Green Tunnel to Delta Junction and Birmingham Spur and Delta Junction to WCML Tie-In BBV JV - Balfour Beatty Group Ltd and VINCI Construction Grands Projets

More money and time needed to complete Crossrail Transport for London News Release

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fter announcing a year’s delay to the December 2018 opening of the Crossrail project in London, officials confirmed an extra £2 billion in funding is needed to complete the project and reported that the revised Autumn 2019 opening date of the railway “can no longer be committed to”.

The Elizabeth Line, as Crossrail is known officially, was anticipated to cost an estimated £15.9 billion in 2007. This increased to £17.8 billion in 2009 and came down to £14.8 billion following a June 2010 Government Spending Review. The revised costs comprised £12.5 billion for the central underground section and £2.3 billion for the surface rail sections either side.

Crossrail Ltd, delivery partner of the central underground section, exceeded its portion of the £14.8 billion funding envelope

Station platform finishings

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in mid-2018, when all excavation of the underground route had been completed, largely on schedule and within budget.

Final breakthrough to complete 21km of twin tube TBM running tunnel excavation was achieved in June 2015, after the first of the eight Herrenknecht TBMs used on the project launched in May 2012. Excavation of the underground stations progressed at the same time towards substantial completion at the end of 2015 ahead of the station fitout and system installation phases.

The new Chief Executive of Crossrail since November 2018, Mark Wild, said: “There is a huge amount still to do to complete core stations and rail infrastructure to begin critical safety testing. Station fitout is in varying stages of completion and we need time to test the complex railway systems. I cannot at this stage commit to an Autumn 2019 opening date, and my team and I are working to establish a robust and deliverable schedule in order to confirm a new opening date.”

The extra £2 billion to complete the project comprises £1.3 billion from UK central Government, a cash contribution of £100 million from the Greater London Authority and a contingency loan of up to £750 million from the Department for Transport.

An independent review, initiated by the Mayor of London, into Crossrail financing and governance, indicates a capital cost impact of the delayed opening of the project

as between £1.6 billion and £2 billion.

“The delays of the project and its significant additional cost makes it clear that the previous Crossrail leadership painted a far too optimistic picture of the project’s status,” said Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan.

“Our priority must be getting this project completed as soon as possible.”

In other senior executive changes, Tony Meggs is nominated as the new Chair of Crossrail Ltd to replace Sir Terry Morgan who resigned in December 2018. Former Member of Parliament Nick Raynsford who served as Minister for London on two occasions, will become Deputy Chair of the Crossrail Ltd Board.

Repayment of the extra funding loans will come from funding streams supporting the Crossrail 2 project. Mayor Khan has said he remains committed to Crossrail 2, and once the Government and Transport for London agree a route and there is a known cost for the scheme, further discussions will be needed around the delivery options in advance of the UK Government’s Comprehensive Spending Review in 2019. n

References

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Moving Crossrail 2 towards design – TunnelTalk, February 2016 Landmark breakthrough for UK Crossrail – TunnelTalk, June 2015 Managing final tunnelling works at Farringdon Station – TunnelTalk, July 2015

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DEVELOPING TUNNELLING EQUIPMENT SINCE 1971

WWW.ITCSA.COM Fusion 122, CH-1920 Martigny, Switzerland e-mail: info@itcsa.com

Made in Germany

From left: Implenia wins ECI first contract at Varberg, Sweden; Strabag Zublin wins Lovo lot in Stockholm; All elements placed at Marieholm

Transport works in Sweden Patrick Reynolds for TunnelTalk

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ajor tunnelling projects in Sweden moved ahead with contract awards in 2018 by the transport authority Trafikverket.

In Varberg, initial planning and design for the 3.1km long rail tunnel was awarded to Implenia Sverige through the client’s early contractor involvement (ECI) procurement process.

Valued at SEK 200 million (US$22.5 million), the initial 15 month contract with Implenia Sverige leads to the contractor offering a target price. Then, under the ECI process, the client will have the option to either reach agreement on the target price or decide an alternative way forward. The second stage would be the detailed design and build contract.

The rail tunnel will be excavated mostly by drill+blast below Varberg, in the Gothenburg region. Trafikverket expects the tunnel to be open by the end of 2024.

On the 8km long West Link railway project in Gothenburg, the fourth and last contract for

the most geologically complex Kvarnberget Lot was awarded to a consortium of Astaldi/ Gulermak/NRC, adding to the Italian/Turkish/ Nordic JV’s existing and adjacent Haga Lot contract (Fig 1).

Awarded for a tender price of SEK 820 million, the contract is to build a 560m section of the main rail tunnels plus a 120m long service tunnel and associated shafts.

Construction is to get underway in Spring 2019.

For the Haga Lot, immediately south of the Kvarnberget Lot, Astaldi/Gulermak/NRC is excavating a 1.5km long running tunnel, a 1.3km long parallel service tunnel and an underground station and associated shafts.

The other main contractor working on the West Link is NCC of Sweden, which is building the Centralen Central Station Lot in JV with Cowi and Thyrens, and the Korsvagen Lot in JV with Wayss & Freytag of Germany. NCC is also to strengthen the existing Gota road tunnel that the West Link alignment crosses.

Also in Gothenburg, Zublin floated-out the second and third 100m long concrete elements for the 500m long Marieholm

immersed tube road tunnel on the bed of the Gota River.

With all three elements in place, the dry dock is being built into the tunnel approach ramp. The Marieholm project is due to finish in 2020.

In the capital city Stockholm, work on the E4 bypass road progressed with a further contract awarded to Strabag group.

Strabag local subsidiary Zublin Scandinavia was awarded the FSE 309 lot on the bypass at a contract value of SEK 505 million (US$57 million). The works comprise rock tunnels, service tunnels, concrete cuttings, a new four-lane road with junctions, and pedestrian and cycle paths. The lot is located at the Lovo interchange, which is a link between the bypass tunnel ramps and the surface road networks on Ekero/Lovo islands (Fig 2).

Strabag owns Zublin Scandinavia AB through Ed Zublin AG. The contractor is already working on two contracts involving cut-and-cover concrete box and drill+blast works at the Akalla section of the 21km long road project. n

References

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Further underground work for Stockholm bypass – TunnelTalk, December 2017

Above: Fig 1. All four West Link contracts awarded; Right: Fig 2. E4 Stockholm bypass, Sweden; Below: Varberg stage 2 procurement in late 2019

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www.TunnelTalk.com

OPERATOR TRAINING SIMULATOR LEARN ANYWHERE, ANYTIME The new Sandvik operator training simulator is available for the DT922i tunneling drill rig.

This light, compact, portable training solution acts like a real rig with authentic controls, enabling operators to be fully operational from day one through the use of various situations and exercises.

Further boosting operational performance, it can be used to reassess operators regularly without impacting on site productivity, delivering gains of up to 5% in annual productivity.

The simulator is also available for other drill rig models.

Explore Sandvik operator training simulator ROCKTECHNOLOGY.SANDVIK

Final TBM breakthrough for KAT2 at Koralm TunnelTalk reporting

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fter launch in March 2013, the second of two 9.93m diameter TBMs working on the 18km long main running tunnels of the KAT2 contract for the Koralm rail tunnel in Austria broke through in August 2018 to finalise TBM excavation for the Strabag/Jäger Bau JV. The twin Aker Wirth telescopic machines in the parallel running tunnel completed its 18km long drive in February 2018.

As the TBMs progressed, the tunnels were lined with a precast concrete segmental lining and muck was removed to the surface via continuous conveyor systems. Both machines were launched

and serviced from the bottom of 60m deep working and access shafts.

Breakthrough of the second TBM took place in an underground cavern constructed as part of the KAT3 tunnelling contract being progressed by Austrian contractor Porr. The KAT3 contract for the southern section of the 33km long twin tube Koralm tunnel comprises about 16km of twin tube excavation through varying geological conditions including across the Lavanttal fault zone. For excavation Porr is using both conventional drill+blast excavation and a 9.9m diameter dual hard rock/soft ground Herrenknecht TBM. The TBM will break through into the same mid-tunnel cavern as the KAT2 TBMs.

The 33km long twin tube Koralm tunnel, passing through the Koralpe mountain range to a maximum overburden of 1,200m is a key element in the BalticAdriatic rail corridor of the European Union TEN-T connectivity project. The route is scheduled to be opened to traffic in December 2025. Once in service, the 130km journey between Graz and Klagenfurt, passing underground for 47km including through the 33km long Koralm tunnel, will be reduced to 45 minutes in trains travelling at speeds of up to 250km/hr. n

References • • • •

First TBM launched for Koralm rail tunnel – TunnelTalk, February 2013 First TBM delivered for 18km Alpine drive – TunnelTalk, September 2012 Tunnelling starts for Austria’s longest rail link – TunnelTalk, July 2011 Strabag selects Aker Wirth machines for Koralm – TunnelTalk, May 2011

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From left: The two KAT2 TBMs progressed from the bottom of 60m deep working shafts; TBM launch for the KAT3 contract

TBM breakthrough a first for Albania Robbins News Release

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n May 2018, a 6.2m diameter Robbins Crossover XRE TBM broke through into an underground chamber to complete the first TBM-driven tunnel in Albania. Operated by contractor Limak, the TBM is also the first Crossover machine to operate in Europe, boring through geology including ophiolite, sandstone, breccia and siltstone flysch to complete the 6.7km long Moglicë headrace of the Devoll hydropower project.

“The cutterhead and cutters achieved outstanding performance,” said Engin Gur, TBM Manager for Limak. The TBM achieved a best of 648m/month in April 2018, and of 37.4m in one day. It did not encounter anticipated high-pressure water and was used in hard rock double shield mode throughout.

“The TBM was launched in November 2016 and performed well, as did a Robbins adit conveyor that operated in a 180-degree continuous curve,” said Max Walker, Robbins Field Service Superintendent. “Ground conditions were good and only 20 cutters were used during the bore.” Two-stage grouting was carried out as the TBM bored and lined the tunnel.

While the TBM did not need to be sealed, the machine design allowed for high predicted risk of water inflows. The XRE machine used a belt conveyor, not a screw conveyor, as the muck chute needed to be able to be sealed off in the case of an inrush of water. The bulkhead was designed with a large sealing gate just above the belt conveyor. These pressure-relieving gates could also be used in a semi-EPB mode.

In addition, the gripper shoes and

inner telescopic shield were equipped with inflatable seals to further protect against inrushes of water. Probe and grouting drills could be used for pre-excavation grouting to seal off any excessive water inflow.

With the TBM drive complete, secondary grouting behind the one-pass segmental lining progressed. The tunnel is expected to become operational by May 2019.

The Moglicë hydropower project is part of a build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) scheme to construct two hydropower plants along the Devoll River. The project is owned by the Norwegian power company Statkraft AS. The completed project will have an installed capacity of 242 MW and will increase electricity production in Albania by 17%. n

References

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First Crossover TBM for the USA – TunnelTalk, June 2017 Crossover TBMs bridge the gap for Robbins – TunnelTalk, March 2015

From left: Field Service personnel assisted contractor Limak; Breakthrough of the first TBM-driven tunnel in Albania

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www.TunnelTalk.com

Sevastopol Bay immersed tube plans

Eugene Gerden for TunnelTalk

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ussia has completed excavation of a parallel tube for the existing Baikal Tunnel on the BAM (BaikalAmur Mainline) railway in Russia, traversing Eastern Siberia and the Far East of the country. Baikal is the second tunnel on the long Trans-Siberian route after the 15.3km long Severomuiski single-tube bi-directional single-track tunnel, which took 27 years to excavate through exceedingly difficult geological conditions (Fig 1).

Opening of the parallel tube for the 6.7km Baikal Tunnel in 2019 will double its capacity and increase freight traffic on the route to 32 million tonne/year. The increased capacity will be vital to the role of BAM as part of the New Silk Road project that will deliver Asian cargo to Europe.

Located on the border of the Irkutsk region and Buryatia, the twin tubes of the Baikal Tunnel passes through the Baikal Range under the Davan Pass, an area characterized by high seismic activity of up to 8 and 9 on the earthquake Richter scale. The tunnel

alternative across the Kerch Strait to the east to provide a fixed link from Russia to the Crimean Peninsula. Russian Federation backed pro-Russian unrest on the peninsula in 2014. To that point, Crimea was part of the territory of Ukraine which gained its independence from the former USSR in 1991.

In 2014, military intervention by Russia in Crimea was seen by the United Nations as annexation of Crimea by Russia from Ukraine and sanctions, which continue today, were imposed. These sanctions bar trade with the USA and the EU and other countries and prevents Russia’s long established importations of modern TBM and other tunneling equipment and technologies from suppliers in Germany, Canada and the USA. The immersed tube section across the bay is 1km long and construction is scheduled to be completed by 2020. n

References

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Kerch Tunnel to guarantee security for Crimea – TunnelTalk, May 2015

Eugene Gerden for TunnelTalk

Immersed tube would link north and south Sevastopol across the bay

A fixed-link bridge is being built across the Kerch Strait from Russia

Twin bore at Biakal for Siberian Silk Road railway passes through rocky ground intersected by numerous tectonic zones. The new tunnel passes 35m to the left of the existing tunnel, which was completed in late 1985.

Construction of the parallel Baikal Tunnel by the SK Most Group of Companies, one of Russia’s largest tunnel builders, began in the Autumn of 2014 and official opening is scheduled for 2019.

According to First Deputy General Director Vladimir Gartig of Bamtonnelstroy, part of the SK Most Group, complex geological conditions presented several difficulties.

“We used a refurbished Lovat TBM for main excavation and drill+blast for portals

and cross connections to the existing parallel tube,” explained Gartig.

The Lovat TBM was first employed for transportation tunnels in the Black Sea city of Sochi for the Winter Olympic Games of 2014. The double shield TBM featured a powerful cutterhead drive, a high thrust gripper assembly and erected a reinforced concrete segmental lining as it progressed. n

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he Russian Federal Government, together with local authorities on the Crimean Peninsula, has started preparations for construction of an immersed tube highway tunnel across the Sevastopol Bay to link the north and south regions of Sevastopol city. The proposed 7km long immersed tube tunnel will improve transport connections, solve the problem of traffic jams and support urban development of the city.

At present travelling across the bay is by ferries or via a 35km trip around the bay.

Implementation of the project is under the personal control of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has asked Governor of Sevastopol Dmitry Ovsyannikov to submit a design for the project to the Russian Presidential Administration for consideration.

Initial plans to link the city with a bridge were revised when the Russian Black Sea Fleet was deployed from within the territory of Sevastopol.

The project comes after a decision to build a bridge rather than a bored tunnel

References

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Sochi winning on the Olympics alpine route – TunnelTalk, February 2012 Overcoming adversity in Siberia – TunnelTalk, April 2002

From left: Construction site of the Baikal Tunnel parallel drive; Fig 1. BAM rail route across Siberia.

There is no plan as yet to duplicate the 15.3km single-tube, single-track, bi-directional Severomuiski Tunnel

www.TunnelTalk.com

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Russia plans start for Sakhalin fixed link

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he Russian Government, with private investors, plans to begin implementation of a large-scale immersed tube fixed link to Sakhalin Island in the North Pacific Ocean. The new tunnel of about 8km long under the Nevelskoy (Fig 1) is to be designed for road and rail traffic.

A Sakhalin Island fixed link was a long-standing aspiration of Joseph Stalin.

Implementation of the project started at the end of 1952 and was suspended after Stalin’s death in 1953.

According to calculations by the Russian Ministry of Transport, the project

is expected to cost approximately RUB 400 billion (about US$7.14 billion). Private funds will account for about 10-15% of the required funding. The Russian Government is currently in talks with Russian billionaires and Chinese corporations to raise private funds. Taking into account design and survey works, the project will take three to five years to complete.

Maxim Sokolov, a spokesman of the Russian Ministry of Transport, explained that due to difficult climatic conditions in the Sakhalin region, a tunnel rather than a bridge is the only option for the proposed

Eugene Gerden for TunnelTalk fixed link. Sokolov explained there is the possibility also of equipping the tunnel with hydro generators to use marine current energy in the Strait to generate electricity.

“According to calculations by the Moscow Research Institute Mosstroy, the project will be paid off over 40 years,” said Solokov. “If it is connected to a power plant, this period will be sharply reduced and could be used to electrify the project’s railway service.”

The Russian Government suggests that successful implementation of the Sakhalin link could be extended with another fixed link immersed tube to the Hokkaido Island of Japan (Fig 1). This, it was admitted, will depend on the desire of Japan to participate in the project. The Strait of La Perouse between Sakhalin and Hokkaido is a minimum 43km wide and has an average depth of tens of meters. n

References

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Sevastopol Bay immersed tube plans – TunnelTalk, November 2017

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From left: Fig 1. A fixed link to Sakhalin could continue on to Hokkaido, Japan; Preparations in 1952 for building the link

Istanbul Metro works

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he plan to expand the Istanbul Metro system in Turkey from 145km to more than 480km moved ahead following delivery of another four new Terratec 6.56m diameter EPBMs for the Gulermak, Nurol & Makyol JV to work on the ÜmraniyeAtasehir-Göztepe Metro Line.

There are now seven Terratec machines working on five new metro lines for the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality with completion expected in 2019.

During excavation of the DudulluBostancı Metro Line, the Senbay MadencilikKolin-Kalyon JV achieved an advance of 19 rings in a single shift, equating to 26.6m of excavation in 12 hours using one of two 6.56m diameter Terratec EPBMs on

Terratec News Release the contract. The TBM worked non-stop, alternating between 20-minute excavating and ring building cycles.

The versatile mixed-face dome-style cutterheads of the Terratec TBMs with an opening ratio of about 35% have proven to work effectively in Istanbul’s mixed geology of sandstones, siltstones, limestones and shales.

The TBMs also have VFD electric cutterhead drives, tungsten carbide soft ground cutting tools that are interchangeable with 17in cutters, high torque screw conveyors and active articulation systems. n

Gulermak, Nurol & Makyol JV receive four new TBMs for the ÜmraniyeAtasehir-Göztepe Metro Line, Istanbul

References

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Making good progress on Istanbul Metro – TunnelTalk, June 2017

From left: 19 rings installed in just 12 hours; Terratec mixed face cutterhead

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www.TunnelTalk.com

Planned entrance into one of the new underground stations

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Lodz to host Poland’s first TBM railway tunnel Jaroslaw Adamowski for TunnelTalk from Warsaw “Once constructed, the main tunnel of about 3km, will become the longest railway tunnel in Poland,” said Jakubowski. “Its length will exceed that of another Lodz-based tunnel which leads to the underground Lodz Fabryczna railway station.”

The investment will be supported by the infrastructure funds that Poland

Dual-mode TBM to modernise Czech rail infrastructure T wo single track 4km tunnels for a project to modernize the Czech railway line between Rokycany and Pilsen have been excavated by a convertible 9.8m diameter multi-mode TBM supplied by Herrenknecht.

The resulting high speed rail link, built by contractor Metrostav, will connect the West Bohemian countryside to the capital Prague and to the European railway network.

The TBM worked in closed EPB mode with screw conveyor muck removal for the first two thirds of the two tunnels through

quartzite shale stone and clay. For the last third, the TBM switched to open singleshield mode with belt conveyor removal to penetrate hard spilite rock. Each conversion was performed within two weeks.

“For variable ground conditions along a tunnel alignment, a convertible multi-mode TBM is the best and most flexible solution,” said Korbinian Kröger, Herrenknecht Project Manager.

The cutting tools were changed from 18in disc for the first part of the drive to 19in

is to obtain from the European Union under the Infrastructure and Environment operational program for the years 2014 to 2020. n

References •

Mixshield completes Gdansk river drives – TunnelTalk, July 2014

EUROPE

he first TBM excavated railway tunnel in Poland is being developed by state-owned railway operator PKP PLK SA to connect three major railway stations in Lodz in central Poland.

Under the plan, 7.5km of underground railway infrastructure is to be constructed under a design-build project with a net worth of PLN 1.293 billion (€309 million).

The investment is to be completed by 2022.

In December 2017, a consortium of local construction companies EnergopolSzczecin and PBDiM Minsk Mazowiecki, signed a contract with PKP PLK as the preferred bidder of six competitors who presented proposals to carry out the construction within a four-year period, and offered a six-year warranty for maintenance of the tunnel once completed.

Spokesperson Karol Jakubowski for PKP PLK SA explained that the tunnel will be Poland’s first railway tunnel developed

by TBM technology. “Of the total 7.5km of underground works, the TBM is planned to complete a 3km long single tube, double track tunnel,” said Jakubowski. “Another four single-track tunnels with a total of about 4.5km will be completed using open face excavation and there will be a 300m section of open-cut construction.”

“The start of the tunnel at the Lodz Fabryczna station will be at a depth of 14.5m and the end of the tunnel, located at the Lodz Kaliska and Lodz Zabieniec stations, will be about 7.3m deep. At its deepest point, the tunnel will be about 22.3m deep.”

Herrenknecht News Release for the second section as the larger disc diameter allowed higher contact pressure in the solid hard rock and longer running times.

With small overburdens in parts, the TBM achieved weekly top advance rates of up to 182m. Herrenknecht also provided multi-service vehicles from subsidiary TMS to the project, as well as a cooling tower and belt conveyor systems.

Final breakthrough of the second tunnel occurred after 12 months tunnelling. n

References •

Dual-mode TBM faces Stuttgart-21 challenge – TunnelTalk, July 2014

From left: Multi mode TBM built two 4km rail tunnels; Open single shield mode was used through hard rock

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KVMRT Line 2 progress in Kuala Lumpur Shani Wallis, TunnelTalk

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uilding on the legacy of the Line 1 experience, the first of eight refurbished VDM (variable density TBMs) previously used on Line 1 was launched in early March 2018 to begin excavation of 11.5km of twin tube running tunnels for the Kuala Lumpur Klang Valley metro Line 2 in Malaysia. Twelve TBMs will operate to link the 11 stations on the 11.5km underground section of the city’s second 52.2km long mass transit route (Fig 1).

With works well underway, change of Government in May 2018 then threatened to terminate the underground works contract with the MMC-Gamuda construction JV following failure to reach cost savings in the RM15.47 billion Ringgit (about US$4 billion) underground construction contract.

The unfinished underground work was to be retendered through an international open tender process.

The new coalition Government in Malaysia was elected on a ticket of tighter fiscal control and targeted the Klang Valley Mass Rapid Transit Line 2, as one of the largest public infrastructure projects in the country, for potential cost savings. The move caused considerable backlash with MMC-Gamuda, as Delivery Partner of the Line, saying it had agreed a RM5.22 billion 23% saving on the original cost for the above ground portion of the works and had

Fig 1. Underground section of Line 2

First two of 16 breakthroughs for Line 2

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offered also a 24% reduction for the balance of the underground works by converting the project delivery partner model to a single turnkey contract.

For its part, MRT Corp, as the Government’s representative on the project, said the termination and re-tendering process would be “relatively complex”.

As part of its austerity programme, the new Government also cancelled investment in the design and planning of the MRT Line 3 Circle Line and put on hold progress on the awaited high-speed railway link between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.

As design-build contractor for the underground works, MMC-Gamuda stated that the contract was, at the time, about 40% complete with work on all open-cut station boxes progressing; the first two TBMs into their drives; another two assembled and ready to start; and the remaining eight scheduled to start from November 2018 onwards. The balance of underground works to be completed, it stated, was valued at RM9.6 billion.

The 24% reduction of the underground works contract offered by MMCGamuda was achieved through lowering specifications for mechanical, electrical and architectural finishes of the stations; reducing the number of entrances to stations; and cancelling the interior finish and fit out of four underground stations Bandar Malaysia North and South, Conley and Sentul West (Fig 1).

In the days following the termination announcement, much was written and reported about the situation. This included an open letter from a young engineer working on the project to Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir to make his case for keeping the project and contract progressing. The plea called on the Prime Minister to remember when he guided Malaysia during his previous 22-year term as Prime Minister, championing major infrastructure projects including the iconic Twin Petronas Towers, the combined flood

control and toll road SMART tunnel and the start of the heavy rail MRT system.

Prime Minister Mahathir stepped in to oversee negotiations and made way for MMC-Gamuda to continue as contractor for the underground works.

Renegotiations reduced the original RM16.71 billion underground contract by 21.5%, from US$3.99 billion to $3.1 billion.

Under the negotiations, the Government insisted that Conley and Sentul West Stations be finished completely and postponed the finishing works of the Bandar Malaysia North and South Stations to a future date and under a different contract.

Excavation of all underground stations had started as they are part of the construction programme. Bandar Malaysia North is being used as the working access for the first two TBMs launched on the project. Bandar Malaysia South Station and its adjoining open-cut crossover is needed for train operation. The postponed finish of the two stations will also have to be fitted with ventilation, emergency escape facilities and train control and signalling to allow metro trains to run through them when the Line opens for service.

Agreement to convert the procurement from a design-build contract to a single turnkey contract saved RM5.22 billion or 23% on the original RM22.64 billion to RM17.42 billion ($5.41 billion to $4.1 billion) on the above ground works.

With these combined agreements, the total cost of the MRT Line 2 construction with MMC-Gamuda is reduced by 22.4%, from RM39.35 billion to RM30.53 billion (from $9.4 billion to $7.3 billion). This excludes interest costs during construction, land acquisition costs and other project management costs.

It is unknown if any cost savings were accrued by reducing the supervisory staff of the MRT organisation where levels of staffing for construction of Line 2 was reported to be greater than 600.

With threats to terminate the contract drawn back from the brink, MMCGamuda achieved the first two of 16 TBM breakthroughs for the project in early 2019 when the machines launched on the project in March 2018 from the Bandar Malaysia North station box broke through into the Chan Sow Lin station box (Fig 1).

“We are now quite busy, progressing machines and preparing others for launch,” explained Gus Klados, Tunnelling Director for the MMC-Gamuda JV on Line 2 and also for the JV for Line 1. “The machines breaking into Chan Sow Lin station box will relaunch from the opposite end-wall to complete the twin drives to Tun Razak Station box and we have launched or are ready to launch nine machines, with another three to assemble and launch by mid-2019. There will be few projects in the industry where 12 TBMs are being operated simultaneously by the same contractor to complete 16 separate drives,” he said.

“On their drives from Bandar Malaysia North to Chan Sow Lin the VDMs had to contend with folded limestone in which the synclines and anticlines had many cracks and fractured zones which made managing face pressures more difficult to regulate.

The machines also passed 20m under the

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14-lane Jalan Sungai Besi highway and 25m under the Ampang LRT rapid rail line without causing any concerns or holdups,” reported Dr Ooi Lean Hock, head of the MMC-Gamuda geotechnical department.

The eight refurbished Line 1 TBMs – five refurbished VDMs and two refurbished EPBMs - are joined by four new Herrenknecht VDMs to complete the total 27km of segmentally lined underground route between the north and south transition portals in 16 separate drives (Fig 1).

Refurbishment of the eight Line 1 machines is said to have saved the MMCGamuda JV up to RM400 million or about 15% of what it would have cost to purchase new machines.

The refurbishment process included stripping; cleaning; refurbishment and replacement of worn parts; modification and upgrade of other components and progressing all to factory acceptance tests.

Each cutterhead was assessed separately and fully repaired as necessary. Two of the cutterheads that had suffered particular wear around the periphery were rebuilt with harder wearing Vautid blocks.

The main drive sealing, rotary couplings, thrust and articulation cylinders were pressure tested to confirm their integrity and the erector bearings were inspected and found reusable except for on one machine which was replaced. The screw conveyors were checked for wear and rebuilt and protected with hard facing as necessary and all safety, hydraulic, electric, lubrication, grouting, and soil conditioning systems were checked and repaired as required.

First TBM breakthrough also celebrated continuation of the underground contract The design life (L10) of the main bearing in each of the machines was calculated by Herrenknecht and bearing supplier SKF and the residual life of all was found to be more than sufficient to cater for their Line 2 applications. The remaining L10 life of all the bearings was found to be in excess of 300% of their projected operating hours for the Line 2 drives.

The bearing in only one of the TBMs showed signs of some soil contamination damage after completing more than 4km on Line 1 and was replaced.

“The life of the bearings was a subject of scrutiny by the client,” explained Klados, “and the analytic table of each was submitted with our tender for the contract.”

The one item of operation modification was redesign of the rotary crusher and sizer

component on the slurry circuit of the VDM machines which sit above the slurrifier box and had proven a bottleneck in poor blocky ground conditions during Line 1 operations.

The configuration of the crusher drums and tools was redesigned to change the angle of inclination of the drums to lie more horizontally above the slurrifier box and reduce the tendency for stones to fall rapidly to the end of the drums. The crusher tools were also changed to roadheader picks for a more aggressive jaw action. n

References

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KVMRT to repeat Line 1 success for Line 2 – TunnelTalk, April 2016 Kuala Lumpur Line 1 starts full operation – TunnelTalk, July 2017 TBM excavation begins for Kuala Lumpur Line 2 – TunnelTalk, March 2018

Record breaking TBM performance in China Robbins News Release

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n mid-May 2018 the national-recordsetting 7.9m (26ft) Robbins main beam TBM at the Jilin Lot 3 water supply tunnel in China broke through after achieving the fastest monthly advance rate record of 1,423.5m (4,670ft) for 7m to 8m (23-26ft) diameter TBMs in China.

The world record for the same class and size at 1,482m (4,862ft) in one month is held also by a Robbins machine and was set more than 20 years ago on the TARP (Tunnel and Reservoir Plan) project in Chicago, USA. Given the differences in rock conditions, the record set at the Jilin project is considered significant. At TARP the rock was relatively homogeneous dolomitic limestone averaging 145 MPa (21,100 psi) with occasional rock bolts. At Jilin the rock types were rated from 35 to 206 MPa UCS

(5,100 to 30,000 psi), and identified as tuff, granite, sandstone, and andesite with multiple fault zones and conditions that required nearly continuous ground support.

“I have participated in this project from the beginning,” said Wu Zhi Yong, Vice Chief Engineer and Jilin Yinsong Project Vice General Manager for contractor Beijing Vibroflotation Engineering Co Ltd (BVEC).

“The TBM broke through 147 days earlier than scheduled and excavated more than 1,000m (3,280ft) per month for three consecutive months.”

Despite the conditions, the machine achieved an average monthly advance of 708.3m since the start of boring in March 2015. This is more than three times the average monthly rate of a drill+blast operation on another section of the project.

The Robbins main beam TBM bored through a total of 24 fault zones utilizing a

ASIA

Top: The machine is designed to install the McNally Roof Support System Bottom: Breakthrough nearly five months ahead of schedule; 7.9m Robbins achieved a national record of 1,423.5m in one month

combination of steel McNally slats (extruded through pockets in the TBM roof shield to prevent movement of loose rock), wire mesh, and shotcrete. The McNally system prevents movement of loose rock in the critical area immediately behind the cutterhead support.

The first fault zone for the TBM was encountered at 87m into the drive, requiring cooperation between the owner, Jilin Province Water Investment Group, contractor BVEC, and Robbins field service teams to overcome conditions. Water inflows and collapsing ground for a reach of 1,196m required a combination of McNally slats, grouting, and consolidation of the ground ahead of the machine. Tunnel reflection tomography (TRT), a method of ground prediction using seismic waves, was also used to detect changing conditions ahead of the TBM. “Under the variable ground conditions, the Robbins gripper system, continuous propel system, hydraulic drives, roof support and stable cutterhead ensured effective tunneling progress,” said Wu. “The efficient belt conveyor inside the main beam allowed quick muck removal from the cutterhead to the back of the machine,” he added.

“It is now evident that well-equipped, open-type main beam TBMs with specialized features for difficult ground can traverse faults and cope with large water inflows faster than conventional tunneling methods,” said Robbins President Lok Home. “This fact, coupled with the high performance capabilities as demonstrated at Jilin, lowers the cost and time to complete long tunnels in difficult ground.”

The Jilin Yinsong Water Supply Project at 736.3km is China’s largest scale water diversion project to date. Once operational the water will be supplied to central regions of Jilin Province which are experiencing chronic water shortages. The project will optimize water resource distribution, improve regional eco-systems, and ensure better food production and water safety for the people of Jilin Province. n

Mega slurry TBM ready for river underpass

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REG celebrated successful factory testing of a 15.8m slurry TBM for its 3,483m Chunfeng highway drive

under the Jibu River in Shenzhen for the China Railway Tunnel Group (CRTG).

The anticipated geology consists of mainly granite, to a maximum 173.7 MPa, metamorphic sandstone, tuffaceous sandstone and moderately weathered schist.

The TBM will cross 11 fault zones of up to 431m wide and will negotiate a minimum curve radius of 750m.

To maintain safe excavation at 8 bar pressure and keep water tightness, CREG built a specialised high-pressure sustaining system into the machine.

Twin crushers have been installed in the machine to ensure efficient excavation through the numerous rock types. An online system is applied for real-time monitoring of cutter wear.

15.8m mega slurry TBM ready for Shenzhen

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CREG News Release

A customised main drive capable of telescopic movement and swinging in all directions to allow changing of cutting tools under atmospheric pressure. To mitigate the risk of surface settlement under urban infrastructure, CREG has incorporated four circuit lines of air pressure control for the machine during operation.

The completed tunnel will be the first single-bore, double-decked highway in Shenzhen with two lanes and a continuous emergency parking lane on the two decks. n

References • • •

Chinese gripper TBM sets pace in Lebanon – TunnelTalk, May 2017 Rectangular TBM for urban underpasses – TunnelTalk, May 2017 The rise of Chinese manufacturers – TunnelTalk, December 2016

www.TunnelTalk.com

From left: Progress of up to 15m a day; Robbins Crossover TBM ready for dispatch to Mumbai; Fifth Terratec TBM for Mumbai assembled

Progress on Mumbai Metro Line 3

TunnelTalk reporting

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ork was progressing well in Mumbai, India, with 17 TBMs either in operation or preparing to launch by end 2018 to excavate the 33km long, twin tube all underground Metro Line 3.

Two 6.65m diameter Robbins Crossover XRE TBMs arrived in Mumbai to work on Contract UGC-01 of the project for the Larsen & Toubro-Shanghai Tunnel Engineering (L&T-STEC) JV. The machines combine the features of EPB and hard rock single shield TBM technology to excavate the parallel 2.8km tunnels through mixed ground and possible water pressures up to 2 bar. Expected geology includes basalt rock and transition zones consisting of black carbonaceous shale, tuff, and breccia with rock strengths expected to range between 15 MPa and 125 MPa in UCS. “During the factory acceptance testing in April, we observed that the machine and back-up system are robust enough for hard rock tunneling,” stated Palwinder Singh, Head of Tunnel Operations for L&T-STEC JV. The metro tunnels will run between the Cuffe Parade Station and Hutatma Chowk station, passing through Vidhan Bhavan and Church Stations. Both machines launched using umbilical cables and hoses for the first 100m from a 25m deep x 22m long shaft at the Cuffe Parade Station.

The TBMs will begin their drives in hard rock mode. “Each cutterhead is optimized for operation in rock, and can also operate in soft ground thanks to the screw conveyor with a bulkhead gate and a discharge gate,” said Robbins Project Engineer JP Bayart.

“The XRE torque-shift system, consisting of two-speed shifting gearboxes coupled to the main drive motors, allows for the high cutterhead torque required for soft ground operations. In combination with the screw conveyor located at the centerline, the design allows for fully emptying the cutterhead chamber, resulting in minimal wear when EPB mode is not required.”

“Our target is to achieve an average of 250m (820ft) of boring/month,” said Jim Clark, Robbins Projects Manager India. “The target is to complete the boring operations in 20 months, which includes the additional time required for the short start-up using umbilicals and operations to pull the machines through three station boxes.”

Contractor L&T plans to work crews on double shifts to cover a full day of operations in order to keep to this timeline. The machines will join two Robbins slurry machines working for the Dogus/Soma JV on Package 3.

Three Herrenknecht EPBMs, one new and two used, will work for the CEC/ITP/TATA JV on the opackage 4 contract. The machines to be used by the L&T/STEC JV on package 7 will be three STEC refurbished TBMs. During the year, Terratec assembled the fifth of its seven TBMs to work on the project. The 6.68m diameter dual mode hard rock TBM will work on Contract UGC-06 and progress from the CSIA International Airport shaft.

Two 6.68m diameter dual-mode hard rock TBMs being used by the HCC Hindustan Construction Company/Moscow Metrostroy JV on Contract 2 of the project are excavating the 14km long twin tunnels from the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminal (CST) TBM launch shaft.

The other three new Terratec dual-mode hard rock TBMs are being used by the J Kumar–China Railway No 3 Engineering Group JV to excavate the line’s 4.94km Contract 5 from Dharavi Station to CSIA Domestic Airport TBM receiving shaft, and the 4.45km Contract 6 from CSIA Domestic Airport to the Marol Naka TBM receiving shaft (Fig 1).

The JV will also use two re-manufactured 6.61m diameter mixed rock Terratec EPBMs that were recently used on Delhi Metro for a section of highly weathered ground on Contract 5.

Terratec is the lead TBM supplier on the Mumbai project with a 41% market share. The first TBMs launched have achieved advance rates of up to 15m/day and 91m/week during the early stages of their drives.

Line 3 is estimated to be completed and in operation by 2021. n

References • •

TBM orders for Mumbai Metro Line 3 – TunnelTalk, February 2017 Robbins slurry TBMs ready for Mumbai Metro drives – TunnelTalk, September 2017

www.TunnelTalk.com

Fig 1. Progress so far on Mumbai Metro

Bangalore Metro

Shani Wallis, TunnelTalk

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n March 2019, the first two of four contracts to build the 14km underground section of the Bangalore Metro Phase 11 project were awarded to Indian contractor Larsen & Toubro. The award by the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation (BMRC) is for the central Packages 2 and 3 under the centre of the city and comprises approximately 6km of twin tube running tunnels and five underground stations from Vellara Junction Station in the south to Pottery Town Station in the north (Fig 1).

The 2.76km design-build Package 2 on Reach-6 of the new 21.5km long Line includes the Vellara Junction, M.G. Road and Shivajinagar underground stations and the 2.8km long design-build Package 3 contract from Shivajinagar Station includes the running tunnels and underground stations at Cantonment and Pottery Town.

Both contracts are to be completed within a contract period of 42 months.

Proposals have also been called by BMRC for the two remaining underground construction contracts – Proposals for the 3.6km Package 1 from the south ramp connection to the southern elevated extension, to the contract interface with Package 2 at Vellara Junction Station and with three underground stations at Diary Circle, MICO Industries and Langford Town, were to be submitted for a tender opening date on 25 March 2019, followed by an a tender opening on 27 March 2019 for

the 4.6km Package 4 section from south of Tannery Road station to the north ramp and including four underground stations at Tannery Road, Venkateshpura, Arabic College and Nagawara (Fig 1).

Award of the first two contract packages to L&T on 28 February 2019, and call for proposals for the second two, comes a year after proposals for the original procurement process for the 14km long underground section of the line was cancelled by BMRC. It also alters the scope of the two packages to the north, moving Tannery Road Stations and its twin tunnels from the original Package 3 into Package 4.

While contracted work on the 7km long elevated section to the south has been progressing and are about 15% complete, the original proposals for the four underground section contracts were cancelled in March 2018 when they came in substantially higher than the BMRC estimates.

Sixteen construction companies requested bid documents and attended the prebid meetings in 2017. Financial bids opened once the technical proposals from the four competing firms were qualified and evaluated, revealed a combined total for the four lowest bids of Rs 8553.45 core (US$1.28 billion), nearly 70% higher than the estimated total of Rs 5047.56 core (about US$760 million).

Total cost of the Line 4 corridor was estimated by BMRC at Rs 11,908.32 crore

Double breakthrough after challenging drive in India

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wo 6.52m diameter EPB machines broke through simultaneously at Hussainganj underground metro station to complete tunnelling on phase 1A of the Lucknow Metro in India.

The double breakthrough by the EPBMs from Terratec for the Gulermak-TATA Projects JV completed the third drive of the contract two months ahead of schedule and marked completion of tunnelling works on the 3.67km long CharbaghGulermak-TATA Projects JV celebrate breakthrough

including the metro rolling stock and system M&E fitout.

The underground Line 4 will intersect with the East-West Line at its elevated station at MG Road.

L&T submitted bids for Package 2 and Package 3 with the other three, Italian-Thai Development (ITD), Afcons Infrastructure and Gulermak of Turkey, bidding on all four packages. As the only non-national competitor, Gulermak of Turkey is engaged on its first Indian project in joint venture with India’s Tat Projects on the Lucknow Metro. According to BMRC, a maximum of two packages can be awarded to the same bidder.

The contractors who worked on the underground sections of Phase 1 declined to participate in the Phase II procurement.

The CEC-Soma-CICI JV completed the 3.5km underground alignment of the 18km East-West Purple Line UG-2 contract using Hitachi slurry TBMs and the CoastalTranstonnelstroy JV finally completed the troubled 4.8km long underground sections of the 24km long North-South Green Original bids for Phase 2

Terratec News Release

Hazratganj section in about 15 months.

The TBMs excavated through geology consisting of stiff to hard clayey silt and medium to dense silty sand, passing beneath historic buildings in the heritage district without any disturbance to buildings, public utilities or traffic.

The EPB machines have a classic soil configuration with a spoke-style cutterhead and a 57% opening ratio. The cutting tools were designed to be interchangeable with 17in disc cutters, allowing the TBMs to bore through station diaphragm walls and cope with the presence of unexpected obstacles in the ground.

The final drives from Charbagh to Hussainganj were particularly challenging as the TBMs had to pass 1m below the bed of the Haider Nallah canal in a highly populated area full of dilapidated structures on weak foundations.

Also in India, Larsen+Toubro launched two Terratec 6.57m diameter EPBMs for the East-West Package 2 contract on the 20.7km long Line 1 of the Ahmedabad Metro in western India.

The contract includes construction of 3.3km of twin tube running tunnels between Kalupur Railway Station and Shahpur, two underground stations at Gheekanta and Shahpur, and cut and cover structures, NATM connections and launch and retrieval shafts for the TBMs. The tunnelling works are due to be complete by December 2019. Terratec has supplied 22 TBMs to the Indian market in the last five years, all tailor made, robust and with specialist support onsite. n

References

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Lucknow begins metro TBM tunnelling – TunnelTalk, November 2016

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moves ahead with Phase II Line using a SELI EPB machine and two Herrenknecht EPBMs. The central Majestic underground station in the heart of the city was removed from the GU2 underground tunnelling contract and tendered as a separate operation.

Staged opening of the Phase 1 lines began with elevated sections in 2011. The first sections of underground system on the East-West Purple Line and either side of the delayed Majestic Interchange Station opened in May and November 2015.

Major troubles with the EPB machines Fig 1. Underground elements of the network

through the mixed ground conditions on the running tunnels, combined with the delays on excavation and construction of the Majestic Station, held up opening of the central section of the North-South Line and continuous travel on the East-West Line through Majestic Station until June 2017.

Given the better performance of the slurry TBM systems on the UG-1 section of the Phase 1 construction programme, and the troubles with wear and breakdowns experienced by the EPB machines, it is said that slurry TBM excavation is specified for the Phase II running tunnel works. It is said also that BMRC has specified a minimum number of two TBMs to be used on each contract. This was said to have influenced the original bid prices.

The value of the awarded L&T contracts for Packages 2 and 3 at INR 3,325 crore (approximately US$500 million) is reported as being 17% higher than the BMRC estimate.

Its nearest rival for the two contracts was Afcons who quoted about INR 16 crore more than L&T in total. ITD-Gulermak in joint venture presented a higher bid for the two packages and HCC (Hindustan Construction Company) presented a bid for Package 2 alone that was quoted as 64% higher than the BMRC estimate.

Together with the underground and elevated sections of the new North-South Red Line, with an interchange with the elevated station of the East-West Purple Line

Delayed Majestic Station of Phase 1 at MG Road, the total 74km metro buildout of Phase 11 includes an elevated Yellow Line and elevated extensions at both ends of the existing East-West Purple Line and the North-South Green Line. Once Phase 11 is complete, the Bangalore Metro will have an operating system of more than 116km with more lines, including a metro link to the airport, currently in design. n

References • • • • • •

Final end to tough Bangalore TBM drives – TunnelTalk, October 2016 Hard-won breakthrough in Bangalore – TunnelTalk, May 2016 Getting Bangalore Metro north-south line back on track – TunnelTalk, January 2016 Hard rock beaten on Bangalore slurry drives – TunnelTalk, March 2014 Slurry or EPB for conditions in Bangalore – TunnelTalk, January 2016 Double TBM breakthrough in Lucknow – TunnelTalk, October 2017

Tight squeeze for Singapore sewer drives Herrenknecht News Release

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win tunnels to accommodate two large drains have been excavated for the Stamford diversion water canal in Singapore. Connecting to the existing 5km long Stamford Canal in the heart of Singapore, the new tunnels for client PUB (Public Utility Board) will expand the existing drainage system and relieve flooding of the city during heavy rain.

A 5.2m Herrenknecht EPB shield encountered winding bottlenecks on the

challenging 1,000km long twin tunnel for contractor Tiong Seng. Due to the inner-city location, the smallest possible diameter of 24m was chosen for the launch shaft.

On completion of the first tunnel, the machine was returned to its starting point for the second tunnel drive.

With a drive power of 630kw, the TBM worked its way through complex ground conditions of highly-weathered granite and with small overburdens crossed under the busy city. Additional

challenges included the short distance between the two tunnels and a tight curve radius of 180m in the course of the alignment.

With precision work by the shield articulation cylinders, the curve drive was continuously adjusted to stay within the tolerance. A continuous advance of up to 18m/day and 91m/week was achieved.

The expansion of the drainage system is designed to prevent future major flooding to Orchard Road and relieve the Stamford Canal by up to 30%. n

A special challenge for the site crew was the 180m curve radius; The 5.2m Herrenknecht shield TBM with 630 kW power drive

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Challenging drives in Bangkok Terratec News Release

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omplex and variable soft ground conditions, ranging from soft and medium to stiff and very stiff clays, with lenses of dense sand and the potential for high pressure groundwater inflows, have to be anticipated by a 6.39m diameter EPBM from Terratec on the Orange Line of the Bangkok Metro. Procured by contractor Italian-Thai, the TBM will work on one of three underground civil works contracts for the first 23km-long east phase of the Orange Line, which comprises 11.38km of twin single-track tunnel alignment under the city centre of Bangkok.

Contract E3, awarded to Ital-Thai, totals more than 6km of running tunnel and three underground stations.

The soft ground cutterhead of the Terratec TBM features a spoke style design with a 43% opening ratio and back-loading knife bits to assist break-in and breakout of the concrete station shaft eyes. In addition, the machine is fitted with an active bentonite face support injection system and double gated screw, to ensure face TBM designed for tight corners

stability and mitigate ground settlement during excavation within areas of flowing sands and high groundwater pressure.

A precast concrete segmental lining consisting of five x 1,200mm wide universal style segments plus a key will be installed to an internal diameter of 5.7m.

The new Orange Line will eventually total about 35.4km with 26.2km aligned underground and 23 underground stations.

Also in Bangkok, a new 4.27m diameter Terratec TBM is to arrive in mid2019 to complete a challenging alignment on the Bangkok Metropolitan Electricity Authority Klong Daan Cable Tunnel for Thai contractor See Sang Karn Yotah.

Designed to accommodate a new high-voltage cable system, the Klong Daan Cable Tunnel Project is one of a series of tunnelling projects being undertaken by the MEA, which are being built to meet increased power demands in the Thai capital.

Located to the south east of the city, the tunnel is subject to tight alignment constraints imposed by the need to follow public road easements. To achieve this, the Terratec EPBM has been designed with an X-type articulation system capable of excavating a minimum radius curve of 48m.

A 250mm thick by 1.2m wide ring of universal tapered precast segments (four + key) will be installed and muck removal, segment transport and machine supply will be via rail bound equipment. n

Hydro work in Lao Patrick Reynolds for TunnelTalk

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oyry and ILF have won the consultancy contracts on two separate hydropower projects involving underground works being developed in Lao PDR by local power company Chaleun Sekong Energy.

Chaleun Sekong Energy awarded an engineering services contract to Poyry for its 54MW Nam Kong 3 project, which is being built by China Gezhouba Group Co (CGGC).

The underground works include a diversion tunnel and a headrace to produce 480 GWh/ year of electricity.

On the 129MW Nam E-Moun project, ILF and partners will undertake site supervision and commissioning services.

The hydropower project includes more than 15km of tunnels.

A major push in hydropower development is underway in Lao. Among them, excavation of the headrace on the Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy (XPXN) project was completed by Seli Overseas using a Terratec TBM, on behalf of turnkey contractor SK Engineering & Construction, of South Korea. n

References

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Laos headrace finishes early despite challenges – TunnelTalk, March 2017 Rallying finish for robust TBM in Laos – TunnelTalk, January 2011

CGGC signs build contract for Nam Kong 3 HEP, Lao PDR

References • • •

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Challenging drive ahead for Bangkok Metro – TunnelTalk, August 2018 Preparing for second challenging drive in Bangkok – TunnelTalk, November 2017 Go! for new Orange Metro Line in Bangkok – TunnelTalk, December 2016

www.TunnelTalk.com

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Singapore DTSS Phase 2 begins of the long term structural integrity of the tunnels. This ability will also monitor the condition of the tunnels when other construction works are underway in their vicinity, or during events of seismic activity.

Gates within the permanent shafts of the system will temporarily isolate the tunnels in the event that any repairs are required once in operation. During such repairs, the flow will bypass the isolated part of the tunnel via the link sewer network and rejoin the main tunnel downstream.

The deep tunnels in Phase 2 will connect to the existing deep tunnels in Phase 1, which serve the northern and eastern part of Singapore to create one seamless integrated system. DTSS Phase 1 was completed in 2008 and comprised construction of a 48km-long gravity-fed deep sewer tunnel to a new water reclamation plant at Changi.

In addition to the 50km of deep segmentally lined main tunnels, Phase 2 of the DTSS system includes another 50km of connection tunnels that are to be awarded as design-bid-build pipejacking contracts.

When Phase 2 is completed and in operation in 2025, the whole of Singapore will be served by the deep tunnel sewer system and its connection sewers directing all flow

TunnelTalk reporting to three major water reclamation treatment plants that will recycle as much of the used water as possible and minimise the release of treated water to the sea outfalls. n

References

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First DTSS Contracts awarded in Singapore – TunnelTalk, September 2017 RFQs called for Singapore DTSS Phase II – TunnelTalk, April 2016 DTSS Phase I extremes of underground construction – TunnelTalk, March 2005 DTSS Phase I site visit report – TunnelTalk, April 2004

Fig 1. All 19 TBMs will be Herrenknecht machines, 18 slurry Mixshields and an EPBM

ASIA

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onstruction of the 50km of the Phase 2 deep sewer tunnel system across the southern and western areas of Singapore, is awarded in five design-build contracts (Fig 1 and Table 1).

Starting under Keppel Road at 35m below ground to the east and following the Ayer Rajah Expressway, under Tuas Bay to the Tuas water reclamation plant to the west, all 50km of the new gravity-fed deep tunnels will be TBM excavated, using 19 Herrenknecht TBMs and are segmentally lined with a secondary inner corrosive resistant lining.

Each contract includes several temporary working shafts as well as permanent drop shafts and odour control structures.

All 19 TBMs for the 50km of up to 6m i.d. main line sewer tunnelling for Phase 2 are on order with Herrenknecht. The five design-build construction contractors have all selected Herrenknecht slurry Mixshields and one EPBM for drives through the mixed geology of the Jurong Formation and comprising limestone, sandstone, mudstones overlain by soft waterbearing soils. All TBMs will be manufactured at Herrenknecht facilities in China.

A Herrenknecht VSM, vertical shaft sinking machine, is to be used by STEC on the T-11 contract for the shallower, 12m o.d. diameter shafts near the city centre where shaft construction sites are limited.

Deeper shafts will be excavated within diaphragm walls.

Project client, PUB, required each competing contractor to name its TBM manufacturer in bid documents and this was carried forward as part of the contract award. Herrenknecht, from its Singapore base, was said to have supported bidders with geotechnical investigations and advice during the procurement phase and will have local technical support available to contractors through the excavation phases.

For the 48km of conveyance tunnels for DTSS Phase 1 in the north, east and central parts of the island, Herrenknecht supplied five of the total eight EPBMs used with the other three supplied one each from Japan

by NKK, Kawasaki and Mitsubishi.

Designers working with the contractors on the design-build contracts are considering designs for steel fibre and macro synthetic fibre reinforcement of the primary segmental lining and designs to meet the required inner corrosive resistant lining. Preliminary designs, prepared by the Black & Veatch and AECOM joint venture for the client, PUB, Singapore’s national water agency, require an inner corrosive resistant lining of microbiological-influenced corrosion-resistant concrete and an inner high density polyethylene (HDPE) protective lining to protect against corrosion, particularly from bacteria and other microorganisms and from gaseous fumes in the sewer environment (Fig 2 left).

For tunnel sections that cross under the sea on contracts T-08 and T-11, an additional waterproof membrane layer is to be installed between the segmental lining and the inner secondary lining to minimise any water ingress into the tunnel (Fig 2 right).

The tunnels will also be fitted with a network of fibre optic sensors cast into the primary lining to enable remote monitoring

Fig 2. Corrosive resisting linings for the deep tunnels (left) and the under sea reaches (right) Table 1. The five design-build contracts of the Phase 2 deep tunnels Contract T-07 Length: 12km Contract Value: Sing $499 million Contractor: Ed Zublin AG (Singapore Branch) Designer: Arcadis and Jacobs From intersection of Jurong Pier Rd and the Ayer Rajah Expressway (AYE) and follow AYE to Tuas Road, plus link sewer Jalan Bahar/ Pan Island Expressway (PIE) junction to Benoi Road/AYE junction TBM order: Four Herrenknecht Mixshields: 2 x 7.5m o.d. x 3.3km and 3.5km ; 2 x 4.86m o.d. x 2.8km and 2.3km Contract T-08 Length: 10km Contract Value: Sing $520 million Contractor: Penta-Ocean /Koh Brothers JV Designer: Arup with OTB Concrete Main sewer plus industrial water sewer from Jalan Buroh/Pioneer Road and Pioneer Section 1 before passing under Tuas Bay and terminating at Tuas water reclamation plant TBM order: Four Herrenknecht Mixshields: 1 x 7.36m o.d. x 3km ; 1 x 5.26m o.d. x 2.8km ; 2 x 4.53m o.d. x 2.9km and 2.8km Contract T-09 Length: 8km Contract Value: Sing $495 million Contractor: Leighton Contractors (Asia) Designer: COWI with CPG Corporation From intersection of Clementi Road and AYE to the intersection at Jurong Pier Road and AYE. TBM order: Three Herrenknecht Mixshields: 3 x 7.51m o.d. x 2.85km, 3.3km, 1.75km Contract T-10 Length: 7.5km Contract Value: Sing $340 million Contractor: Nishimatsu Designer: Meinhardt From intersection of Portsdowns Road and AYE to the intersection of Clementi Road and AYE plus link sewer from Portsdown Road to Leedon Heights and intersection of Clementi Road and AYE to Clementi Road and West Coast Road TBM order: Two Herrenknecht Mixshields and one EPBM: Mixshields 1 x 7.41m o.d. x 3km; 1 x 5.31m o.d. x 3km; EPBM 1 x 4.78m o.d. x 1.5km Contract T-11 Length: 11.5km Contract Value: Sing $472 million Contractor: STEC - Shanghai Tunnel Engineering Co Designer: Surbana Jurong From Keppel Road to Portsdown Road plus link sewer from Sentosa to Warwick Road TBM order: Five Herrenknecht Mixshields: 2 x 4.75m o.d. x 3km, 1.6km ; 3 x 4.5m o.d. x 3.8km, 1.5km, 1.5km

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Chinese TBM a first in Africa Factory acceptance ceremony

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talian contractor Seli procured a 10.5m EPBM from CREG of China to extend the Algiers Metro line in Algeria from El Harrach Station to Houari Boumediene International Airport, including an underground section of 9.5km with nine stations and 10 ventilation shafts.

The TBM was designed and manufactured in just nine months. Following machine assembly in Algiers, excavation is due to start mid 2019. With active articulation it is capable of negotiating a 180m curve radius as required by the project owner.

“After testing this TBM in the past week we are happy that it meets our expectations,” said Dario Vizzino, Seli Overseas Project Director of the Algiers Metro project at the factory acceptance test.

CREG News Release The supply contract follows earlier CREG contracts with European Contractors in the Middle East where CREG supplied two 3.5m gripper TBMs for a water supply project subcontracted to CMC in Beirut; two 11.05m TBMs to Dubai for the deep tunnel storm water system subcontracted to Porr-Six Construct JV; and one 4.4m EPBM for the Doha Musaimeer pumping station and outfall project subcontracted to HBK-Porr JV. The extension line from El Harrach to the airport is scheduled to open to the public in 2021. n

References

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Chinese gripper TBM sets pace in Lebanon – TunnelTalk, May 2017

MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA

TBMs complete Red Line of Tel Aviv Metro

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he last of six EPBMs supplied by CREG made a final breakthrough on the western segment of the Red Line on the Tel Aviv Light Rail in September 2018 marking the end of excavation on the 11km twin running tunnels. The contract for the western segment of the Red Line was awarded in May 2015 to the ChineseIsraeli JV comprising the China Railway Tunnel Group (51%) and the Solel Boneh Infrastructure subsidiary of Shikun & Binui Group (49%).

The Red Line will be the backbone of the mass transit system in Tel Aviv, and is designed by the NTA, National Transit Authority, to pass through the most congested regions of the metropolitan area.

The tunnels passed through the Kurkar Formation, an Aeolian quartz sandstone with carbonate cement. Settlement control was a point of concern as the TBMs passed under the Igudan utility lines, the Ayalon Highway, the Ayalon River, a main railway, the Shafa Tal Bridge and the many historic buildings of the Herzel area.

CREG News Release

Fig 1. Red Line is first of eight lines planned for Tel Aviv Metro To cope with ground conditions, the EPBMs were designed by CREG to include a 1,600kW VFD electric-driven cutterhead with breakout torque up to 14,000kNm, up

The last of six TBMs makes a breakthrough at Carlibach Station

to 40 interchangeable cutting tools on the cutterhead with 17in disc cutters, active articulation for the shield, and a built-in twopart annular backfilling system at the tail of the machine. For muck hauling in the highly congested areas of Herzel, CREG supplied its first continuous conveyor and vertical conveyor system for the project. CREG also established a local stock for spare parts and dispatched a service team to train local workers and render technical assistance.

Speaking at the breakthrough ceremony Zhuo Yongjun, General Manager of CREG International Division said: “The final breakthrough of our six TBMs has shown not only the success of our TBM performance, but also a success of great teamwork.”

Also at the ceremony, Anthony Burchell, Project Director for the Parsons Brinckerhoff Project Management team for the Red Line, said: “I am impressed by the work of CREG, the cutterhead design and the reliability of the machines.”

Project Manager Gu Zhonghua of the JV added: “All six machines finished tunnelling successfully and with an average machine availability of more than 93%. The best daily rate was 21m or 14 rings, and the best monthly rate was 340m (225 rings).”

The Red Line, with 10 stations at about 1km intervals on the underground alignment, is the first of a total of eight lines planned for the Tel Aviv Metro by 2030.

Following successful completion of the Red Line, an invitation has been released for participation in prequalification tenders for the 39km long Green Line with 62 stations including a 4.5km long underground section to link four underground stations and the 29km long at grade or elevated Purple Line with 45 stations. Both lines will be implemented under a PPP (public private partnership) scheme and under a design-build-financemaintain procurement strategy. n

References •

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Segment gaskets for Tel Aviv Metro and others – TunnelTalk, January 2018

www.TunnelTalk.com

Lesotho Highlands Phase II preparations Shani Wallis, TunnelTalk

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onstruction activity is set to start once again high in the mountains of Lesotho as elements of Phase II of the binational water delivery project between Lesotho and neighbouring South Africa are developed and the invitation to prequalify for design-build contracts associated with the project are called.

Phase II builds on the successful completion of Phase IA in 1998 and 1B in 2003 and includes excavation of a 38km long x 5m diameter tunnel to transfer water by gravity from the new Polihali reservoir on the Senqu River in the Mokhotlong district into the existing Phase I Katse reservoir for delivery to South Africa via the existing Phase I tunnel and run-of-river transfer scheme. Along with the new tunnel, Phase II includes a new 165m high concrete-faced rockfill dam and a measurement weir on the Senqu River and a proposed lake-tap outlet into the Katse reservoir.

Phase II of the treaty-controlled delivery of water from the highlands of Lesotho to the Vaal Dam in South Africa is needed to increase current delivery of the Phase I scheme to meet increasing demand for potable water in the Gauteng region of South Africa that includes the cities of Johannesburg and Pretoria and the industrial powerhouses that they support.

The transfer system also generates hydroelectricity for Lesotho.

Development of Phase II has been progressing since Phase I was completed, and in late 2017, the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority (LHDA), the implementing and management authority for the Project on behalf of the Government of Lesotho, awarded a Maluti/Rand 900 million contract for designing and supervising the construction of the Polihali water transfer tunnel - the largest of the Phase II engineering design contracts - to the Metsi a SenquKhubelu Consultants (MSKC) Joint Venture.

Work by the MSKC JV on the Phase II Polihali transfer tunnel design and construction supervision contract began in December 2017. The MSKC team comprises Lesotho-based FM Associates, and South African firms Aurecon South Africa, Hatch Africa, Knight Piesold and SMEC South Africa. Sub-consultants include White Life Consultants of Lesotho; S5 Construction Consultants of Lesotho; and ILISO Consulting of South Africa The scope of services includes reviewing the existing project information and preparing the preliminary design of the transfer tunnel; preparing the tender design, drawings and tender documents for the construction of the tunnel; supporting LHDA through the contract tender and award process; and providing contract management services during tunnel construction.

Specialists on the proposed Panel of Engineering Experts will advise and assist LHDA in the design and construction disciplines of major bridges, the concrete

www.TunnelTalk.com

faced rockfill dam, tunneling and tunnel structures for water and hydropower projects; geology and geotechnical engineering, mechanical and electrical engineering for water and hydropower projects, and construction and contract law.

Construction of the 38km long transfer tunnel is expected to commence in 2020 and to be completed by the end of 2025. It is Top: Katse Dam; Inset: Panel of engineering experts on said that both TBM and drill+blast visit to Katse Dam. From left: John Sharp, Dean Brox, methods will be used to excavate Clemente Curnis, David Lees, Ian Firth, Brian Sadden, the tunnel.

David Powell (Palmi Johannesson absent) When completed by the 2025 main dam and tunnel works in 2020. due date, the elements of Phase II Also in late 2018, proposals from two will progressively increase the current water supply rate per annum to South Africa from groups for the Polihali dam diversion tunnels, 780 million m3 to more than 1 270 million m3. as part of early project works, revealed a bid At the same time, it will increase the quantity from the Sinohydro SA/Nthane Brothers JV of electricity generated in Lesotho. The of Maluti 227.6 million and a bid of more envisaged Phase II hydropower component than double from the Salini Impregilo/CMC is subject to further feasibility study of three di Ravenna/LSP Construction Ltd/CMI locations - two on the Senqu River and one Infrastructure Ltd JV at Maluti 517 million.

These early works contracts mark the at Oxbow – which are advancing and are start of a six-year of Phase II construction expected to be completed by mid-2019.

The major works of Phase I included the period. “It has taken years of planning and construction of the Katse Dam, the water preparation to get to this point. This is what transfer and delivery tunnels, ‘Muela Dam we have been waiting for,” said Divisional and ‘Muela Hydropower Plant, the Masuko Manager Tente Tente. n weir and delivery tunnel, and the Mohale References Dam and transfer tunnel (Fig 1).

• Invitation for applications to the LHDA A total 82km of water delivery and Engineering Panel of Experts – TunnelTalk, transfer tunnelling was excavated on the Procurement Notice Phase IA project and a further 38.4km was added under Phase IB. Phases I and II of the bi-national project In December 2018, LHDA confirmed the eight members of its engineering panel of experts which will, “provide technical reviews of the major works and ensure implementation to the highest quality and internationally recognised standards to minimise the risk of engineering errors,” said Tente Tente, LHDA Phase II Divisional Manager. At the start of the first joint mission visit, the panel was introduced to the scope of the project, met with LHDA Chief Executive Mrs Refiloe Tlali, and members of the Lesotho Highlands Water Commission, and made a visit to Katse Dam, the central element of the entire water delivery project and its treaty between Lesotho and South Africa.

LHDA also has an environmental panel of experts engaged to review social and environmental activities.

Earlier in 2018, LHDA also appointed South Africa-based GA Environment Ltd as safety, health, environment and quality auditors for the advanced infrastructure contracts to provide temporary and permanent housing and offices, labour camps, main access roads, bulk power supply and telecommunications transmission lines that are all to be completed before the start of construction of the

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TBMs accepted for the Dubai stormwater drives TunnelTalk reporting

MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA

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wo 11.05m diameter TBMs were accepted at the Guangzhou factory of CREG in China ready for shipping to the stormwater management project in Dubai. Procured by the design-build construction joint venture of Porr, Austria and Six Construct of Belgium, the two machines were ordered in November 2017 and built within nine months, to meet the tight procurement schedule, and the factory acceptance testing schedule in July 2018.

The Porr-Six JV was awarded the AED1.3 billion (US$354 million) designbuild contract by the Dubai Municipality in October 2017.

Project Director Tharamapalan for Dubai Municipality said that the early procurement of the TBMs and their timely manufacture by CREG to meet the strict factory acceptance tests formed an important milestone in the project. He added that the Dubai Municipality was pleased that the two brand new

machines were purpose-built in such a short duration to meet the tight project schedule.

Project Director of the Porr-Six Construct JV Duempelmann confirmed the works are on track for completion of the project before the target date, which is for when Dubai hosts the World Expo opening in October 2020.

The two machines will excavate about 5km each in three drives to complete the 10km x 10m i.d. segmentally lined tunnel at up to 45m deep (Fig 1). Muck will be hauled to the surface via continuous conveyor supplied

by Marti Technik of Switzerland and the lining segments will be delivered using MSVs (multiservice vehicles) supplied by Metalliance of France. Swissboring is installing the 1.2m thick diaphragm walls for excavation of the five shafts of up to 22m diameter and 52m deep required for the contract.

The objective of the stormwater drainage project is to collect and manage groundwater and stormwater runoff from the city’s World Central area and adjacent communities.

At a combined area of about 380km², this includes the city’s new Al Maktoum International Airport, the Expo 2020 site and several other emerging developments.

Although rare, the Gulf States experience extreme storm rainfall events, the impact of which, in conjunction with a high natural ground water level, causes severe flooding.

The large diameter tunnel is one of three main contracts for the overall AED12.5 billion (US$3.4 billion) project that includes: • A further 10km of large diameter gravity flow lateral conveyance tunnel • A network of up to 125km of gravity flow 1m to 3m diameter stormwater pipelines • A 95 hectare detention pond • A high capacity 30m3/sec pumping station; and • A sea outfall comprised of three 500m long x 2m diameter pipelines.

MWH Global, now Stantec, has been working on the project as consulting engineer for the Dubai Municipality since winning the commission in December 2015. The project is designed to give a service for the city of Dubai for the coming 60 to 100 years. n

References •

Stantec acquires MWH for US$793 million – TunnelTalk, April 2016

Right: Fig 1. 10km of stormwater conveyance by TBMs; Below: Acceptance of the two EPBMs at the CREG factory in Guangzhou

Chinese EPBM heads to Qatar CREG News Release

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REG of China shipped a 4.4m EPBM to Doha, Qatar for the Musaimeer pumping station and outfall tunnel project. On its 10km drive the EPBM will encounter three stratigraphic formations, namely Rus formation, Midra shale, and Simsima limestone from bottom to top respectively. Due to its proximity to the shallow sea off the peninsula of Qatar, the water table ranges from 1m to

about 14m below the surface.

The US$251 million project is the second phase of the Mesaimeer drainage project, which is aimed at providing a sustainable solution for the discharge of surface and storm water in Doha. The project was awarded to the joint venture between Hamad Bin Khalid Contracting Company (HBK) and Porr Qatar Construction Company with Mott MacDonald supplying project management services. In addition to the TBM tunnel, the project also includes

construction of a pumping station at the end of Mesaimeer Tunnel, 10 pumps and auxiliary facilities.

The project is scheduled to be completed at the end of 2021 and in preparation for the 2022 World Cup. When complete, the project will pump water from the Mesaimeer tunnel to the new outfall tunnel operating at a capacity of 19.7m3/s.

At the TBM acceptance ceremony, Pavel Zuzula, Project Director said: “As this is the first time to use a CREG machine in Qatar, I wish for every success. I believe we are going to achieve a great performance with your machine and we are going to successfully break through earlier than we intend.”

As well as Zuzula, attending the factory acceptance ceremony was Thorsten Haertel, executive board member of the HBK-PORR JV, Abdulrahim Sheikh, Rudolf Androvic, Senior Construction Manager of the JV, Gary Peach, Project Director of Mott MacDonald and Zhuo Puzhou, General Manager of CREG. n

References The first CREG EPBM destined for Doha, Qatar

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Recognition for Doha drainage project – TunnelTalk, October 2017

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Breakthroughs for Suez Canal underpasses TunnelTalk reporting

Egypt President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Dr Martin Herrenknecht witness the final TBM breakthrough at Ismailia

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xcavation of two new twin-tube road tunnels under the Suez Canal at Ismailia and Port Said in Egypt, to link the Sinai Peninsula with the Nile Delta was completed in early 2018.

In total, four Herrenknecht Mixshields have excavated and built a total of 15.3km of segmentally lined highway tunnelling. The third of the four 13.02m diameter Mixshield TBMs completed its 4.8km drive at Ismailia in late December 2017, working at depths of up to 60m and at a water pressure of up to 6 bar. In early January 2018, one of the two Herrenknecht machines at Port Said completed its 2.8km drive.

The new tunnels will cut the journey time across the Suez Canal from up to 5 days to just 10 minutes. The only current fixed link under the Suez waterway is the 1.63km long single tube bi-directional two lane Ahmed Hamdi Tunnel at the southern end of the Canal, which was constructed in the late 1970s by Tarmac Construction of the UK. The four new highway tunnels were excavated in 19 months by two construction joint ventures, the Arab Contractors/Orascom JV and the Petrojet/Concord/CMC JV. To help the project run smoothly, Herrenknecht trained 40 Egyptian engineers at its headquarters in Schwanau, Germany, and on the jobsites in Egypt to provide on site support. The company also supplied key peripheral equipment through its subsidiaries VMT, MSD, Formwork, H+E and TMS. In addition to the two new twin tube highway tunnels under the vital manmade waterway and shortest sea route between Europe and Asia, Egypt also has plans to add a single tube double track rail tunnel under the Canal at both locations of the highway underpasses. Additional water supply tunnels are also planned. In the 1990s-early 2000s a set of four steep gradient tunnels to accommodate high-volume water supply pipelines were designed by Halcrow of the UK (now Jacobs) and excavated. Currently, two Herrenknecht HDD rigs are installing pipelines under the Canal for the expansion of the power grid and two AVND machines are managing additional water pipelines for agriculture. TBM tunnelling is also progressing in Egypt’s capital city Cairo for expansion of its metro system. n

References

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Cairo metro reaches TBM milestone – TunnelTalk, June 2013

Breakthrough at Port Said after rates of up to 128m/week

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Mühlhäuser takes over NFM TunnelTalk reporting

IN DUSTRY NEWS AND DEVELOPM ENTS

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uilding on a business collaboration announced in 2015, French TBM manufacturer NFM Technologies was taken over by Mühlhäuser of Germany in February 2019.

NFM had been grappling with serious financial difficulties since the end of 2016, due principally to the insolvency of its principal shareholder, NHI Heavy Industries of China. NFM was placed into receivership in August 2018 and on 28 November, the Commercial Court of Lyon decided to entrust the takeover to Mühlhäuser. A new company, Mühlhäuser SAS, has since been registered in France and on the 30 November NFM Technology went into liquidation.

Headquartered at the NFM manufacturing centre in Le Creusot, President of the new company is Markus Rechner of Mühlhäuser. The takeover is described as an asset deal. No financial details had been disclosed on going to press.

“Two offers were received to take over the company at the end of September - one from Mühlhäuser and the other from French company Alifort,” explained Luc Devaux, previous CEO of NFM, who declined the offer to stay on with the new company. “Any Chinese groups were unable to submit proposals to meet the deadline of end November set by the Court for decision-making.”

Altifort was managing takeover of the ASCOVAL company in Valenciennes at the same time and was said to have insufficient time and financial capacity to manage the two operations by the deadlines.

“Mühlhäuser has acquired the NFM brand, the intellectual property, the manufacturing plant at Le Creusot and the stock of components,” said Devaux, “and it has retained 82 NFM staff.”

Under its collaboration agreement of 2015, Mühlhäuser was the agent for NFM in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands and is currently closely associated with NFM on the Semmering Baseline railway tunnel contract in Austria with the Implenia/Swietelsky JV where two

10m diameter NFM TBMs are excavating twin 8.6km long tunnels. Other current NFM TBM projects are the Tideway sewer project in London, UK, where two 8.84m diameter NFM EPBM machines are being used by the FLO JV of Ferrovial/Laing O’Rourke to complete the 12.7km of the Central Contract; and a machine working on the Lyon-Turin highspeed railway project between France and Italy.

Devaux remained associated with the acquisition process assisting the liquidation operations and finding buyers for buyback machines in stock that remained the property of NFM. These included four double shield machines that worked on the Sydney Metro and a mega-diameter machine used for a railway project in Sicily.

NFM became part of the NHI Group in 2007 with the objective of introducing NHI to TBM manufacturing and for NHI to become the number one TBM supplier of TBMs in China. NHI was also interested in the NFM nuclear manufacturing expertise for China’s nuclear power construction program.

Promising relations at the beginning, according to NFM CEO at the time Luc Devaux, became strained in 2011 when NHI imposed a business strategy to double turnover with the same staff.

“This was not possible and disagreeing with this strategy I left the company in 2011.” The NFM business continued in the intervening years with significant TBM order successes in China, Hong Kong, Australia, Egypt and in Europe but financial troubles for NFM were mounting.

Early in 2018, NHI sold its NFM Energy Business Unit to French oil and gas industry specialist REEL and adopted a new strategy to concentrate its efforts solely on the underground construction market.

In an announcement about the sale of NFM, corporate details were stated as: Turnover 2016 €65.707 million Turnover 2017

€71.382 million

Turnover to May 2018 €10.909 million Company workforce

149 employees

“In June 2017, I was asked by NHI and agreed to come back as CEO to oversee this new strategy,” said Devaux, “but at the time I did not know of the financial status of NHI. I became aware of this when the state banks of China refused to restructure the NHI debt early in 2018.”

Insolvency of a large Chinese heavy industrial manufacturing enterprise is something of a new phenomenon.

According to information on its website, NHI (Northern Heavy Industries Group Co Ltd), is a wholly state-owned company and one of the top 500 Chinese enterprises.

When the insolvency of NHI became clear, NFM, which had retained all its intellectual property and its office and manufacturing base in France, began the search for a new shareholder to keep the company viable.

In an interview, Devaux told TunnelTalk that he is positive for the future. “The tunnelling industry is growing rapidly. It is important for the global industry that competition among TBM manufacturers is maintained to control prices, encourage research and development and ensure service and support of TBM customers.” n

References

•

China adds CIFA and NFM to European acquisitions– TunnelTalk, September 2008 NFM and Mühlhaüser join forces for a complete tunnelling solution – TunnelTalk, November 2015

•

Robbins relations with NHI The Robbins Company of the USA has a financial link with NHI of China. In June 2016, Robbins confirmed that NHI had invested in Robbins. After becoming aware of the situation for NFM, Robbins told TunnelTalk that: “Robbins is operating as normal with really no effect from the NFM situation. So far NHI has let Robbins function as a standalone operation with no management interference. After its investment, NHI made no moves to integrate Robbins with other NHI businesses.”

References •

China deal for Robbins – TunnelTalk, June 2016

From left: NFM TBM being used on Thames Tideway, UK; Second NFM TBM ready for launch at Semmering in Austria

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www.TunnelTalk.com

ISO certification and new orders for UK gasket manufacturer

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askets manufacturer VIP Polymers of the UK was awarded the latest ISO 14001 version of the international standard. The assessment was based on elements of a new management system, which incorporates quality, health and safety, and environmental awareness in an integrated approach towards company growth.

“Each stage of our design and manufacturing has also been reviewed to maximise quality, cut waste and energy use, and reduce impact on the environment,” said Dan Rowe, VIP Senior Quality Engineer.

In manufacturing segment gaskets and pipe seals and gaskets to national and international standards, the company has total control of the development and manufacturing process by compounding and mixing its own rubber and having in house product design and testing through to the final manufacture of the products.

VIP already holds the ISO 9001:2015 certification and is working towards achieving the newly published ISO 45001:2018 standard for health and safety management systems.

The company has supplied products to several major projects around the world.

In India, it has been commissioned by J Kumar Infraprojects to supply segment gaskets for the Mumbai Metro Line 3 Packages 5 and 6 tunnel contracts. The works involve excavation of 4.5km of twin 6.6m o.d. tunnels for which a total of 17,800 gasketed segmental ring sets are required.

The glued-in gaskets will be supplied from the VIP factory in Huntingdon, UK. VIP previously supplied gaskets for the four phases of the Delhi Metro project.

In the UK, VIP is supplying its patented cast-in gaskets to all three main contracts on the Thames Tideway super sewer project in London. The patented cast-in gasket is designed to eliminate cracking and spalling of concrete segments caused by solid corners. Solid corners result from the traditional shot joining manufacturing process to join lengths of extruded gasket profile together to form the trapezoid gasket that encompasses the concrete segment.

As the gasket is unable to compress at the corners, higher loads are experienced which can lead to cracks and spalling.

The innovative gasket developed by VIP allows compression performance that is virtually uniform around the entire gasket, ensuring that loads experienced in ring build and installation do not exceed the design specification.

To the Tideway Central Contract, VIP is supplying cast-in gaskets to segment manufacturer Pacacar for the 6,100 segmental ring sets that will line the 12.7km long x 7.8m i.d. tunnel. The Central Contract is the longest section for the project and was awarded to the FLO, Ferrovial Agroman/Laing O’Rourke JV. For the 5.5km long x 8.5m o.d. East Contract, Max Bogl/Tarmac JV is casting VIP gaskets into the segments for the Costain-Vinci-Bachy JV. At depths of between 45m and 65m, this is the deepest

VIP News Release Gasket being installed in a segment mould

section of the Tideway tunnel. The VIP 35mm profile gasket will cope with the higher water pressure at the deepest point of the tunnel.

Also on the East Contract for the Costain-Vinci-Bachy JV, a VIP 28mm profile gasket will be supplied to Max Bogl/Tarmac for casting into segments that will line the contract’s 4.6km long x 6.1m o.d. Greenwich connection tunnel and the contract’s Beckton shaft and syphon overflow tunnel.

On the west end of the project, VIP 28mm profile cast-in gaskets are being supplied to seal the segmental lining of the 1.1km of 3.2m o.d. Frogmore connection tunnel for the Balfour Beatty-Morgan SindallBAM Nuttall JV. n

References • •

New segment gasket gets UK patent – TunnelTalk, November 2017 Innovative gaskets contribute to Shieldhall success – TunnelTalk, December 2017

Driving Progress in Tunnel Projects.

Guided by VMT. Lowering costs and improving efficiency in modern tunnel construction.

With smart modular solutions from VMT. Precise navigation, full documentation and reliable data managment will give you that crucial advantage. Find out more. www.vmt-gmbh.de

Fig 1. Segmental lining with TBM thrust forces highlighted in a BIM model

Fig 2. Integrated PROCON data sources

Integrating TBM data for project success Ulrich Maidl, Marc Comulada, Janosch Stascheit and Felix Hegemann, Maidl Tunnelconsultants

U

nderground construction projects that exceed time and cost limits are often a result of inaccurate interpretation of information and therefore incorrect predictions. The quality of predictions can be improved significantly by digitalization of design and construction processes and, with transparent information on a project status and its boundary conditions, conflicts can be easily identified and settled or prevented.

In diminishing false bias and accounting for previous experience, scientific facts, statistical significance and incorporation of large amounts of data, computer-aided decision-making support helps find better, more economically viable and well-founded solutions.

For TBM projects, this requires the key components of the TBM tunnelling project to be understandable by computer systems and for the project to exist in digital form with respect to: the ground model, being the environment of the tunnel; the tunnel structure, including all major components; and the TBM, being the essential tool for the tunnel construction To obtain a full, transparent picture, this information must be presented in a common framework, for example in BIM, which renders data easily accessible and indicates relevance.

Along its alignment, the tunnel volume is intersected with the digital ground model to create a digital 3D tunnel model (Fig 1).

OUR KIND OF PLAYGROUND This is the natural habitat for Brokk’s compact giants.

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Rings of lining segments are represented in the model in order to incorporate data from segment tracking and quality management.

In addition, real time data from the hundreds of sensors that monitor every component of TBM operations is required for understanding the interaction between the TBM, the ground and the tunnel structure. To summarise the volume of this data for decisionmakers, process controlling software, such as PROCON, provides data in interactive charts.

Monitoring of the ground surface and adjacent structures is a further source of information that requires attention. Measurements are often digitally acquired and processed and are typically displayed in geographic information systems (GIS) where users can easily locate and assess them.

Large projects produce large amounts of documentation and reports. This puts important information at risk of being overlooked.

Additionally, the importance of a piece of information may only become apparent in hindsight. Restricting the amount of documentation is therefore not feasible. Document management plays the crucial role of pre-evaluating and filtering available data for relevance.

In most projects, the various monitoring components are isolated products. It is only with integration into a common reference framework that information management can unfold its full potential.

Integration is understood as a common reference space in terms of state, time and location for each piece of information about the project. A BIM model can be part, but is not a prerequisite, for this.

The key is that whichever piece of information is used, it can always be related to all other project data.

This allows using connected data without the need for overly complex integrated software platforms. In fact, the specific information required for a particular analysis can be collected from various data sources (for example TBM data, design documents and GIS) and correlated by means of their common reference framework (such as location and time of the measurements), and processed in the controlling software PROCON (Fig 2).

An example for the combination of a 3D ground model with TBM and mucking data is the investigation of excavation performance in different homogeneous sections of tunnel advance. Based on scientific models, predictions of the performance can be made. During excavation, the actual excavation performance (derived from TBM data) can be compared with actual ground composition (as observed in the mucking process). As a result, deviations from the predicted ground conditions can be detected and the potential for TBM operation optimisation or the need for maintenance can be identified.

A second example is downtime and tool wear analysis by combining ground model information, shift reports and TBM data.

This analysis detects hidden correlations between operation and technical difficulties, the influence of ground conditions on operational aspects, and identifies improved maintenance intervals.

All partners of a project benefit from collaborative information sharing. Shared resources and open communication throughout the project helps establish an environment for concerted settlement of conflicts with the mutual goal of steady improvement of the project.

At all project levels, the common information platform provides target versus actual comparisons of time, cost and safety. Deviations are detected and respective countermeasures can be unanimously decided. This enables faster decision processes and, in turn, drastically reduced delays and cost overruns with improved quality. n

References • •

Buzz words to concentrate efforts in 2018 – TunnelTalk, January 2018 BIM within ITIG insurance Code of Practice – TunnelTalk, July 2018

www.TunnelTalk.com

Management changes at Normet Normet News Release

A

fter many years of growth and development there are changes at the top of the Normet management team.

President and CEO, Robin Lindahl, decided to leave and join a wealth management and renewable energy business in Finland. With his departure date set for 1 August 2019 at the latest, Lindahl will actively support the search for a new President and CEO and assist the transfer of his duties.

“It has been a pleasure leading Normet during the last three years,” said Lindahl.

“I will miss mostly the great team and the skilled colleagues.”

Aaro Cantell, Chairman of the Normet Group, thanked Lindahl for his good work, “particularly in building a strong and highly professional leadership team.

During Lindahl’s leadership Normet sales have grown from €200 million to more than €300 million with improved profitability. I am confident we will find a good successor to continue the positive development of Normet.”

As of 1 March 2019, Greg Hallett took up the post of Senior Vice President, Sales Area North America, taking over from Mike Rispin, current head of Normet North America, who is leaving the company to pursue new career opportunities. Hallett will also continue his responsibility of

heading the USA Sales Unit.

“Growth in North America is critical for our future success,” said Lindahl. “I am looking forward to Greg building a strong business and foundation for growth.”

In recent times, Normet opened a new production facility in Jaipur, India, to better serve local customers. The facility will produce equipment and chemicals, provide customer support and aftersales service, offer a spare parts support network for India, and a centre for research and development of new chemicals.

“Inauguration of the facility is an important step for Normet in India,” said Lindahl. “Integration of our operations under one roof, will help us to serve our customers better and at the same time help them achieve their goals for productivity, safety and efficiency.”

The inauguration was attended by Ramki Ramakrishnan, Chief Commercial Officer of Hindustan Zinc Ltd, one of the largest Normet customers in India.

The opening of the new facility came at a time when Normet Group was restructuring its organisation to simplify operations and flatten the organisation to allow for growth, improved efficiency and increased profitability. Global sales are divided into four areas, responsible for the entire Normet portfolio: Asia Pacific, Europe, North America and Latin America.

The business lines are: Equipment

Breakers assist in underground demolition Brokk News Release

T

o further assist excavation in hard rock and in confined spaces, Swedish manufacturer of demolition robots, Brokk, has introduced a new range of hydraulic breakers. The new range of eight Brokk Hydraulic Breaker (BHB) models has been designed to complement the Brokk range of demolition robots.

“As experts in the industry for compact demolition, it makes sense for us to now take the step to introduce our own line-up of powerful hydraulic breakers to match the power and performance of our unique demolition robots,” said Martin Krupicka, President and CEO of Brokk Group.

The range boasts the 50kg light BHB55 breaker for the compact Brokk60 demolition robot, and then goes up to the 700kg heavy and powerful BHB705 for the recently introduced Brokk500 and Brokk520D demolition robots.

A key feature is their power-to-weight performance. The breakers are lightweight and compact, yet powerful like heavier breakers from other brands.

As the demolition robots and breakers are designed to work together, Brokk now has the ability to deliver even more demolition performance from the Brokk machines.

The first breakers from the BHB series were introduced together with the all-new Brokk 170, Brokk 200 and Brokk 300 demolition robots earlier in 2018. n One of eight References new hydraulic • Breaking bad underground – breakers TunnelTalk, April 2017

www.TunnelTalk.com

Business, Services Business, Ground Control and Construction Technologies.

“I believe the refined operational model, with increased customer focus, will help us to grow and scale our business profitably,” said Lindahl. “These changes are fundamental building blocks to ensure a competitive cost structure and clear accountability.”

The new operating structure became effective from 1 July 2018. n

References

• • • • •

Normet invests in engineering education – TunnelTalk, January 2019 New Normet facility in India and greater customer focus – TunnelTalk, May 2018 Improved concrete spraying and explosive charging – TunnelTalk, July 2017 Normet joining forces for Chinese market – TunnelTalk, April 2017 Normet partnership for French African market – TunnelTalk, April 2017

Inauguration of new facility in India

Microwave-assisted hard rock excavation

IN DUSTRY NEWS AND DEVELOPM ENTS

E

xcavation of very hard rock continues to present challenges such as low penetration rate and high wear rate of rock bits and cutting tools. In order to address this, microwave assisted rock breakage has recently been drawing further attention. Studies show that microwave treatment decreases the strength and abrasivity of rocks, and preliminary experiments indicate that microwave treatment improves drilling efficiency and extends the service life of cutting tools.

Microwaves occupy a part of the electromagnetic spectrum where wavelengths vary between 1mm and 1m with a frequency of 0.3GHz to 300GHz1*.

Minerals and rocks are dielectric materials which absorb a part of the microwaves, induce molecular motion by migration of ionic species and/or rotation of dipolar species, and produce heat. The dielectric constants and loss factors are dependent on mineralogy and petrography.

Grain size, mixture percentage, water content, ambient temperature and the applied microwave frequency influence the final dielectric properties of the rock.

The differential thermal expansion of minerals in rocks leads to internal stresses that cause micro-cracks within the rocks and decrease rock strength.

Studies completed in the early 2000s6,7,8 found that andesite samples treated with microwaves completely melted after being exposed to 1,350W of power at a frequency of 2.45GHz for 10 minutes in a multimode cavity. X-ray diffraction analyses indicated that the basic chemical composition of the andesite remained the same without any losses in weight, but the structure of andesite turned amorphous after melting.

Basalt samples exposed to microwave irradiation of 750W in a multimode cavity for exposures of 180 and 320 seconds caused the sample to spall and chip off locally under a point load test with visible macro-cracking and splitting observed for the longest exposure duration (Fig 1) and a reduction in the strength of the rock with increased time exposure (Fig 2).

Comprehensive laboratory tests investigated the influence of microwave radiation on temperature profiles and strength reduction in hard rocks such as norite, granite and basalt13. The test results indicated that tensile and uniaxial compressive strengths were reduced with increasing exposure time and power level. Some norite and granite samples cracked (Fig 3a), and some basalt specimens showed surface spalling, bursting or melting (Fig 3b and c).

MWA rock drilling

There are very limited studies on MWA rock drilling. MWA drilling experiments performed on granodiorite and basalt in pilot scale used a high-power microwave generator providing a continuous power output varying from 0kW to 25kW at a frequency of 2.45GHz.14 MWA rotary drag bit cutting demonstrated a dramatic increment in the penetration rate compared to untreated rock.

Penetration rates in granodiorite at 1,093oC

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TunnelTalk ANNUAL REVIEW 2018

Sair Kahraman and Egemen Saygın, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey Cemal Balcı and Faraz S. Sarbangholi, Istanbul Technical University, Turkey Ceyhun Karpuz, Pamukkale University, Denizli, Turkey

Fig 1. Local failures at the point of loading after microwaving (left) and cracking after microwave exposure (right)8

Fig 4. Possible drag bit design using a microwave antenna15

Fig 2. Mean compressive strengths at different microwave exposure times for basalt7 Fig 5. MWA TBM cutter head (black bars show microwave antennas)11

Fig 3. a) Norite cracked after microwave treatment for 65 seconds at 5kW, b) Surface spalling of Basalt 1 after microwave treatment for 35 seconds at 3kW, c) Basalt 2 melted after microwave treatment for 120 seconds at 3kW13 (2,000oF) were in excess of three times the rates at 25oC (77oF). Since bit temperatures remained low, no destruction of the carbideto-steel brazing occurred, and all of the bits remained in good condition. A cost comparison determined the cost to mine one short tonne of hard rock to be US$5.28 for the microwave-assisted method and $8.00 for the unassisted method.

An MWA hydraulic rotary drill machine designed and patented by a research team at McGill University combined microwave energy and mechanical tools for breaking hard rocks15,16 (Fig 4). Drilling tests showed that the efficiency of the microwave drill bit was two to three times that of the standard bit. A power supply system for MWA drilling has also been designed.18 A schematic design of a MWA TBM cutterhead was created where rectangular microwave antennas are placed on the cutterhead in a way to cover the whole face of the tunnel (Fig 5).11

MWA rock cutting

A field simulation with an open-ended horn waveguide in a closed cavity investigated

the potential impact of microwave energy excavations.13 An artificial block of basalts was exposed to microwaves at 3kW power for 60 or 120 seconds. The heating rate on the surface of the specimens linearly decreased with distance between the sample and the microwave antenna, regardless of microwave power level and exposure time. The highest macro-crack density was observed when a dry basalt sample was irradiated for 120 seconds at a distance of 3cm from the antenna. The effect of water saturation on the temperature gradient was small due to the extremely low water permeability of basalt. Rock with higher permeability would require less microwave energy for mechanical destruction. Microwaves exiting an open-ended waveguide had high power intensity in the vicinity of the antenna, which diminished exponentially as it travelled through the medium.

Areas for further study

Most of the microwave generators used in the tests have a power of less than 3kW. Research has shown that applying higher powers in shorter durations decreased fracture toughness. Tests should be carried out on different rock with high power generators.

Further study is also required on the influence of the microwave treatment on the drillability of rocks to investigate indications that drilling rate increases with increased microwave power and increased exposure. n *Author references can be found on the full length article on TunnelTalk.com

www.TunnelTalk.com

Success for China-Canada partnership

A

fter moving manufacturing capabilities from Toronto to China, TBM producer Lovsuns continues to straddle both market areas while also gaining new orders from North America, the Middle East and beyond.

Lovsuns has seen recent achievements with the breakthrough of the Kabatas to Mahmutbey Metro Line for contractor Alarko in Istanbul, Turkey; successful factory acceptance tests at Lovsuns parent company LNSS in China for the first Chinese produced TBM destined for the USA to the Blacksnake Creek stormwater project in St Joseph, Missouri; and the award in May 2018 of TBM supply to two new contracts for North American tunnelling projects. First is supply of an 8.5m single shield rock TBM for the 2.9km Westerley storage tunnel in Cleveland, Ohio, for contractor JV Jay Dee/Obayashi.

Secondly is supply of a 7m single shield rock/EPB dual mode TBM for the 10km long Don River and central waterfront Coxwell bypass tunnel in Toronto for contractor North Tunnel Construction ULC. These two TBMs will be designed and engineered by ex-Lovat engineers in Toronto and manufactured at Lovsuns parent company LNSS Liaoyang facilities under supervision of Lovsuns technicians.

The machines are scheduled to be delivered in the second half of 2019.

The Lovsuns Canadian team will be responsible for site assembly and commissioning of the machines, as well as

future parts supply and field services.

In Turkey, a refurbished Lovsuns CAT 6.12m diameter EPBM was one of two TBMs ordered for use on the 22.5km long Kabatas, Mecidiyeköy and Mahmutbey metro line. The TBM was formerly used in the Toronto metro project in 2010, refurbished in Toronto and skinned up to 6.5m.

Seven more Lovsuns EPBMs have been commissioned for the Kalyon-Kolin-Cengiz and the Makyol/Ictas/Kalyon/Astor JVs building the new airport link and other metro lines in Istanbul.

Both joint ventures ordered TBMs with a mixed face cutterhead, 1,200 KW main drive power, high power torque and advance rates, extra wear protection on the cutterhead and screw conveyor and high screw conveyor output.

The 3.3m double shield rock TBM for the 2km long x 2.3 m i.d. segmentally lined Blacksnake Creek sewer project, “is a big step for LNSS and Lovsuns in achieving our goal of delivering high-quality TBMs to the North American market,” said Hongyu Xue, General Manager of Lovsuns.

The drive will transition from soft ground to hard rock along the tunnel alignment with some mixed face conditions in between.

The project is expected to complete in the Fall of 2019.

China remains the single largest TBM market worldwide. Today, after acquisition of the Lovat TBM technology, LNSS TBMs are involved in many mega-city metro

Lovsuns News Release

LNSS factory in China projects. Global customers are looking for cost-effective and high quality TBMs and the LNSS strategy offers safety of operation and productivity.

“From a global perspective the China/ Canada synergy will allow us to grow faster in China and overseas and to help our customers overcome their challenges,” said Xue. n

References • • •

China-built double shield for US stormwater project – TunnelTalk, December 2017 Eight new Lovsuns EPBMs for Metro Istanbul – TunnelTalk, September 2017 Canadian base for Chinese TBM expansion – TunnelTalk, April 2017

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3D modelling for infrastructure planning Seequent News Release

IN DUSTRY NEWS AND DEVELOPM ENTS

3

D geological modelling software provider Seequent is working on two of the largest underground transportation projects in the Southern Hemisphere.

In Australia, it is working with consultant Golder to provide geological information for construction of the West Gate highway tunnel in Melbourne, and in New Zealand Seequent has partnered with consulting engineer Aurecon to deliver data during construction of the Auckland City Rail Link.

Both projects are using the Seequent 3D geological modelling solution Leapfrog Works to help attain and communicate detailed technical analysis of complex ground conditions and ‘see’ how these ground conditions interacted. Using Leapfrog Works, engineers and designers are able to readily visualise the project elements in 3D and use it as an effective communication tool to make informed decisions on structural design, services locations and construction methods (Fig 1).

Leapfrog Works enables collaboration and file sharing between multiple parties from remote locations using standard technical set ups. Its 3D visuals can be readily shared to help stakeholders better understand each stage of a project and enable engineers to get the design right from the start.

As an example, on the City Rail Link

in Auckland and with the help of Leapfrog Works, engineers were able to revise and optimise ground improvement monitoring for a strategic shaft to mitigate ground risks and clearly communicate them to both stakeholders and contractors during the procurement phases, saving time and cost. Immediate updating of the ground model based on the live data coming from the onsite shaft borehole drilling saved days and further ensured structural accuracy.

“Leapfrog Works has been an instrumental tool to support our ground engineering team, who are the interface between science and engineering,” said Philip Kirk, Geotechnical Team Leader for Aurecon.

From its Christchurch-based headquarters and R&D centre, Seequent has a network of offices across Asia/Pacific, Africa, South America, Europe and has recently added new offices in North America.

Growing interest in its software solutions in the USA market prompted Seequent to open a new office in Denver, Colorado, and in Canada to sign an agreement to acquire Canadian geosience software company Geosoft.

“The acquisition combines two strong geoscience brands, Leapfrog and Geosoft,” said Shaun Maloney, Chief Executive of Seequent. With Geosoft, Seequent now has offices in 20 locations and 400 staff serving customers in more than 100 countries.

In another strategic collaboration,

engineering firm Mott MacDonald signed a global enterprise agreement to provide all its geotechnical practitioners access to the software to support the cultural shift towards digitisation and collaborative working.

“The communication of geotechnical issues to non-specialists has been a long-standing challenge for geotechnics practitioners, and Leapfrog has helped with this,” said Tony O’Brien, Mott MacDonald Geotechnics Global Practice Leader. “Since using the software, we have seen substantial reductions in the time needed to produce ground models, with associated cost savings compared to traditional approaches.”

To provide a single source of data, Seequent introduced Central 2.0, a central management platform that coordinates all geological 3D modelling activity for an organisation or project.

Used in a company network or hosted in the cloud, Central 2.0 allows teams to process, interrogate and visualise in a live environment a huge amount of geological data to understand what has changed in a project over time and why. Rather than going through three layers of people to get the data, it is at the click of a button. n

References •

•

Auckland calls for rail link proposals – TunnelTalk, October 2018 Melbourne West Gate highway approved – TunnelTalk, December 2017

From left: Fig 1. City Rail Link modelled in Leapfrog Works; Fig 2. City Rail Link in detailed 3D view

Precast segments for dual-use conduits

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rench manufacturer cbe designed moulds to produce precast segments for oval shaped dual-use tunnels. These utility conduits are usually built of concrete panels that are difficult to manipulate and unsuitable for automated production.

The CBE segmental alternative allows for standardization of

Segmental lining for dual use tunnels

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TunnelTalk ANNUAL REVIEW 2018

the precast concrete production.

Ordered initially by the Financial Board for Public Works of Chengdu, China, the segment moulds and carousel were designed by the cbe design office in SaintAvertin, France. While the carousel remains quite standard, the moulds had to be adjusted to suit the oval shape of two divided dual-use tunnels. Ordered for two projects in Chengdu one of the tunnels hosts sewage flow and installation of cables, and the second accommodates water supply and electricity cables.

The project in Chengdu is believed to be the first of its type lined using rings of precast concrete segments. The lining of the 7.83m wide x 3.8m high tunnels comprises five segments in each 2.7m long x 300mm thick bolted and gasketed ring.

CBE News Release Advantages of the alternative included time savings, ease of handling of the precast elements, and improved resilience of the tunnel. The success of the first projects using the system is expected to catch the interest of other cities wanting to simplify the construction process of similar utility conduit projects. cbe has steel mould manufacturing production sites in L’Ile Bouchard, France and in Yangling, China. Its group company ACIMEX designs and manufactures vacuum devices for safe handling of concrete, steel or PVC units of up to 30 tonne. n

References

•

•

Bespoke moulds for Grand Paris Express – TunnelTalk, September 2017 Celebrations mark 30 years in business – TunnelTalk, March 2017

www.TunnelTalk.com

I

n a step towards creating a one-source supplier of project equipment, CREG, the China Railway Engineering Equipment Group, entered a strategic partnership with French multi-service vehicle (MSV) supplier Metalliance. The parties will carry out an all-round and in-depth cooperation in global tunnelling projects and underground space development.

“We have had a working relationship with Metalliance for the past 10 years,” said Thomas Wu, Managing Director of CREG TBM Germany. “This announcement formalises the partnership between us after working more closely over the past two years.”

Since taking over the intellectual property rights of the German Wirth TBM manufacturing company in 2013, CREG TBMs and products have been ordered and exported to 17 countries around the world including Singapore, Malaysia, India, Italy, Lebanon, Israel and Dubai.

Metalliance was founded in France in 1923 and its logistic tunnel vehicles are used widely and offered through its global distributors in Europe, North America, South America, Australia and Japan. Since 1993, the company has provided different types of MSVs and other tunnel equipment to more than 100 projects worldwide.

T

CREG partners with Metalliance “Metalliance is currently working with us on the stormwater project in Dubai where two 11m diameter CREG TBMs will drive 10km of deep drainage tunnels for the Porr/ Six Construct JV,” said Wu. “The Metalliance MSVs will carry segments and supplies into the two advancing machines.”

Wu confirmed orders for five new CREG TBMs – two 5.8m machines ordered by the Vinci/Hochtief JV for excavation of the 4.4km Sydhavn Metro Line 4 in Copenhagen, one 10m EPBM ordered by CEPEAV DUE consortium for the Milan-Verona railway line,

and two of 9.86m diameter for the Salini Impregilo/NGE JV for its 4.1km long Line 16 extension for the Grand Paris Express project in Paris. The machines will be assembled and factory tested in China with key components supplied from Europe. n

References

• • •

TBMs accepted for the Dubai stormwater drives – TunnelTalk, August 2018 Paris Metro contract for Salini Impregilo – TunnelTalk, March 2018 CRTE of China takes over Wirth TBM business – TunnelTalk, November 2013

Rubber-tyred Metalliance MSV

Monitoring machine braking for safety

o monitor safety and allow smooth deceleration of machines, Mayr has developed a co-ordinated friction braking system which also increases wear and tensile force reserve, to assertain machine productivity and offers predictions whether the magnet still has sufficient force for maintenance requirements. The system to attract the armature disk. connects to the internet for When the tensile force Brake control module constant monitoring. reserve is reached the The new ROBA brake ROBA-SBCplus ROBA brake checker emits checker and ROBAa warning signal, but with torqcontrol monitor facilitate reserve time to spare before the smooth deceleration the brake needs replacing. of machines and devices.

The ROBA torque controller The brake checker module can change the operates without sensors level of braking torque by as it analyses current and controlling current and voltage and recognizes the voltage so that devices and movement of the armature machines can be evenly and disk to determine the gently decelerated. condition of the brake. It ROBA-SBCplus offers can deduce temperature, both brake checking and

Mayr News Release safe control in one package. Used especially for situations where passengers are carried and safety and comfort are key, the ROBA-SBCplus module operates with wear-free electronic semi-conductors, and so achieves practically unlimited switching frequency and switching reliability.

The ROBA-SBCplus brake control unit is type-certified by TÜV Süd (Technical Inspectorate, Southern Germany) and can be used up to the highest performance level PLe and safety integrity level (SIL) 3. n

References

•

New couplings for drive constellations – TunnelTalk, August 2017

Have you disconnected today?

EAS®-High-Torque torque limiters: The precise, non-destructive overload protection for heavy machinery

www.mayr.com

your reliable partner

INDUSTRY NEWS AND DEVELOPM ENTS

CREG News Release

JIM Technology buys 50% of partner Terratec TunnelTalk reporting

IN DUSTRY NEWS AND DEVELOPM ENTS

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erratec announced in October 2018 that its business partner, JIM Technology of Japan, had bought 50% of the company. The other half will remain with the existing partners, who will keep running the business with the same structure including key managers and teams for its marketing, sales, production, after sales and field service divisions.

Commenting on the sale, Terratec Sales and Marketing Director Bruce Matheson said: “It is a great day for the company. We have been cooperating closely with JIMT for eight years and now with this formal union there are no doubts that we are together and able to build, deliver and support any type and size of TBM for any project in any market globally.

As we expand our team, and with the increased support from our partner, I think that, to coin a phrase, the sky is the limit.”

Founded in 1990, Terratec is the Australian designer and manufacturer of tunnel boring machines, raise boring machines and other custom-made products for tunnelling and mining projects.

JIMT is the combination of three Japanese industrial giants: IHI Corporation, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and JFE Engineering Corp. The merging of their TBM divisions gathers together the experience gained through delivery of more than 3,000 TBMs of every type and size up to 16m in diameter, for both Japanese and overseas projects since 1936.

During their partnership Terratec and JIMT have delivered more than 60 TBMs for global projects including to the Mumbai, Delhi and Lucknow Metro Projects in India, the Bangkok Metro in Thailand, the Istanbul Metro in Turkey and the Portugal water transfer project to name a few. In all cases, Terratec was the main contractor and JIMT its subcontractor for the provision of key components and designs for EPB and slurry TBMs. Commenting, President of JIMT, Takanobu Miki said, “Terratec has a very efficient team working all over the world.

They have achieved to become number one TBM supplier in important growing markets like India and Thailand and achieved continued sales in established markets like Europe. We want Terratec

From top: Terratec raise boring machine; Terratec and JIMT 10m double shield TBM to keep operating and expanding the business as they do, but now with full and direct support from the engineering and production side from JIMT.” “The advantage for JIM Technologies of our incorporation into Terratec is that, while we are keeping the Terratec branding and structure, we get to grow our market share and presence outside of Japan.

This is achieved by using the flexibility and dynamism that is required in the global TBM industry and Terratec provides that. In return Terratec gets to enjoy our full and direct support and to increase its capacity in both the production and engineering side of TBM manufacturing and sale,” added Miki.

The company announced Terratec would retain all regional offices and with country representatives and client contacts staying in post. The design of the EPB and slurry machines will continue to be based and developed on JIMT technology with the Terratec team in Australia taking care of the hard rock TBMs, raise boring machines and conveyor systems.

The main parts of the TBM, including the cutterhead drive unit, will continue to be fabricated by JIMT in Japan, with the key components including electric and hydraulic

systems being sourced in Japan, Australia and Europe. The assembly and testing of the TBMs will continue to be managed in the Terratec plant in GuangZhou, China, which is one hour away, on the recently opened high-speed railway from the company global office in Hong Kong.

Raise boring machines and the conveyor divisions will remain in Australia with the entire design and production based in the Terratec facilities in Tasmania, as it has been since the inception of Terratec in 1990.

During 2018, Terratec seized the opportunity of a rising market for raise boring machines in Central and South America by opening a new office in Lima, Peru to service demand.

The new office will focus on sales of new machines, and offer ongoing servicing and maintenance to machines already working there.

“We have opened this office to provide customers with our machines which are known for low maintenance and long life spans. Some of them have been operating for more than 25 years and our aim is to keep them running as smoothly as when they were first made,” said Matheson.

The new office is located close to both downtown Lima and Jorge Chávez International Airport and will be overseen

by John Alejos, Terratec Director of Operations in the region.

“The Terratec machines are in demand due to the simplicity of their design, which ensures robust performance and reliability,” said Alejos.

Terratec raise boring machines are currently being used for projects in Canada, USA, Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Argentina. n

References • • • • • • • •

Turkey examines achievements and aspirations – TunnelTalk, December 2017 Double TBM breakthrough in Lucknow – TunnelTalk, October 2017 First deliveries to Mumbai with more to follow – TunnelTalk, August 2017 Raise boring on a new level in China – TunnelTalk, June 2017 Terratec meets rising TBM demand – TunnelTalk, February 2017 Dehli Metro Phase III completes TBM excavation – TunnelTalk, February 2017 TBM orders for Mumbai Metro Line 3 – TunnelTalk, February 2017 Reflecting on a record-breaking 2016 – TunnelTalk, December 2016

From left: Terratec EPBM used on the Bangkok Metro; Double breakthrough for Terratec EPBMs on Lucknow Metro; 16m diameter EPBM by JIMT and Terratec

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Monitoring segment production and installation

mart technology is being used increasingly for monitoring of underground infrastructure.

An important and specific application of the technology is for monitoring, production and performance of segments particularly for one-pass lining systems.

Leading the technology is the segment documentation system (SDS) developed and supplied by VMT. Each segment is fitted with radio frequency identification (RFID) tags and bar codes so it can be tracked throughout the production process and monitored throughout its operating design life. The system documents all major processes within production and storage of segments to manage plannable, efficient, transparent handling on site and captures their position and installation data in the tunnel.

SDS is an integrated solution that ensures compliance with quality and documentation standards to optimise use of resources, exclude risks, avoid errors and reduce costs.

The system links all areas of the tunnel site to an intelligent, efficient workflow network and collects detailed data to allow production of a report of all the necessary information relating to the quality and combination of raw materials used in each segment produced.

This data is checked by staff in the

segment production line and by project managers before being added to the database that contains a complete report on each individual segment. The system can be adjusted as required so that customer specifications and guidelines are followed and implemented in all stages in the process.

A significant application of the system is on the 7.5km Santa Lucia highway tunnel in Italy where a 15.87m diameter Herrenknecht EPBM is excavating and erecting the segmental lining.

Production of the 32,000 segments required to line the tunnel is subcontracted to precast company Maccaferri. To meet the high quality standards and the application of RFID tags as specified in the tender, the manufacturer decided to work with the SDS system from VMT. “The SDS system allows us to manage the production process along with detecting some of the parameters linked to the traceability of materials,” said Valeria Mainieri, Quality Manager with Maccaferri. “The alternative was to employ several workers to collect the production data required which could have led to human error. The fact that we could customise parts of the system meant we were able to drastically reduce the use of resources allocated to data input on

VMT News Release the client side of the process, which was one of the contract requirements.”

In setting up the system, VMT provided training of segment fabrication workers, staff and management and remained on hand should further service be required.

“Our collaboration with VMT has been both profitable and direct,” said Mainieri. “The system is certainly well built and solid and had the flexibility to be adapted to fit with the production and segment storage system.” n

References

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Mega-EPBM for Italian highway tunnel – TunnelTalk, September 2016 Logistic management of segment production – TunnelTalk, October 2016

Wireless link to the SDS database ADVERTISEMENT PROMOTION

Image courtesy of Thames Water MVB JV & CH2M

Bekaert Maccaferri Underground Solutions SkylinE40 - Korte Keppestraat 23/02 9320 Aalst-Erembodegem, Belgium

contact@bm-underground.com +32 53 43 10 10 www.bm-underground.com

Dramix reinforcement around the world

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any kilometres of tunnels around the world are lined with Dramix© reinforced concrete used in precast segments, shotcrete and in cast concrete.

Some of the significant high-profile projects include the precast segmental linings of the Follo Line railway tunnel in Norway, the underground sections of the Metro Expolink in Dubai, and the linings of the HS1 high-speed rail link and Crossrail projects in London.

Dramix© steel fibre concrete reinforcement has been used in the UK tunnelling market for more than 25 years the very first application being for the baggage tunnel at London Heathrow Airport.

Following this pioneering application, one of the most recent significant projects for further innovation in the UK was for lining the 6.9km Thames Water Lee Tunnel in East London for storage and conveyance of sewerage and stormwater. With an internal diameter Main image: Dramix© steel fibre reinforced cast concrete final lining of the Lee Tunnel in the UK; Below: Dramix© in final lining of the 38m diameter x 85m deep Tideway shaft at Beckton

of 7.2m, Dramix© 3D & 5D steel fibre was used to reinforce both the primary precast segmental lining as well as the inner cast in-situ secondary lining design to control internal pressures of this deep level tunnel that is expected to run at full capacity most of its operating design-life. A concrete mix design with 30kg of Dramix 3D 80/60BG steel fibre/m3 was needed as part of the top quality internal and primary lining.

Following completion of the Lee Tunnel in 2016, Thames Water is now progressing its 25km long x 6.0m to 7.2m i.d. Thames Tideway super sewer in London from Acton in the west to the Abbey Mills in the east. Steel fibre reinforced concrete is being used throughout the majority of the project and is following the design and construction format of the Lee Tunnel.

For the Thames Tideway works, steel fibre reinforced concrete is being used in the production of the segmental lining for all the tunnels and in the sprayed concrete works in the shafts.

For the West and East Contracts for contactors the BMB JV of BAM Nuttall/Morgan Sindall/Balfour Beatty and the CVB JV of Costain/Vinci/Bachy

Solentache respectively Dramix© 4D 80/60BG is being used in for the segmental lining, while at the Carnwath Road site in Fulham, the main access shaft was designed and constructed using Dramix© 4D 65/35BG glued fibre in the sprayed concrete, produced on site by Tarmac.

The segments for Tideway West Contract are being produced at the Morgan Sindall Ridham Dock facility, where manufacture will be completed later in 2019, and production commenced in early 2019 for the Tideway East contract at the Tallington precast facility by the Tarmac Max Bogl JV. Trials using Dramix© 5D steel fibres for the required secondary lining for the Thames Tideway Tunnel are under review. Successfully used on the Lee Tunnel tunnel project the Dramix© reinforcement saved costs, labour time and embodied energy.

Another Dramix© steel fibre, Dramix© 3D was used successfully for the permanent lining of all five shafts on the Lee Tunnel project and is being considered for three shafts on the Thames Tideway West Contract and possibly elsewhere as the Tideway project progresses.

There are many additional underground projects currently being developed in the UK and most, if not all, will consider the use of steel fibre concrete for the design of the primary and permanent linings. n

References • • •

Lee Tunnel wins prestigious concreting award – TunnelTalk, December 2016 Fibre-reinforced concrete for precast segments – TunnelTalk, May 2014 20 years of fibre concrete linings in the UK – TunnelTalk, October 2010

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ILF assets include SEM/NATM experience A.S.T. Bochum GmbH Kolkmannskamp 8 D - 44879 Bochum

Tel.:+49 234 599 63 10 Fax:+49 234 599 63 20

wieczorek@astbochum.de www.astbochum.de

Just-in-time delivery specialists

IN DUSTRY NEWS AND DEVELOPM ENTS

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ust-in-time delivery of materials and products has long been an everyday requirement in many fields of business. The owners of A.S.T. Bochum explain what that means for the working process of a tunnelling project and the logistics and preparations involved to achieve the goal.

“Our areas of expertise are services for the concrete, water and compressed air sectors,” said Christian Wieczorek, co-founder with Guido Emanuel and owners of the company.

“The range of specialist hoses, valves and fittings for example starts from a diameter of ¼in and continues up to DN500. There are now more than 10,000 articles in stock for worldwide dispatch from Bochum. We are also an original equipment manufacturer and an agent supplier of all types of machines and equipment in all fields of underground construction. Worldwide delivery, including all documentation, is meanwhile standard practice for us.” The programme is continuously added to and extended.

If an order arrives, delivery from the central warehouse in Bochum only takes the time needed for transport. A.S.T. Bochum develops store concepts for construction sites in order to shorten transport times, for example to Chile. A container with material from Bochum still needs several weeks to reach Chile by land and sea. In emergencies, air freight can be arranged.

“Our team of technicians visit job sites and projects as well as machine producers and branch offices at regular intervals,” said Emanuel. “The state of the project determines the substance of the visit and the necessary topics that are dealt with. We do the same with the companies producing for us and in this way we have up-to-date information from all sides.” Wieczorek added that this procedure is very important for the trust and above all the quality of the products and services, without which no-one could be successful in tunnelling in the long term.

“With more than 10,000 articles in our range, we regularly need to discuss different options. This can be quite complex Just-in-time deliveries

and in many areas, we have articles made for us. Currently about 40-50% of our product list is specially produced for us. We specify how the articles have to be made.

Tunnelling is very demanding regarding the quality level.

“Our procedure can be nicely described by our contract with the Doha Metro project in Qatar. The construction value for the section of the Doha Metro that we were concerned with was about €1.5 billion across a construction period of three years.

That equates to continuous, non-stop expenditure of about €1.4 million per day.

An average of €60,000 is built or processed each day. You can work out very quickly how expensive any stoppages can be and particularly painful if inadequate quality causes construction stop, or something is not there. We know this from experience and know that in such cases how expensive express dispatch is sometimes. Just-intime, naturally, means immediately!

Goods are dispatched from stock.

Emergencies are normally picked up immediately by a courier and delivered. For our partners, we can be reached 24 hours a day and 365 days a year. We cannot expect our partners to wait for office hours in the Central European Time zone or to consider our public holidays. Luckily technology comes to our assistance here and with a mobile phone, the office is always at hand. In this way we can almost always make a direct decision and jump into action.” n

References •

Final project breakthrough for Doha Metro – TunnelTalk, September 2016

COWI purchases select ILF USA assets COWI News Release

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elected assets of the USA operating company of ILF Consultants have been acquired by COWI North America.

Certain tunnel design and construction projects and key tunneling staff from ILF USA joined the COWI North American operation to strengthen its tunnel expertise and expand its tunnel engineering base.

The ILF assets add to previous US acquisitions by COWI of Jenny Engineering, Buckland & Taylor, Ben C Gerwick, and Ocean and Coastal Consultants. With nine offices across the US and Canada, COWI is set to provide innovative and sustainable solutions to complex engineering projects.

Among new ILF USA staff in COWI are Jim Morrison, PE and Zuzana Skovajsova, PE who bring complementary skills in tunnel design and experience on several projects in California including preliminary engineering design for the California High Speed Rail Authority for the section between Bakersfield to Palmdale.

With more than 36 years of engineering expertise, working in consulting engineering and as Engineering Service Manager for Kiewit, Jim Morrison will join COWI as a Vice President. Zuzana Skovajsova is appointed Chief Tunnel Specialist with COWI, bringing extensive knowledge of the application of sequential excavation and ground support systems, as well as geotechnical instrumentation and monitoring.

Steven Kramer, Senior Vice President of COWI said: “These additions are a sign of the continued success and development of COWI’s tunnel business in North America and worldwide. With experience of working on a variety of tunnel projects across the country, the additions to the team add engineering strength and invaluable knowledge and expertise to our group.”

In the meantime, the USA division of consulting firm ILF, headquartered in Innsbruck, Austria, will continue its operations in USA and Canada in the areas of oil and gas, and transportation and structures, including those involving tunnels. ILF and COWI have collaborated on projects in the past and will continue to work in combination to explore opportunities in North America in the area of tunnel fire-life safety. n

References •

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New east coast base for COWI North America – TunnelTalk, October 2017 Jenny Engineering is acquired by COWI – TunnelTalk, February 2013

www.TunnelTalk.com

n agreement was signed for DSI Underground Australia to acquire 100% of the privately owned Fero Group. With 300 staff, DSI Underground Australia supplies Australian-made strata reinforcement and ground support products essential to safety and efficiency in the underground infrastructure and construction sectors.

“Fero will add galvanizing and mesh manufacturing processes to the DSI Underground Australia manufacturing capability, allowing it to better serve customers, continue to invest in R&D, and increase exports to African and Asian markets,” said Derek Hird, CEO of DSI Underground Australia.

Current owners of Fero, the Franco family based in Perth, agreed to invest part of the sale proceeds into the parent company of DSI Underground Australia, DSI Underground Holdings Sarl and will become a shareholder in DSI Underground’s global mining business.

“I am pleased that the Franco family will become shareholders in DSI Underground,”

DSI Australia to acquire Fero Group said Michael Reich, Group CEO of DSI Underground International. “Fero Managing Director, Michael Franco, will continue to support DSI Underground at an operational level and as an advisor to the global DSI Underground Board. I look forward to welcoming Michael and the Fero team to DSI Underground.”

DSI News Release Terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed and the transaction was conditional on regulatory approval. n

References

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DSI restructures and confirms Jennmar deals – TunnelTalk, November 2016

Rock support systems supplied by DSI ADVERTISEMENT PROMOTION

Satellite ground monitoring in Paris

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ver the coming years to 2030, the Grand Paris Express project in France will gradually bring into service 68 new underground stations on 200km of new metro tunnel lines to expand the current metro system of the French capital.

From the earliest stages of the project, the Société du Grand Paris gave priority to a close surveillance of the construction works in order to minimise any potential impact.

Among the monitoring methods implemented, TRE Altamira, as part of the CLS Group of Spain, was commissioned in 2015 by the Sociéte du Grand Paris to monitor from space the impact of the underground excavation operations to the nearest millimeter.

The satellite-based solution measures ground movement by processing satellite radar images acquired over the same area in different points in time.

The monitoring work started with a retrospective study of the ground movement over the 200km Grand Paris Express route. Historical ground movement in the area was mapped and an extensive inventory of the ground surface behavior, from April 1992 to March 2015, was provided, offering complementary information for the identification of vulnerable structures before the start of any work. This mapping was generated from the processing of archived images acquired since the early 1990s to 2010 by medium-resolution satellites operated by the European Space Agency, and by high resolution images captured by the Italian and German Space Agency satellites for the more recent period of 2011 to 2015.

The outputs of this historical satellite study are data that can be combined with historical maps and conventional geotechnical surveys to detect ground movements due to the evolution of quarry operations and possible slope instability. In zones where clays are found, it would allow for the detection of soil movements caused by the swelling of the clays.

TRE Altimera is working on the western section of Line 15,

the first of the network to be built. It is working in cooperation with Setec of France, the design and construction manager, and with French company Gauss Monitoring, which has the responsibility for specific surveys of sensitive buildings along the route (Fig 1).

The analysis of the historical and real time current data, focuses on the amplitude of the movement accumulated over time. For each measured point, it is possible to see at what period the displacements have been initiated, and whether these displacements are stabilised or still active. These observations are crossed with existing knowledge in order to understand and better manage the cause of the movement, and to qualify their potential impact on the project at the time of tunnelling.

Monitoring activities will continue during the whole project to detect and measure any ground displacements in the area with the ultimate aim of keeping the prime contractors fully informed of the impact of tunnelling and underground excavation activity on the surface and for operations to be adapted accordingly.

An overview of the importance of the satellite monitoring operation and the work achieved to date was presented during the WTC World Tunnel Congress in Dubai in April 2018. n

References

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Satellite solutions for tunnelling challenges – TunnelTalk, December 2016

Fig 1. InSAR base line data for Line 15 western section

TRE ALTAMIRA MILANO Ripa di Porta Ticinese, 79 20143 Milano, ITALY Tel +39 02 4343 121

www.TunnelTalk.com

IN DUSTRY NEWS AND DEVELOPM ENTS

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tre-altamira.com BARCELONA Carrer de Còrsega, 381-387 E-08037 Barcelona, SPAIN Tel +34 93 183 57 50

VANCOUVER Suite 410, 475 West Georgia Street Vancouver, BC V6B 4M9, CANADA Tel +1 604 331 2512

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IN DUSTRY NEWS AND DEVELOPM ENTS

Lighting control for underground highways Nyx Hemera News Release W

ith the celebration of its 10th Anniversary, Quebec-based Nyx Hemera Technologies, producer of controllable lighting for tunnels, announced that its lighting controller had received the UL standard certification for energy saving.

Pierre Longtin founder of the company in 2008, developed the Tunnel Lighting Addressable Control System (TLACS) which has optimized tunnel operations, reduced energy consumption, and cut costs for tunnel operators worldwide.

After being commissioned to light more than 50 tunnels on five continents, the company has moved to larger premises and is developing Industry standards for its products.

Part of the TLACS system, The Local Product Controller (LPC 480), received the UL916 certification, the US standard for energy management equipment. It controls and monitors the tunnel luminaires through a power line from the TLACS lighting control cabinet (LCC) and can be installed in any tunnel luminaire electrical installation from 120 to 480 VAC. Using up to eight frequency channels at a communication speed from 360bps to 23000bps, reliable communication is achieved between control centre and luminaires by using time and frequency domain modulation techniques and multiple receivers that overcome noise and signal reduction on power lines.

A recent project was to install LED luminaires and an intelligent lighting control system for the five snowsheds on the Rogers

TLACS-U workings

Improved lighting for the Queen Creek Tunnel, Arizona Pass road through the Glacier National Park in British Columbia, Canada.

Similar to a tunnel, the TLACS lighting

system for the snowsheds can be turned on and off and dimmed remotely to provide a safe environment for drivers and reduce the black hole effect as well as controlling street lights before and after the tunnel.

“As lighting is one of the most energyconsuming systems in tunnels, TLAC will help operators concerned about reducing energy costs in their tunnels,” said Pierre Longtin, President of Nyx Hemera Technologies.

A new version of the TLACS system is being introduced for underpasses and short tunnels. Named TLACS-U, the new system includes a UDE (underpass dimming enclosure), which is a pre-configured plug and play intelligent controller that replaces the previous LCC used in longer tunnels.

It is compatible with LCAM and ILCAM sensors and the latest LPC 480 power line local controller and can be installed by any electrical contractor. It is available in a power line version that communicates over the underpass power distribution or lighting network or as a wired version.

“For operators of underpasses and short tunnels the TLACS-U is pre-configured, easy to operate and commission, and provides a solution adapted to the operator’s needs in the era of smart cities,” said Longtin. n

References • •

New lights guide Queens-Midtown Town motorists – TunnelTalk, January 2017 Nyx Hemera releases new version of TLACS system – TunnelTalk, October 2016

Nyx Hemera Technologies 109 St-Vallier est suite 100 Québec, Qc, Canada G1K 3N9 Contact: Line Lacroix S&M Director Tel: + 1 418-977-7788 / Mobile: + 1 418-559-7492

www.nyx-hemera.com

New merger for Bauer and MAT

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n April 2018, MAT Mixing Plant Technology merged with Bauer Machinery GmbH under the new name Bauer MAT Slurry Handling Systems. MAT has been delivering mixing and separation technology for more than 25 years and with Bauer, plans significant expansion of the company’s tunneling business.

Bentonite mixing and separation equipment

Bauer MAT Slurry Handling Systems plans to expand its core business supplying equipment for specialist foundation engineering and tunneling projects, increase its sales and service network, and realize the full potential of local markets in the future.

“Bauer has production and sales locations in numerous countries around the

Bauer News Release world and I am confident that our customers and employees will benefit from our increased collaboration,” said Alexander Konz, Branch Manager at MAT. Bauer Machinery designs and builds large-diameter drilling rigs, trench cutters, grabs and vibrators while its many subsidiaries manufacture mixing and separation equipment and rotary drive systems and equipment for drilling smalldiameter boreholes and wells.

The group has manufacturing facilities in the USA, Russia, China, Malaysia, Italy, Singapore and Turkey and operates a global sales and service network.

In 2016, the Bauer Group, including its contracting division, employed about 10,800 people in 70 countries and achieved total Group revenues of €1.6 billion. n

References

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New separation technology for Swiss Eppenberg – TunnelTalk, October 2017 Shaft sinking operations at UK potash mine – TunnelTalk, April 2018

www.TunnelTalk.com

Award for British inventor of slurry TBM concept

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ritish engineer John Bartlett CBE FREng received the Sir Frank Whittle Medal of the Royal Academy of Engineering for his prototype invention of soft ground pressurised TBM technology.

Bartlett patented his bentonite tunnelling machine in 1964. It was the first machine to enable the excavation of non-cohesive soils safely and efficiently and became the forebear to today’s pressurised TBMs. The invention of the bentonite tunnelling machine superseded the hazardous and expensive operations of excavating loose waterbearing soil by working in compressed air.

Bartlett was inspired by how bentonite clay was used to support the cut-and-cover method trenches, the thick thixotropic gel at rest becoming a bentonite clay slurry when agitated. Bartlett’s concept was to combine slurry support with mechanical excavation.

Bartlett designed and supervised construction of the first experimental

contract in southeast London in 1971.

Since then, slurry tunnelling machines have been used worldwide.

Bartlett spent most of his career with consulting engineering firm Mott Hay & Anderson until his retirement as Chairman and Senior Partner in 1988 having overseen the merger and formation of Mott MacDonald consulting engineers in 1989.

Bartlett was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 1978 and was a founder member and Chair of the British Tunnelling Society between 1977 and 1979. He was President of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1982 and received a CBE (Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) from Her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth II in 1976. In 1973, he was awarded the Royal Society’s SG Brown Medal for the invention of the bentonite shield and in 1994, in received the James Clark Medal from the British Tunnelling Society.

John Bartlett CBE FREng receiving his award from Royal Academy of Engineering President Dame Ann Dowling Among his many engineering achievements Bartlett was involved in the Channel Tunnel, first as principal designer for the scheme and, following the project’s revision in the early 1970s, as principal design consultant for all civil and geotechnical engineering works on the UK section. n

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n its 2018 recognition of outstanding contribution and achievement, the Underground Construction Association of the Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration (UCA of SME) in the USA honoured three leading professionals of the international underground engineering industry.

Dr Harvey Parker received the Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to the US and the global tunneling industry over a career of more than five decades and for his initiatives in public awareness of the role of tunneling and underground space in everyday lives. He is known and recognised as a highly respected professional in the international community of underground space planning, design, excavation, and operation.

Dr Priscilla Nelson, recipient of the Outstanding Educator Award, has dedicated most of her professional career to the

education of new generations of engineers for the underground construction and tunneling industry in the USA. UCA recognized her for her initiatives as a role model and inspiration for young female students pursuing advanced degrees in the field of tunnelling and for her contributions to many organisations that represent the professions in the field of civil engineering, engineering geology and rock mechanics. Dr Nelson is currently Head of Mining Engineering at the Colorado School of Mines.

The Outstanding Individual Award goes to David Klug for his contributions to the tunneling industry and for his leadership with the UCA of SME. He has been instrumental in the introduction of new techniques, materials and supplies to the tunneling industry in the USA and for enabling the sharing of experiences between professionals in the USA and their

From left: Harvey Parker; Priscilla Nelson; David Klug counterparts in Europe.

The UCA of SME Project of the Year was awarded to the Schiavone/Kiewit JV, WSP/Parsons Brinckerhoff JV and the NYCMTA Capital Construction division for construction of the Northern Boulevard underpass for the New York City MTA East Side Access project. The project required extensive pre-planning, stringent controls, and a sophisticated ground freezing programme to ensure problem-free tunnel excavation with no appreciable movement to the overhead infrastructure. n

HONOURS AND AWARDS

USA honours outstanding achievements

James Clark Medal recipients The British Tunnelling Society honoured the recipients of the James Clark Medal at its annual luncheon. The recipients at the 2018 luncheon and the year of receiving the Medal were (standing from left): Peter Jacques (2014); Ged Pakes (1997); Andy Sindall (2013); Hugh Doherty (1996); Gordon Ince (1988); Alan Runacres (2016); Terry Mellors (2011); Maurice Gooderham (2005); Denis Lawrenson (2000); Martin Knights (2010); Donald Lamont (2009); Oliver Bevan (1992); (seated from left): Myles O’Reilly (1998); Rodney Craig (2004); Alastair Biggart OBE (1991)

BTS gala dinner 2018 British tunnelling industry hosts gathered colleagues and guests for the 30th annual British Tunnelling Society Dinner in London.

Hosted by BTS Chair Mark Leggett (right), the evening included after dinner entertainment provided by guest speaker Henry Blofeld, the famous cricket commentator (fifth from right).

Construction activity in the UK industry was represented and led this year by the Thames Tideway project with tables hosted by senior project managers and managers of the joint ventures currently progressing the three main tunnel construction contracts.

www.TunnelTalk.com

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Canada salutes top class engineering

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etro tunnelling beneath the streets of Toronto, an underground alternative for expansion of a hydro plant in British Columbia and a lifetime career in the service to international geotechnical engineering by Canadian expert Garry Stevenson are the achievements honoured in the 2018 series of the Tunnelling Association of Canada TAC Awards. Presented at the gala evening of the TAC tunnelling conference in Edmonton, Alberta, current TAC President Erik Eberhardt, congratulated the recipients and welcomed them to the Canadian hall of fame of underground engineering and construction.

Winning the Canadian Infrastructure Project of the Year for 2018, the 9.7km of twin running tunnels of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT Project are part of a Can$9.1 billion investment to provide 19km of dedicated LRT service for the City of Toronto along Eglinton Avenue. Crosstown is the largest transit expansion in the history of Toronto and is the first LRT line for the city. Upon completion in 2021 it will cut travel time along the route by half.

The 9.7km of 5.75m i.d. twin running tunnels have been excavated using four EPBMs bought and supplied to the project by the client, along with the segmental lining.

All phases of the construction contracts were the responsibility of the contractors and all work for the contracts was completed within the owner’s project schedule timeline.

The John Hart generating station replacement project on the Campbell River in British Columbia is worthy of the Innovations Project of the Year for 2018 on several counts. It is the first P3 public-private-partnership project in the power sector in Canada; it creates a more reliable, environmentally friendly, increased capacity underground power station to replace the existing surface power plant installation and required innovative technology to successfully manage an unexpected zone of soft ground geology during drill+blast excavation of the main access tunnel of the project.

The replacement project includes a new intake, a new power tunnel and an underground power station, to replace the three surface penstocks and the existing surface power station. About 95% of the Campbell River flows through the John Hart generating station.

The original intention by BC Hydro was to have a surface powerhouse which would have necessitated an extensive steel lined section of the power From top: Finish on time and within budget; tunnel. The selected scheme places Hydro station replacement innovations; an underground powerhouse at the A career in geo-engineering location at which hydraulic fracture of the power tunnel would not occur and hence avoids most of the steel lining requirements making it the most economical of the schemes considered.

The 2018 Canadian Lifetime Achievement Award is presented to Garry Stevenson for his more than 40 years of experience in the design and consultancy for hydro power and underground works projects. His participation at every level of project design of tunnels and rock caverns for hydro power schemes has taken him to important projects the world over.

Through mentoring and supervising teams of young and experienced engineers, he has ensured high quality design and good business relationships with owners and clients. As an active member of the Tunnelling Association of Canada, he was TAC President from 2005 to 2008; has served on nomination committees at various times and has supported and mentored young TAC executives during and after his term as President. n

References

• Visit TunnelTalk.com to know of the TAC Award winners since 2012.

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Walter Grantz, 1929-2018

International expert of immersed tube tunnel construction techniques, Walter Christian Grantz was born in Argentina in 1929 at a time when his father was leading the construction of Line B of the Buenos Aires Metro. Grantz followed in his father’s engineering footsteps, graduating from Cornell University in 1954 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering and taking a position with Parsons, Brinkerhoff, Quade & Douglas in New York (PBQ&D).

During his long career with the company, he contributed to the bridge and tunnel infrastructure of the eastern US seaboard including the Portsmouth Marine Terminal; the original and second Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnels; the Second James River Bridge; the I-95 Fort McHenry Tunnel in Baltimore; and the Ted Williams Tunnel in Boston.

Though he retired in 2000, he continued to provide design services for a broad range of bridge and tunnel projects around the world and remained active as a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and of the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association.

At 57, Grantz moved to Istanbul, Turkey, to work on the design study of an immersed tube tunnel across the Bosphorus to connect Europe and Asia with light rail. Twenty years later, at age 77, he returned as part of the construction team that completed the Marmaray immersed tube project that opened in 2013.

When not working, Grantz combined two of his greatest joys: photography and flying his Cessna 172, used frequently as his phototaking platform.

Immersed tubes and the innovative, yet to be built in prototype, floating tunnels concept are part of Grantz’s legacy for advancing the possibilities of creating fixed links across waterways and ensuring knowledge sharing without barriers. The legacy lives on through all who knew and shared his enthusiasm for national and international connectivity.

Grantz died in March 2018, aged 88. n

David Donaldson

UK tunnelling industry practitioner David Donaldson was passionate about tunnelling and spent more than 40 years of his career in underground space excavation. His career started working with UK contractors including Monks, Buchan, and Miller Buckley. In 1987 he set up his own engineering practice Donaldson Associates, which grew into one of the leading independently owned businesses in the UK prior to its acquisition in 2014 by COWI of Denmark on his retirement.

Donaldson served as Chairman of the British Tunnelling Society (BTS) from 1987 to 1989 and in May 2017 was presented with a distinguished service certificate from British Standards in recognition of his valuable input to BS6164 and to the CEN working groups.

He worked tirelessly to advance the practice of safe, well managed and top quality excavation operations on job sites and to introduce techniques and systems to increase productivity and improve the occupational health and welfare of those who work in the underground excavation industry.

Donaldson died in March 2018. n

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Born in Krakow, Poland, in 1936, Zdzislaw Bieniawski was recognized internationally as one of the leading authorities of rock engineering in tunnelling and in mining.

After moving to South Africa in the late 1950s, he graduated with a Master’s Degree in Engineering Mechanics from the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in 1963 and earned a PhD in Tunnelling and Mining from the University of Pretoria in 1967.

After moving to the USA, he was Professor of GeoEnvironmental Engineering at Pennsylvania State University for 21 years to 1996, and was Distinguished Professor at the University of Madrid, Spain, and at the Krakow University of Science and Technology, Poland.

With 45 years of experience in engineering practice, teaching and research, his special expertise was in strata control, tunnelling, environmental engineering, engineering design methodology, STS (science, technology and society) and management.

Of distinction, he developed the rock mass classification system known as the Rock Mass Rating (RMR) that is used currently throughout the world for design of tunnels and mines.

George D Yoggy, 1937-2018

George Yoggy was a 50-year veteran of the concrete and shotcrete industry, and recognized as a leader in the field. Originally from Johnson City, New York, it was a college construction job in 1956 that introduced Yoggy to the contractor’s shotcrete division where he learned about the process on the job.

Eventually, he became the Eastern Division manager for the contractor’s equipment manufacturing division.

In 1968, he established his own company, Concrete Equipment Corp, and in 1978 he started Shotcrete Plus Inc. One of his first major projects was the shotcrete support of the foundation excavations of the original World Trade Center buildings in New York in the early 1970s.

In 1986, he sold his companies to Master Builders Inc and moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where he established the Underground Construction Group (UCG) for Master Builders. Following his retirement from Master Builders, he continued working in the industry as a consultant.

Yoggy was involved in many infrastructure projects, engineering high-performance shotcrete systems that accompanied the introduction of NATM/ SEM construction practices to North America. These included the Washington DC WMATA subway system and the Mt Lebanon, Lehigh and Cumberland Gap highway tunnels. More recently he was involved with contractors on quality shotcrete application programs for the East Side Access No 7 Line subway extension and the Second Avenue station and tunnel subway works in New York.

As a founding member in 1998 of the American Shotcrete Association (ASA), and as a member of the American Concrete Institute (ACI) Committee 506, Yoggy was a leading advocate for development of shotcrete specifications and in 1999, he contributed to the development of the ASA/ACI Shotcrete Nozzleman Certification program.

He was involved in the management structure of the American Underground Association (AUA), from 1999 to 2005 which has since evolved into the American Underground Construction Association (UCA). He served as President of the AUA from 2001 to 2003 and in June 2009, he was awarded the UCA Lifetime Achievement Award for his many industry contributions.

He was also involved in the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association, the American Concrete Institute, and the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM).

Yoggy died on 27 March 2018, aged 80, and after an extended battle with cancer. n

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The RMR system combines all the significant geologic parameters of influence and represents them with one overall comprehensive index that can be used directly in the design and construction of tunnelling projects to improve safety and increase efficiency.

He is the author of more than 200 journal articles and 18 technical and scientific books. He guest-lectured in more than 30 countries and held visiting professorships at The University of Karlsruhe, Germany; Stanford University, California; Harvard University, Massachusetts, and the University of Cambridge, England, UK. His was National Chairman of the US Committee on Tunneling Technology (1984-1985) and was the US representative to the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association (ITA).

At the ITA World Tunnel Congress in Brazil in 2014, he delivered a memorable closing lecture entitled Quo vadis tunnel engineering?

Predicting the unpredictable. His favourite quotation was perseverantia omnia vincit - perseverance conquers all things.

Professor Bieniawski died in December 2017 at his home in Arizona, USA. n

Don Deere, 1922-2018

Professor Don U Deere was part of a small group of rock engineers that decisively influenced the development of rock mechanics in the 20th Century.

Professor Deere graduated in mining engineering at Iowa State University in 1943, earned an MSc in Geology at the University of Colorado in 1949 and obtained a PhD in Civil Engineering at the University of Illinois in 1955. After working as a mining engineer in Arizona and New Mexico, he moved to the University of Puerto Rico and started the Foundation Engineering Company of Puerto Rico. In 1955 he accepted appointment as an Associate Professor in the departments of Civil Engineering and Geology at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana Campus, and together with Professor Ralph Peck, led and pioneered geotechnics and rock mechanics in the USA. Major projects he contributed to include the Channel Tunnel, the Washington DC subway, and numerous hydroelectric facilities, most notably Itaipu in South America, the world’s largest hydroelectric project at the time. in 1989 he was appointed by US President Reagan as Chairman of the US Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board.

He was the President of the Commission on Standardization of Laboratory and Field Tests of the ISRM from 1968 to 1973 and was elected to both the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Sciences.

He was the inventor of the RQD - Rock Quality Designation - rock mass assessment tool and, together with Professor Giovanni Lombardi, he invented the GIN method of grouting.

Deere died on 14 January 2018 in Gainesville at age 95. n

TRIBUTES

Zdzislaw T (Richard) Bieniawski, 1936-2017

Franz Pacher, 1919-2018

Austrian civil engineer and a pioneer of rock mechanics Franz Pacher is recognized especially for the development of the new Austrian tunnel method (NATM).

He began his studies in civil engineering at the Technical University of Graz, where he graduated in 1943 and remained as a research assistant in the field of hydraulic engineering until 1945. In the years 1946 to 1952 he worked as a design engineer on hydropower construction sites, where he was first introduced to rock mechanics and tunnelling. In 1952, he joined the Leopold Müller engineering office. In the years leading up to 1975, his collaboration with Professor Ladislaus Rabcewicz was of crucial importance for the development of tunnel construction and design.

Pacher was highly active in the planning and design of tunnel construction projects and in particular, for the Hanover to Würzburg railway line for the German Federal Railways.

In 1964 he demonstrated for the first time a method for prediction and graphical representation of the interaction between ground pressure and tunnel support loading. This has become known the world over as the PacherFenner Curve. In 2009 he extended this representation to a diagram showing the time-dependency of both ground pressure and deformation.

Pacher was a founding member of the International Society for Rock Mechanics (ISRM) in 1962 and of the Austrian Society for Geomechanics in 1968, both in Salzburg. During his 45-year career, he delivered countless lectures and was author of numerous papers and publications.

He was an outstanding engineer and an example to future generations of pioneering engineers.

Pacher died March 2018, aged 98. n

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The Thames Tideway Tunnel

BOOKS AND REPORTS

Underground Engineering: Planning, Design, Construction and Operation of the Underground Space Written by Bai Yun and published by Elsevier, this book presents the author’s vast experience in underground construction both as an academic and as a practitioner. Sections cover the history of the industry, upcoming challenges, the planning stage of subsurface use, including financial planning and reliability forecasting, site investigation, instrumentation and modelling, construction techniques and challenges and more.

Targeted at young professionals, students and researchers, the book contains examples, illustrations and case studies from a wide range of diverse underground uses - from underground roads to deep disposal facilities. Young professionals will benefit from the updated and complete overview of underground engineering and students will find the examples and case studies particularly didactic.

Richly illustrated, this book is an excellent resource for all involved in the development of underground space.

The publication offers a complete introduction to underground engineering, including planning, design, construction and the operation of underground structures; assumes little previous knowledge by readers; presents the most recent techniques and future technical trends; is richly illustrated and packed with examples to help readers understand the fundamentals of the underground engineering field. The Table of Contents includes: • History of Subsurface Development • Planning the Use of the Subsurface • Design of Underground Structures • Underground Constructions • Project Management in Underground Engineering • Operation Systems in Underground Engineering • Disasters and Protection in Underground Engineering Printed paperback and ebook versions are available to order from Elsevier for $120.00. n

The Thames Tideway Tunnel in London is a multi-billion capital investment project to ensure that what was known as ‘the great stink’ in the city of London never happens again. In 1858, the ‘great stink’ made much of the city along the River Thames uninhabitable.

Between 1848 and 1854 nearly 25,000 Londoners died of the waterborne disease cholera. Civil Engineer Joseph Bazalgette saved the city, building sewers that served 4 million people and stopped wastewater emptying into the Thames.

These remarkable sewers are still the backbone of London’s sewerage system, but with the city’s population now approaching 10 million, the old sewers cannot cope with modern-day needs.

Despite various upgrading attempts, about 18 million tonne of untreated wastewater is discharged into the Thames each year.

The solution today is the £4.2 billion, 25km long x 7.2m diameter Thames Tideway Tunnel that is aligned beneath the Thames itself and builds on the legacy of Sir Joseph Bazalgette. It will stop virtually all sewer overflows discharging into the river providing a cleaner and healthier river and city.

This book provides the inside story on the new tunnel, from the very start to breaking ground and all the steps along the way. Written by leading civil engineer and Tideway Strategic Project Manager Phil Stride, the book reveals an inside look at how, what is known now as the super sewer, was planned, designed, approved, funded and is being built. With a foreword by Sir Peter Bazalgette, it provides both detailed historical background and a fascinating account of lessons learnt along the way. The book is a chance to see behind the scenes of an incredible civil engineering project, the largest ever in the UK water industry, and to meet the people who have taken the project forward over the past ten years.

Published by the History Press, the book can be purchased online from Amazon for £20.00. n

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SOLUTIONS FOR DIFFICULT GROUND

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