From June 10 to 12, 2015, the Swiss Tunnelling Society (STC) is staging its annual Swiss Tunnel Congress (STC) for the 14th time in Lucerne’s KKL. As...
The Tunnel de Court is the last tunnel in the Swiss infrastructure project „A16 Transjurane“, which includes the building of 85 km of the autobahn A16 between Biel and Boncourt on the French border in the northwest of Switzerland. Completion of the Transjurane is planned for the end of 2016. The tunnel is being constructed by the Association Tunnel de Court under the technical and commercial lead of Marti Tunnelbau AG, and the construction cost of the tunnel amounts to 70 million Swiss francs.
On March 25 the German Federal Railway Authority gave the go-ahead for the final plan approval resolution for the new Wendlingen-Ulm rail route, section 2.1 a/b “Wendlingen-Kirchheim”. This section is roughly 9 km long and includes the Albvorland Tunnel with a length of 8176 m.
On March 30, 2015, the tunnellers broke through the final few metres of the Ceneri Base Tunnel’s east bore between Sigirino and Vezia. Some two weeks after the first breakthrough in the west bore on March 17, which took place 13 months earlier than scheduled, this signifies that both southbound single-track tunnels for the tunnel have been excavated.
The work on the Brenner Base Tunnel, the 64 km long heart of the new Brenner rail line between Munich and Verona, is progressing apace. On March 19, 2015, work began on the main tunnel in Austria. Many high-level representatives of the European Union as well as national and local politicians took part in the official ceremony. EU Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc acted as “Tunnel Godmother” for the first main tube of the Brenner Base Tunnel. Also present were the Transport Ministers of the seven Alpine States, the Presidents of the regions and provinces from Bavaria to Verona.
Today’s Tunnel Boring Machines (TBM) are often required to bore longer tunnels in harder rock at a faster pace – a trio of challenges that can be daunting for any contractor. With the proper design, operation, and maintenance, however, modern TBMs are very capable of reaching their 10 000-hour design life or more. TBMs in the industry today have already accomplished the feats of boring upwards of 50 km on multiple tunnels over decades, and of completing single TBM drives totaling 27 km. With new capabilities, even greater feats may be possible.
The Waterview Connection Project represents one of the largest infrastructure developments in New Zealand. The project comprises twin-tube road tunnels that are built using a very large diameter tunnel boring machine (TBM). The tunnels impact a large number of existing buildings and utilities as they pass beneath residential property and public reserve. The tunnels also cross beneath the North Auckland Railway branch. Accordingly, exercising ground control to minimize settlements and adverse impacts to the community are of paramount importance. The tunnel project is built under high safety standards in an urban area and with shallow cover. The report addresses the TBM design and tunnelling aspects with experiences in large diameter TBM operation for the first of the twin-tube bores from the perspective of the machine manufacturer.
The objective of the AKE Abwasserkanal Emscher infrastructure project is to transfer sewage by underground means in the future in appropriately dimensioned conduits through the German Ruhr District to the clarification plants, and to revitalize the river Emscher. The pipeline networks in the neighbouring towns and cities have to be adapted to link up with the roughly 50 km long main interceptor. In Gelsenkirchen, tunnels belonging to the urban transit system are also affected by the sewage construction. The tunnels were planned and built during the 1970s, taking expected influences resulting from mining into consideration. These influences led to special designs for the tunnels, which represent particular general conditions for their strengthening.
In order to arrive at a projected service life of 100 years, among other things underground water must be prevented from entering a tunnel’s traffic area and the bearing structure must be protected from underground water. This report explains how this is achieved with waterproofing systems consisting of waterproofing membranes in the case of pressure-tight mined tunnel structures.
In the United Arab Emirates, the most modern sewerage system in the Middle East, with new sewers and a new central water treatment plant, is planned...
Geodata specializes in monitoring, tunnel surveying, geotechnical instrumentation and information management. Geodata develops and distributes its own...
Rascor has been internationally active for 50 years as a manufacturer of products for the waterproofing of tunnels and specialised civil engineering...
Increasingly stringent precision requirements and growing price and schedule pressure are posing ever greater challenges for miners and surveyors. In...
The International Fire Academy at Balsthal, Switzerland, as a renowned European fire brigade school and academy, has published its teaching material...
