Mega TBMs - TunnelTalk
DISCUSSION FORUM Taking mega TBMs to greater limits Jun 2010
Living Document
The need for ever larger diameter tunnels and the TBMs to drive them seems to be incessant. Larger diameter tunnels to incorporate extra and wider vehicle lanes and accommodate heavy freight trucks as well as cars and light goods vehicles has been a major driver of the growth in TBM diameters, but there are designs afoot also for multi-modal transportation tunnels, housing both road and rail services as well as pedestrian and cycle ways and perhaps also utility corridors.
The 15m Madrid Mitsubishi machine in perspective

The 15m Madrid Mitsubishi machine in perspective

It is hard to say when the era of the mega the machine started. There was a time when 10m in diameter was considered the largest likely or possible but whatever was considered the technological limit for the size of TBMs, there are many dozens of machines now exceeding the 10m diameter size and so increasing the benchmark of current mega machine criteria.
With this Discussion Forum, TunnelTalk begins a record of mega TBMs that will be updated and corrected as news of new mega TBM orders are suggested or confirmed. We start with the set of mega machines that quickly come to mind. Let us know how we can fill in the list.
We shall set 14m diameter and above as the definition of mega TBMs and we will start with the eight machines used on the Trans Tokyo Bay highway tunnel in 1994 and end for the moment with news this week (June 2010) of a 15.55m diameter Herrenknecht machine ordered for a project in Italy.
Year Country Project TBM manufacturer Diameter
1994 Japan Trans Tokyo Bay Highway Tunnel 8 machines
3 Kawasaki, 3 Mitsubishi, 1 Hitachi, 1 IHI		 14.14m
1997 Germany Hamburg 4th Elbe River Highway Tunnel 1 Herrenknecht Mixshield 14.2m
2000 The Netherlands Groenehart double-track rail tunnel 1 NFM Technologies 14.87m
2003 Russia Moscow Lefortovo Highway Tunnel 1 Herrenknecht Mixshield
Ex-Elbe project machine		 14.2m
2006 Canada Niagara Water Diversion Tunnel* 1 Robbins hard rock gripper TBM
Rebuilt Manapouri tailrace tunnel machine		 14.4m
2007 Russia Moscow Silberwald Highway Tunnel 1 Herrenknecht Mixshield
Ex-Elbe project machine		 14.2m
2008 Spain Madrid Calle 30 Highway Tunnels 2 machines
1 Herrenknecht, 1 Mitsubishi		 15.2m
15.0m
2008 China Chiongming Highway Tunnels, Shanghai 2 Herrenknecht Mixshields 15.43m
2009 China Bund Highway Tunnel, Shanghai 1 NFM Technologies
Ex-Groenehart machine		 14.87m
2009 China Nanjing Highway Tunnels* 2 Herrenknecht Mixshields 14.93m
2010 Spain Seville SE-40 Highway Tunnels* 2 NFM Technologies EPBMs 14.00m
2011 Italy A1 highway tunnel* 1 Herrenknecht EPBM 15.55m
* TunnelTalk reference below.
Currently in engineering design:
Country Project Prospective size
Russia Highway tunnels 19m+
USA Alaskan Way elevated highway replacement tunnel* 16m+
References
Accounting for slow progress at Niagara - TunnelTalk, July 2008
Nanjing Highway Tunnels - TunnelTalk, Sept 2009
Seville SE-40 Highway Tunnels - TunnelTalk, April 2010
Florence-Bologna A1 Highway Tunnel - TunnelTalk, June 2010
Seattle Alaskan Way bored highway tunnel - TunnelTalk, Oct 2009

           

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