Crossrail’s tunnelling marathon under London is now completed. The Crossrail tunnelling started in May 2012 and was finished at Farringdon with the arrival of the tunnelling machine Victoria in May 2015
Over the last three years, eight 1,000 tonne tunnelling machines have bored 42km of new rail tunnels under London.
Teams of dedicated workers have been working 24 hours a day to complete the tunnels for Europe’s largest civil engineering project – with the aim to upgrade the existing rail network and build major new stations in central London and Docklands.
The tunnels weave their way between existing underground lines, sewers, utility tunnels and building foundations from station to station at depths of up to 42m.
Nearly 70 million working hours have been completed on the Crossrail programme so far. Some of them were performed by VMT employees.
VMT GmbH configured a comprehensive package with customized navigation and control systems for tunnel excavation in London in close cooperation with the project partners. The VMT systems monitored and regulated parameters and interfaces needed for tunnel construction, therefore supporting project management in process control and quality assurance.
The laser based navigation system TUnIS measured the position of the 7.8 metre TBMs in relation to the designed tunnel alignment to the nearest millimetre. TUnIS transmitted the measured data to monitors for the TBM operator, responsible for precisely navigating the TBM underground. The TUnIS software also incorporated a ring sequencing module to assist in ring selection:
Depending on elements such as alignment radius or location of cross passage construction, the ring sequencing module recommends which segment type to build. The ring sequence calculation takes into account the data delivered by VMT’s Automatic Tailskin Clearance Measurement System SLuM.
Additionally the Integrated Risk and Information System IRIS provided an efficient tool for data management for this huge project: IRIS collects and analyses all relevant tunnelling data and stores them within a central database – thus assisting overall management of the construction site.
The underground railway system of Saint Petersburg – the Russian city with over a million inhabitant is one of the deepest metro systems in the world due to the town’s unique geological conditions.
The first line that has been opened on 15th November 1955 is worldwide famous for its architecture: with typical Soviet designs featuring exquisite decorations and artwork this metro is one of the most attractive and elegant in the world. The Metro network consists of five lines with a total of 113.6 km route length and 67 stations. Every day 2.8 million and an annual 1.02 billion passengers are carried.
Now 3.7 kilometers have been added. That’s the length the TBM drilled within the 16-month driving time before the breakthrough in June 2015. The TBM with a diameter of 10.65 m, had to drive radii up to 600 m. With the VMT products TUnIS Navigation TBMLaser, TUnIS Navigation Office and TUnIS Ring Sequencing a smooth advance could be guaranteed despite those special challenges. Through the web-based information system IRIS the persons in charge could get access from anywhere on the data they needed of the machine or the advance.
Visit us at International No Dig Istanbul from 28. – 30. September at German Pavillon area.
The ISTT ’s 33rd annual International No-Dig Conference and Exhibition will be hosted by the Turkish Society for Infrastructure and Trenchless Technology (TSITT ) and is to be held on 28-30 September 2015 at the WOW Convention Center in Istanbul.
The ISTT International No-Dig Conference and Exhibition is a major forum which brings together engineers from all over the world. The programme provides a mix of technical sessions, a lively and informative exhibition of the very latest technology and products and is a unique event where the industry comes together to network with like-minded people.
Find more information on www.nodigistanbul.com
We are looking forward to your visit.