Grouting work done earlier in the week was a possible cause of a bulge in the lining of a train tunnel under the River Thames. Two trains hit the bulge before the line was closed, but neither train derailed. [Source: New Civil Engineer]
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New Tunnel Project In Peru Through Andes
From ENR:
In the mountains of Peru a tunnel-boring machine named “Pacha Mama†is grinding through the heart of the Andes under rock as deep as 6,890 ft. It is carving away at a 20.2-kilometer-long tunnel through the South American Continental Divide to deliver water to arid coastal farmland.
This is a really interesting project, known as the Los Olmos project, and a nice little article. Normally for a civil tunnel project you drill geotechnical holes beforehand to know what kind of material you’re dealing with. In this case, because of the depth, they don’t have that luxury, so all decisions will be made on the fly. The depth of the tunnel creates some very challenging rock mechanics and logistics problems as well! (Illustration by Odebrecht)
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Crews assembling TBM for first ever tunnel under San Francisco Bay
What about the BART you may be wondering. Well, the Bart is not really a tunnel but a precast tube that was sunk and rests on the bottom of the bay. This water supply tunnel […]
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Gotthard tunnel, world’s longest, opens in Switzerland
The Swiss and many other European dignitaries celebrated the opening of the World’s longest and deepest tunnel last week, the Gotthard Base Tunnel, after 17 years of construction. The tunnel beneath the Swiss Alps is […]