Contractors using mobile crane lift cutterhead section from boring machine that has completed excavation of power cable tunnel.
Longer and bigger diameter tunnels at much greater depth; bored through more demanding geology will be the challenge of the future. The use of increasingly sophisticated Tunnel Boring Machines is imperative to reduce excavation times, ensure safer worksites, produce higher quality tunnels and guarantee (as far as possible) reliable cost and timing estimates for every project. Every TBM is a one-off machine – a prototype - each different from another. This is because the rock formations in which tunnels are constructed differ considerably and their behaviour is not always predictable. The design and manufacture of TBMs is a continuous and innovative technological progression, each tunnelling contractor will have his preferred method of working, each tunnel project will have its unique character and the performance of every TBM will always need to be supplemented by professional expertise and experience. The first successful tunnelling shield was developed by Isambard Brunel to excavate the London Thames Tunnel in 1825. Brunel was inspired in his design by the shipworm after he noticed its efficiency at boring through submerged timber. In ancient times, the most active tunnellers were the Romans who created an extensive network of tunnels to carry water from mountain springs to cities and villages. They carved underground chambers and built elegant arch structures, not only to carry fresh water into the city but to carry wastewater out. In modern times, using the latest tunnel construction technology, engineers bore through mountains, under rivers, under seas and beneath huge cities. The rapid technological advances of today’s tunnel boring machines (TBMs) has seen highly sophisticated excavating machines become much larger in diameter, far more automated and capable of boring efficiently and quickly into harder, softer and water-bearing rock.
Size: 3310px × 3310px
Location: London, UK.
Photo credit: © qaphotos.com / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
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