28.11.2022

Keliber’s Lithium Project to Start – Investment of 588 M€

Keliber's long-planned lithium project is progressing into the construction phase, as preparatory work on the lot of the lithium hydroxide refinery will be kicked off still before Christmas. The refinery will be built in Kokkola Industrial Park (KIP), and it will produce lithium hydroxide, which is needed in electric vehicle batteries, among other uses.  

25.11.2022

Robbins Double Shield launches in Nepal – Second Project Underway for Record-Setting TBM

In October 2022, China Overseas Engineering Group Co. Ltd and China Railway No. 2 Engineering Group Co Ltd launched a 6.4 m diameter Robbins Double Shield TBM. The TBM is boring the 13.1 km headrace tunnel for the Sunkoshi Marin Diversion Multipurpose Project (SMDMP) located in southern Nepal.  

Market-Place-4.0 Robbins Company Herrenknecht AG China Railway Tunnel Group - CRTG Bouygues Travaux Publics

25.11.2022

8th Edition of ITA Tunnelling Awards: 4 Finalists for Technical Innovation of the Year

8th Edition of ITA Tunnelling Awards: 4 Finalists for Technical Innovation of the Year (credits: ITA)

The 8th edition of the ITA Tunnelling and Underground Space Awards returns this December in digital. Since 2015, the international competition seeks and rewards remarkable achievements in tunnelling and the underground industry. Organized by the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association, the event both showcases the most ambitious underground projects all over the world as well as the latest innovations, techniques, and methods in tunnelling. One of the categories of the competition is focused on rewarding the Technical Innovation of The Year.

8th edition of the ITA Tunnelling and Underground Space AwardsAmongst all of the projects submitted for this category, the panel of judges identified 4 finalists that seem to pursue one common goal : propose new techniques and technologies for innovative spaces.

Semi-continuous Advance for single shield TBMs using Centre of Thrust technology (UK)

HS2 is Britain’s new high speed rail line being built from London to the North-West. HS2 Phase One linking London to Birmingham is now under construction, with a total of 64 miles of tunnels to be built.HS2 awarded the Main Works Civil Contract for the Central 1 (C1) to the ALIGN Joint-Venture in 2017, a JV made up of Bouygues Travaux Publics, Volker Fitzpatrick and Sir Robert McAlpine. Section C1 contains two major assets, the Colne Valley Viaduct, which will be the longest railway bridge in the UK and the twin-bored Chiltern Tunnel. C1 enters the Chiltern Tunnel via the Chiltern Tunnel south portal, immediately adjacent of the M25 motorway. The 2 x 16.026 km long tunnels are being excavated by the 2 variable density TBMs from Herrenknecht, Florence and Cecilia. Among the innovation proposed in this project, one is dedicated to exploring how to reach a continuous advance. It appears that in this case the 14 thrust rams need to be independent. Challenges and limitations are important, but at the end they achieved a semi-continuous advance with a productivity gain of 10%.
Contractor: ALIGN Joint venture
Cost: €2.5 bn
Technical information: Two tunnels of 16,026m long each, with an estimated 2,654,000m3 excavated volume in total.

Technology for Shallow Three-lane Extra-large-section Rectangular Pipe-jacking Tunnel (China)

The Jiaxing Urban Expressway is located in the Changshui Road in Nanhu District, Jiaxing, Zhejiang. The segment under-crossing the Nanhu Avenue is built by earth pressure balance pipe-jacking method with the extra-large and near-rectangular section. Nanhu Avenue is the north-south arterial road in Jiaxing City. After schemes comparison by the Employer and Designer, the three-lane near-rectangular pipe-jacking construction method was eventually selected. This tunnel is the world’s first two-way six-lane pipe-jacking tunnel. With excavated cross section 123m2, it is the pipe-jacking tunnel with the largest cross section dimension in the world. Through technological innovation that breaks restriction of the conventional technology, the «shallow three-lane extra-large-section rectangular pipe-jacking” method is developed and applied, and the supporting construction methods and equipment are also developed. This technology allows normal traffic in the street and guarantees the safe construction of the tunnel and the tunnel crosses underneath the urban arterial road without the need for intermediate jacking station
Contractor: China Railway Tunnel Group
Cost : EUR 224 million
Technical information: excavated section 123m2;

Unprecedented In-Tunnel Diameter Conversion of the Largest Hard Rock TBM in the U.S.

The largest hard rock TBM ever to bore in the USA, an 11.6 m diameter Robbins Main Beam TBM, recently underwent a planned in-tunnel diameter change to a more compact 9.9 meters. The first-of-its-kind conversion process for the Main Beam TBM was undertaken 2.8 km into the bore and was not done inside a shaft or pre-excavated portal.
The new in-tunnel diameter change process allows for TBM conversions in the tunnel, without breaking through into a shaft or portal. Previously this would not have been possible, or a shaft/portal would have been needed.
Contractor: Southland Contracting
Cost: EUR 224 million
Technical information: 8.2 km long / Robbins TBM

Shield Tunnel Of Super-Large Section Embedded In Soft-Hard Stratum At High Earthquake-Intensity Area (China)

Shantou Tunnel is a sea-crossing shield tunnel with the largest diameter in China, the first underwater shield tunnel with both functions of urban road and Class 1 highway in China, and also the first super large-diameter subsea shield tunnel in the Magnitude 8 seismic precautionary intensity in China, for which the seismic measures are taken based on Magnitude 9 seismic precautionary intensity. Due to the complexity of engineering geology and high construction challenges, many authoritative experts have participated in the planning and design of Shantou Tunnel which is a model century project. The shield section of Shantou Tunnel was built with 2 super large-diameter slurry shield machines with diameters of 15.01m and 15.03 m, and passes through Shantou Bay for a long distance. The two shield machines are equipped with advanced normal-pressure cutterheads, with the total length of 135m and the total weight of 4,800t (the length of main machine is 15.0m long, weighting 2,800t).
The area of land occupied is decreased, the tunnel is open to traffic all day, and renewable materials are used. It is highly in line with urban long-term planning. The municipal facilities are improved and the urban environment is beautified.
Engineering firms: China Railway Tunnel Group Co., Ltd.;
Cost: EUR 550 million.
Technical information: The total length of the route and the tunnel is 6,680m and 5,300m, respectively, of which the shield section is 3,047.5m long and the cut-and-cover tunnel on both banks is 2,252.5m long.

Source: ITA

#ITA-AITES #awards #United Kingdom (GB) #United States (US) #China (CN) #hard rock #Southland Contracting #Volker Fitzpatrick #Sir Robert McAlpine #technology #innovation #Herrenknecht AG #Robbins Company #Bouygues Travaux Publics #China Railway Tunnel Group - CRTG #Tunnelling #Machinery for Mining and Construction #tunnel boring machines (TBM)

                     

24.11.2022

Anglo American collaborates with Aurubis on sustainable Copper Value Chain

Anglo American has signed a memorandum of understanding with Aurubis AG (“Aurubis”) – a global provider of non-ferrous metals and one of the world’s largest copper recyclers – to develop a copper product offering that responds to increasing expectations for future-enabling metals that are sustainably sourced and supplied.  

24.11.2022

8th Edition of ITA Tunnelling Awards - 4 finalists in the category of Project of The Year

The 8th edition of the ITA Tunnelling and Underground Space Awards returns this December in digital. Since 2015, the international competition seeks and rewards remarkable achievements in tunnelling and the underground industry. Organized by the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association, the event both showcases the most ambitious underground projects all over the world as well as the latest innovations, techniques, and methods in tunnelling.