Two high-tech Herrenknecht tunnel boring machines completed an endurance test with bravura during long-distance tunnelling through the Pyrenees. After a total of 8.2km tunnelling through hard rock, the target line was reached with the final breakthrough in April 2013. The resulting cross-border tunnel project will be used for a high-voltage line to connect the French and Spanish electricity network with each other.

Zwei Tunnelbohrmaschinen von Herrenknecht absolvierten einen Härtetest beim Langstreckenvortrieb durch die Pyrenäen. Mit finalem Durchschlag im April 2013 war nach insgesamt 8,2 Hartgesteinkilometern die Ziellinie erreicht. Das so entstandene, grenzüberschreitende Tunnelbauwerk wird für eine Hochspannungsleitung das französische und das spanische Stromnetz miteinander verbinden.

On March 13, 2013 a tunnel boring machine from Herrenknecht successfully completed excavation of the second headrace tunnel for the new pumped storage power plant at Limmern (Switzerland). Equipped with a new safety concept for securing the machine, the Gripper TBM was able to cope with the 40 degree gradient of the two tunnels without incident.

Eight tunnel boring machines from Herrenknecht excavated almost 16 kilometers of tunnel in only 20 months, crossing beneath the emerging metropolis of Wuxi. The machines mastered challenging tunnelling stretches with small overburdens. The last breakthrough, for the time being, was celebrated on March 3, 2013. The first two metro lines in the 3000 year old town on Taihu Lake near Shanghai are expected to start operation in 2014. A total of 5 metro lines are planned.