[9/8/2006 1]
First tunnel boring machine arrives in Malmö
On Thursday, fourteen machine components totalling 700 tons of steel were driven on special trailers from Limhamn to the Citytunnel worksite at Holma. It was the end of a long journey by barge and ship from Southern Germany for the first of the two tunnel boring machines.
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| Paper Moon. |
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| A part of the cutter head. |
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| The special trailer on its way to the working site i Holma. |
These machine components are the first pieces of a jigsaw puzzle which now have to be assembled to make a complete tunnel borer, 1,330 tons in weight and 120 m long. They have been on their way for a whole week. On 30 August, they were loaded onto the barge Big Ben at Kehl, in southern Germany, then down the Rhine to Rotterdam where they were loaded onto the cargo vessel Paper Moon which docked at Limhamn on Thursday morning.
Early in the morning, a mobile crane began to offload the components onto heavy trucks which were then driven to the Citytunnel worksite at Holma. The heaviest and bulkiest sections were driven on a special trailer during the evening and night in order to cause as little disturbance as possible to Malmö traffic.
About another 70 truckloads of components will be delivered during the coming weeks. Getting them there at the right time and in the right order is a major project in itself. The tunnel contractor MCG has hired Lift & Transport AB for the task.
‘We have planned this job to take two months’, says Bengt Nilsson of Lift & Transport AB. ‘We have for example made drawings of the quay and the assembly area at Holma and marked out where each section has to go. It’s not just a matter of getting in front of the ship and lifting. The heaviest part weighs 130 tons.
‘All mobile cranes and road transports have to be planned, clearways through Malmö worked out, and permits obtained from the Highways Office’, he continues. ‘For the heaviest lift of all, the drive unit, two mobile cranes are used with a combined lift capacity of 600 tons. When loaded on the special trailer, the whole thing weighs 187 tons. Driving this rig from Limhamn to Holma took a full hour. The route included Limhamnsvägen, Annetorpsleden, Lorensborgsgatan and Ärtholmsvägen’.
During September, the tunnel borer will be assembled in and around the shaft at Holma. Only when the machine is ready for service will the second tunnel borer be delivered. Those who are curious about the tunnel borers can follow the assembly from a viewing platform on Holmavångsvägen which gives a good view over the assembly site and the shaft where the machines will start work around the turn of the year.