[5/8/2008 1]
International expert praises the tunnel work
Now that both Anna and Katrin have reached Malmö C the tunnel driving can be summed up. The time plan was kept and the quality of the finished tunnels is very high, according to David Bridges who is an international tunnel expert. ”They are the best tunnels I have seen”, he says.
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David Bridges, technical consultant
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David Bridges has over 45 years experience from tunnel construction. He has worked on major tunnel projects all over the world, among others the tunnel under the English Channel, the Metro in Copenhagen and the connection over the Great Belt.
David Bridges works for the technical consultant company COWI who designed all the underground works for the Citytunnel project along with SWECO. He has followed the work with the tunnels since 2001 when he became associated with the project. He is very happy with the final result and the main reason for the success is the machines and the concrete segments that were used to construct the tunnel.
”Herrenknecht is the world leader in tunnel bore machines and they have delivered good machines to the project. Also, the segments that were used in the project were of very good quality, the segments made the tunnel completely water tight. I have never seen a better tunnel than this”, he says.
The contractor MCG has a major role in the success, according to Bridges.
”The machine crews are very important of course, they have done very well. The problems that they faced in the beginning of the tunnel drive have been solved by the contractor and the final product is an excellent tunnel”, says David Bridges.