[10/19/2005]
Tunnel boring machines have been ordered
The Citytunnel contractor Malmö Citytunnel Group, MCG, has ordered two tunnel boring machines that are going to bore the two 4.5 km long tunnels under the centre of Malmö. The machines will be manufactured by the company Herrenknecht in Schwanau, Germany. The first will be delivered in September 2006.
The cutter head has a 9 meter diameter. Along with the service train that accompanies the TBM, the total length is 120 meters. They will be assembled in Malmö, directly in the shaft in Holma. Interested parties will be able to follow the assembly that requires 20 people from MCG and Herrenknecht from viewing platforms.
The first TBM will be delivered in September 2006 and the second a few months later. From the start of the boring at the turn of 2006/2007 the work will take approximately two years, which means that they are estimated to reach the shaft under Malmö Central station during the second half of 2008.
The TBM’s shatter the rock by pressing a number of round discs very powerfully against the rock face. The machines seal the tunnel permanently by lining them with prefabricated concrete elements already in the water tight shield. This method has been chosen mainly to stop leakage and TBM’s of the same type was successfully used for the construction of the Metro in Copenhagen. Also the tunnels under the Great Belt and the English Channel are built with the same technique.
Herrenknecht AG is established on all continents. The company was founded in 1975 and has 1 500 employees. The main office is situated in Schwanau, south east of Strasbourg.
The Citytunnel project, which is made up of 17 kilometres of railway, connecting Malmö Central Station and the Oresund Bridge, brings together the railway systems of Southern Sweden and increases the capacity for railway traffic in the future. The Citytunnel Project is made up of a six-kilometre-long tunnel under central Malmö and eleven kilometres of railway above ground.
Malmö Central Station will be added with an underground section. New stations will be built at Triangeln and in Hyllie in south of Malmö.
The construction of the Citytunnel project started in March 2005 and is planned to be finished in 2011. The budget of the project is SEK 9.45 billion, according to monetary value in 2001.