Crossrail’s BBMV JV (Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering, Alpine BeMo Tunnelling, Morgan Sindall and VINCI Construction) has completed the projects’ first two sprayed concrete tunnels. The tunnels, under Finsbury Circus in the City of London, are part of the C510 contract – Early Access Shafts and Spray Concrete Lining works for Whitechapel and Liverpool Street station tunnels. The two tunnels are part of the Liverpool Street Station section. The 4.5m diameter tunnels have been built from the main access shaft within the Finsbury Circus worksite.

The two tunnels are temporary structures and will be used for compensation grouting, one of the ways that Crossrail will control any ground movements that could result from tunnelling activity.

Tubes a’ Manchette will be drilled and installed from the temporary tunnels allowing the contractor to inject grout into the ground. This will stabilise the ground and limit surface settlement.

A Sprayed Concrete Lining (SCL) technique has been used to build these tunnels. This technique involves rapidly spraying the excavated ground with concrete to stabilise it and form the permanent tunnel lining. The first SCL tunnel measures 80m in length and the second (running east from the worksite) is 100m long.

The Spray Concrete Lining technique will be used to build 12km of station platform tunnels, passages, access and grout tunnels along the Crossrail route where smaller, relatively short tunnels are needed.

Colin Niccolls, Crossrail’s Whitechapel & Liverpool Street Platform Tunnels Project Manager said: “Crossrail will primarily use two different types of tunnelling technique to build the new rail tunnels and stations. While tunnel boring machines will create the new rail tunnels, work has commenced on creating the station tunnels using mining techniques to excavate the ground which is then sprayed with shotcrete to form the tunnel linings.”

Once Crossrail works are completed at Moorgate in 2017, Finsbury Circus will be re-instated to its pre-construction condition.

April 10, 2012, marked a milestone in the construction of the 16.45km long Metro Line 9 in Beijing, when a 6.28m diameter Cat^® EPBM made a major breakthrough in a section with very difficult geological conditions.

The project owner, Beijing MTR Corporation, together with the contractor, Beijing Urban Construction Group (BUCG), held a celebration ceremony at the construction site together with managers from Caterpillar Tunneling Canada Corporation (previously known as LOVAT). China’s official CCTV and other general and trade media covered the ceremony.

The construction of Lot 6 of the Beijing Metro Line 9 consists of two parallel tunnels with a total length of 1.2km each that pass underneath a lake in the western part of the capital. It is believed to be the most difficult section that the alignment has to run through due to the water-rich conglomerate containing big boulders (1.2~1.5m), which are rarely seen in other subway projects in China or anywhere else around the world.

Caterpillar Tunneling Canada worked closely with its customer BUCG and supplied a 6.28m, 1200-kW EPBM specially designed to tackle such tough geological challenges. After 746 days of underground excavation, the contractor aptly nicknamed the TBM Diamond due to the long life of its ripper teeth. The system set a new performance benchmark for fracturing boulders in this complex geology.

Beijing Metro Line 9 is planned to be operational by the end of 2012.

Crossrail’s first TBM, Phyllis, has broken ground at Royal Oak to begin construction of the mega-project’s first section of tunnel between Royal Oak and Farringdon.

Keith Sibley, Crossrail Area Director West said: “Tunnelling for Crossrail has now commenced. Phyllis is now beginning to slowly disappear below ground and will steadily ramp up to the planned average tunnelling rate of around 100m a week.”

Following the official unveiling of 1,000 tonne Phyllis, Crossrail’s first TBM travelled 400m to Royal Oak Portal including under Hampden Street footbridge which was jacked up to allow the 7.1m diameter machine underneath.

The arrival of the TBM at the portal in mid-March allowed for remaining major works to get underway to support tunnelling. A steel seal has been fitted around the portal entrance to support the ground during the early stages of tunnelling.

Work has also been underway to install the major conveyor system behind the TBM to remove more than one million tonnes of excavated material from the cutter head to the portal entrance. A total of 24km of conveyer belt will be used to construct the western tunnels.

Rail sidings have been constructed to allow freight trains to access Westbourne Park to transport the excavated material to Northfleet from where it will be shipped to Wallasea Island to create a nature reserve.

A narrow gauge railway has been also laid to provide for small locomotives to transport materials and supplies into and out of the tunnel.

Work has also been continuing at the Old Oak Common concrete segment plant. Over 8,000 segments have now been produced and stockpiled for the western tunnels.

A further tunnelling machine, Ada, will subsequently be launched from Royal Oak. Once the first machine has progressed sufficiently, the second tunnel boring machine will be brought down to the portal headwall.

When the second TBM has reached Paddington, both machines will then progress forward through the Paddington station box to Bond Street and then onwards to Farringdon. The tunnels between Royal Oak and Farringdon will be completed in late 2013.

Eight tunnel boring machine will be used to construct 21km of Crossrail’s twin bore tunnels running between Royal Oak in west London and Pudding Mill Lane and Plumstead in east London.

Metro de Santiago already boasts the most extensive metro system in South America and the project to add Lines 3 and 6 will extend the reach of the network by some 28 stations and 37 km in total. The work will also add capacity to some of the busiest existing metro lines when the new lines open in 2016 / 2017.

“We are delighted that Metro de Santiago has appointed Arup to bring our world-class experience to bear on the new lines. Our global expertise in metro systems played a part in winning the work, but it was our ability to respond to local programmes and context, cost and programme constraints that clinched it. This stands as a testament to Arup’s ability to provide cost-effective metro solutions throughout Latin America and across the globe.
“We are also proud to be working with leaders such as Metro de Santiago who are routinely consulted by other metro operators from around the world wishing to benefit from their operational excellence. They are recognised experts in the field, having won the Metro Award this year for ‘Best Subway System in the Americas’ said Leszek Dobrovolsky, Project Director and Global Leader of Interchange Design.

Dobrovolsky said that Arup’s team have some interesting technical and design challenges ahead as the new lines will run deeper than the existing network. However, he points out that the designers and engineers on the job have all the multidisciplinary skills necessary to meet the challenge in the most cost-effective way.

The scope of Arup’s work covers station planning, tunnel and station ventilation, fire engineering, passenger movement analysis, and optimisation of passenger experience.

Delhi Metro Managing Director Mangu Singh has announced the 41km of twin tunnel to be built on its103km long Phase III will utilize 25 TBMs at the peak of construction to hit the scheduled 2016 completion deadline.

“In Phase-III the underground component is quite high and it is expected that during peak period about 25 tunnel boring machines will be working,” he said,  “In order to monitor the performance of the tunnel boring machines in the sensitive areas, a centralized control centre shall be set-up with connectivity through GPS to all the tunnel boring machines.”

To help hit the tight program Singh also announced that Delhi Metro has been providing specialist training to boost skill levels. “We realize that Phase-III shall be very huge task to manage. On the technology front we have enough experience but we realized that the middle level management is the back bone and the need for the project management was more on developing skills on interfacing, managing and coordinating,” he said.

“We trained 76 middle level officers in 3 batches at IIM Ahmedabad with specially designed courses by IIM Ahmedabad and conducted refresher courses at DMRC’s own Shastri Park Training Institute for up to Deputy Chief Engineer level officers.”

Currently all of Phase 111’s 28 underground station designs and tunnel alignments have been finalized, as well as all the civil tenders for the Central Secretariat – Kashmere Gate line, where works have already started. Also, all civil tenders for the extension from Jahangirpuri to Badli have been let and works started.
The decision to construct more underground corridors was taken on Phase 111 to ensure construction works cause the minimum inconvenience to the public whilst avoiding damaging existing infrastructure such as flyovers and roads.
The longest underground section of Phase 3 will be from IGI Airport (Domestic) to Kalkaji on the Janakpuri West – Kalindi Kunj corridor at 17.3km long. The Mukundpur – Yamuna Vihar corridor will run underground for 14.4km and the Central Secretariat – Kashmere Gate corridor will have a total of 9.4km of underground line.
For the first time in the history of Delhi Metro’s construction, three different tunnelling stretches in Phase 3 will pass below existing underground Metro lines in the city. These underground stretches are:
1.  The underground from Sarojini Nagar to INA on the Mukundpur – Yamuna Vihar where the corridor will pass below the underground section of the Jahangirpuri – HUDA City Centre line at INA.
2.  The underground between Indira Gandhi Domestic Airport (T2) and Kalkaji on the Janak Puri West – Botanical Garden corridor which will pass below the underground section of the Airport Express Link near the Indira Gandhi Domestic Airport and Jahangirpuri – HUDA City Centre line near Hauz Khas. .
3.  The underground stretch from Mandi House to ITO on the Central Secretariat – Kashmere Gate Corridor which will pass below the underground section of the NOIDA – Dwarka corridor at Mandi House.

In addition to Phase 11’s current 103km length, a 4km extension to Noida (Botanical Garden) and a 13km extension to Faridabad have also been sanctioned by the Government taking the total to about 120km. Another 20km extension to Shiv Vihar – 3km, an extension to Najafgarh of 5.5km, and an extension to Bahadurgarh of 11km. are in pipeline.

‘Moley’, the second TBM to get going on the project, has about 150 rings remaining and is expected to follow Holey’s breakthrough within the next fortnight.

The CA$279 million Southern Tunnels Contract, which is being carried out by the MKA (McNally Kiewit Aecon) Partnership, has been split into four tunnel drives; two 1549m (5,082ft) long north headings and two 1185m (3,888ft) long south headings (see NATJ, Feb/March digital edition).

The northern headings commenced in the summer of 2011 and, despite some early challenges with the TBMs, tunnelling has progressed well with productions of up to 27m (88.5ft) per day. Some difficult areas were encountered, where due to settlement concerns, it was necessary to work 24 hours a day seven days a week. Exhausting for the crews and a logistical challenge for the staff involved, all parties pulled together and successfully completed the tunnelling through these areas.

Following breakthrough into the reception shaft at Finch West Station the twin TBMs will be dismantled for shipping to a second launch shaft at the southern end of the new Sheppard West Station. The machines will then be re-launched south, towards the Spadina line’s existing Downsview Station. Cross-passage construction and concreting works will then commence within the northern headings. Tunnelling works for the Southern Tunnels Contract are expected to be complete by the end of this year.

The Toronto-York Spadina Subway Extension (TYSSE), which features 6.7km (4.1-miles) of EPBM bored tunnels and six state-of-the-art stations, will be the first subway in Toronto to extend over the City’s boundary into the new corporate developments within York Region – one of the fastest growing areas of North America. The CA$2.63 billion extension, which is being funded by the Government of Canada, the Province of Ontario, the City of Toronto and the Regional Municipality of York – involving over 100 different stakeholders – runs in a north westerly direction from Downsview Station.

The TYSSE project is split into six construction packages. These include four separate construction contracts for the Finch West, York University, Steeles West and Vaughan Corporate Centre cut and cover stations; as well as two 5.4m (17.7ft) i.d. twin-bored EPBM tunnel construction contracts that each also include a cut and cover station to facilitate TBM mobilization (the Southern tunnels combined with Sheppard West and the Northern tunnels packaged with Highway 407 Station).

HMM/Delcan/MMM Group JV holds the project management contract for the project. In October 2008, three design groups – Spadina Group Associates (Stevens Group with Alsop); Arup Canada; and EarthTech Canada (Aecom) – were each awarded the design of two stations and Hatch Mott MacDonald (HMM) was chosen for the twin-bore tunnel design.

In mid-2009, following a competitive tender process, TTC placed an order with Lovat (now Caterpillar Tunneling Canada) for four 6.13m (20.1ft) diameter mixed face EPBMs and later that year Armtec Holdings won the contract to manufacture the traditionally reinforced pre-cast concrete liner rings for the project (see NATJ, Oct/Nov 2010, digital edition).

The CA$405 million Northern Tunnels contract is held by the OHL/FCC JV and incorporates six tunnel drives between the new Finch West and Vaughan Corporate Centre stations, which are being driven using the remaining two owner procured Caterpillar TBMs. This contract also includes a 230m (755ft) long section of Sequential Excavation Method (SEM) tunnelling for a mid-alignment turn back facility within a double-ended pocket track (DEPT) near Finch West Station; as well as the first known use of compensation grouting in the Toronto area to mitigate tunnel induced settlements at York University.

Running at an average depth of 20-22m (65-70ft), the vast majority of the TYSSE tunnel alignment lies in favorable geology consisting of stiff upper, and even stiffer lower, glacial till with isolated lenses of sands and silts. To the north of the project alignment however, lies the challenging geology of York Region – encountered on a number of recent sewer drives – with sands and silts giving way to layered gravels. Some of these conditions could be encountered as the Northern Contract’s drives progress towards Vaughan Corporate Centre Station.

London Underground (LU) has announced the four bidding groups shortlisted to go through the new Innovative Contractor Engagement (ICE) procurement process for the US$391M – US$782M Bank Station Capacity Upgrade project. Works include the constructing a 570m long new section of the southbound Northern Line tunnel and the transformation of the existing southbound platform and running tunnel area into a new concourse and passage area. The pre-qualified bidders are:

• BFK Joint Venture (BAM Nuttall,  Ferrovial SA &  Kier)
• CVC Joint Venture (Costain,  VINCI Grand Projets & VINCI Construction)
• Dragados SA
• MBA Joint Venture (Morgan Sindall, Balfour Beatty & Alpine Bemo Tunnelling)

The Bank and Monument Tube station complex is located in the heart of the City of London financial district and is the fourth busiest interchange station on the Underground network with 96,000 customers during the morning rush hours, which is set to increase.

Bank is a key interchange served by six lines (Northern, Central, Waterloo & City, and at the Monument end of the same station complex, the District & Circle), as well as the Docklands Light Railway (DLR), for which Bank is the main central London terminus.

The upgrade project will, by 2021, deliver increased capacity at Bank station and a step-free route between the Northern line platforms, DLR and street levels.

Following the advertisement in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) in November 2011, LU has completed its evaluation of the Pre Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ) responses and aims to award a contract by July 2013.

David Waboso, LU’s Capital Programmes Director said:  ‘We are using the new ICE procurement process for the first time with this project.

‘This process should improve our relationship with the contractor market and get the benefits of early contractor involvement while developing major design and build contracts.’

The process has been designed to allow bidders to bring their expertise and knowledge to drive innovation that will reduce cost and risk to the project.

This innovation will be commercially confidential to each bidder so they are able to fully derive the value and competitive advantage of their innovation through the procurement process.

The evaluation criteria used in the PQQ, targeted the contractors’ ability to deliver and innovate.

The four strong bidding groups will be able to use their significant global infrastructure experience at Bank Tube station, which will be one of London Underground’s biggest and most complex projects.

The project includes the construction of the 6.4km long right hand tube of the Pardonelo Tunnel and cross passages connecting with the existing tunnel, which will be upgraded as part of a different project. Ferrovial Agroman will also build the Leira viaduct (168m long) and the Pedro viaduct (295m long), both for the right-hand track. This project will be completed by the end of 2015.

This section is part of the 99km route between Puebla de Sanabria (Zamora) and Orense (Galicia) and is one of the most complex segments of the Madrid-Galicia high-speed railway line because of the area’s rugged terrain.

They will also be helpful for clients who want to understand the value of monitoring and how best to procure it; researchers interested in state of the art research and development, and insurance industry professionals working in the Built Environment.

They will be based on the contents of a new book A Guide to Field Instrumentation in Geotechnics written by Dr Richard Bassett, Emeritus Reader in Geotechnics at UCL, who worked extensively with itmsoil to produce his book.

Dr Bassett, a world-renowned expert in the field of geotechnics, is the course technical consultant. UCL lecturer Raul Fuentes is course director and he has worked with business development manager at itmsoil Nick Slater to organise the sessions.

Monitoring of infrastructure and buildings is paramount to ensure the state of an asset is known throughout its life cycle.

The Continuing Professional Development courses in Performance Monitoring will cover the different techniques available, their limitations, how to specify them and how to communicate the value of monitoring to different stakeholders.

The courses will be held at University College London and at itmsoil headquarters in Uckfield, East Sussex. Bookings are now being taken for September (http://mce-training.com/products/ucl-itmsoil-cpd-course-in-performance-monitoring).

To learn more please see the MCE Training, Monitoring in Civil Engineering, website at http://mce-training.com or email booking@mcetraining.co.uk.