’Fan-li-hua’, the TBM damaged in a flooded section of the Hong Kong MTR’s Express Rail Link (XRL) project tunnel in Yuen Long during the black rainstorm in March, resumed operation last month.
This was made possible after the MTR project team “borrowed” parts and components from its sister TBM ‘Fan-li-hua II’ which had been disassembled after completing its last scheduled drive for transport to its next destination to start excavation on an up track section of tunnel under Contract 823A.
It was originally estimated that the damaged ‘Fan-li-hua’ would not become operational until December 2014 as time is required to ship the spare parts needed to complete the repair work.
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”The project team was creative in transferring parts from the idling ‘Fan-li-hua II’ to get the damaged TBM up and running again. However, it is still too early to say whether this would help speed up our overall programme to excavate the 823A tunnel section as we need two TBMs to complete the works in a timely manner,” said Mr T C Chew, Projects Director of MTR Corporation.
The MTR Corporation is working under a revised programme to deliver the Hong Kong Section of XRL for opening in 2017.
“We are facing challenges in three critical locations, namely the 823A tunnels in Yuen Long, the 826 cross-boundary tunnels and the 810A contract for the West Kowloon Terminus. The project teams are focused on moving works forward under the revised timetable and we will continue to update the public on our progress,” added Mr Chew.
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