The Lilia tunnel boring machine successfully completed its first kilometre of tunnelling last week. Like her twin sister Ida in the West Main Tunnel, Lilia is also quickly working her way south in the East Main Tunnel.
Lilia achieved its first 1,000 metres of advance with a drill head diameter of 10.4 meters, a length of around 160 meters and a weight of around 2,420 tons.
On May 2nd 2023, Lilia started in the Ahrental assembly cavern, around 1,000 meters below the earth’s surface in the Austrian project area, with a clear goal in mind: to reach the municipality of Navis and drive through 8.1 kilometres of the main east tunnel.
Christoph Waldhör, responsible for technical coordination on the H41 Sillschlucht-Pfons construction site, is very satisfied with the progress of the mechanical tunnelling work on his construction lot:
“Lilia, like her twin sister Ida, has already navigated the “Viggartal” fault zone without any major problems. Parallel to the excavation, the two TBMs are also installing the inner shell of the tunnel. For this purpose, arcuate concrete segments are lined up in a ring. A complete ring consists of 6 segments and has a total weight of around 60 tons.
The mechanical advance of the two TBMs Lilia and Ida through the main tunnels towards the south is making a decisive contribution to ensuring that the construction of the Brenner Base Tunnel is running at full speed, so that the railway tunnel will have a lasting impact on mobility in Europe once it is completed.
