TBMs excavating Moscow Metro make breakthrough
20 June 2013Contractor SK Most has achieved breakthrough of the first of three Robbins EPBMs excavating the Moscow Metro late last month, Robbins announced last week.
City officials and contractors were celebrating not only the early finish, but also the record-breaking achievements of the 6.2m diameter mixed ground machine. The TBM achieved a claimed recordbreaking 37.8m advance in one day at the end of April 2013.
The machine, launched in winter 2012, also made rates of 150m per week and 621m in a month.
The machine will now be disassembled in the receiving station site and launched on an additional 1.4km tunnel in the last quarter of 2013.
Moscow's Metro Development Programme, unveiled in 2012 by the Moscow Government, calls for 150km of new metro lines within the next eight years. Work thus far has been around the clock, with close to 18,000 workers and specialists engaged in the projects. Their number is expected to reach 35,000 by the end of 2013. In 2012 alone, 50km worth of new rail were built at 69 different sites.
