Wirth's Turkish delight

One year after tunnelling began on the Ermenek hydropower project in Turkey, approximately 76% of the 8km tunnel has been completed by contractor Alpine Mayreder Bau GmbH using a Wirth TBM.

The machine already had tunnels on two continents under its belt before starting this drive.

The project is located in southern Turkey, approximately 250km east of Antalya and also features a dam with a 59km2 reservoir containing 4.5bn m3 of water and a 302.4MW power generation plant. The Wirth TBM is being used to excavate a 6.7m diameter pressure tunnel 8,064m long.