Herrenknecht TBM ‘Ellen’ holes through on Line 15 (South)

Having started mining on 8 December 2020 from the shaft at Robespierre, the Herrenknecht TBM holed through at Arcueil-Cachan station located in the southern suburbs of the French capital. During its 700m drive, the machine has encountered a geology comprising soft and heterogeneous ground. Previously in summer 2020, the TBM had completed a 4km drive from Bagneux to Clamart.

The machine is currently being dismantled using a mobile crane, with the pieces to be sent by road convoy back to the Herrenknecht factory in Schwanau, Germany.

Currently the largest infrastructure project in Europe, the Grands Paris Express scheme comprises the extension of two existing lines (11 and 14) plus four new fully-automated subway lines (15, 16, 17 and 18) totalling 200km of new track and 68 stations. The multi-phased project will better connect the suburbs and surrounding municipalities with the Paris metro network.

Phased openings of Line 15 are scheduled to take place through to 2030. When fully completed, around two million passengers per day are expected to use the four new lines.

Herrenknecht is supplying a total of 19 TBMs to the Grand Paris Express project – 16 EPB shields and three multi-mode (variable density) machines with diameters ranging between 7.7m and 9.8m.