Qatar Rail receives first Doha TBM
29 April 2014Qatar Rail has taken delivery of the first of 21 TBMs and the machine is expected to start work in the third quarter of this year at the Al Wahda site, next to the Qatar Exhibition Centre.
The TBM, 'Lebretha', was manufactured by Germany's Herrenknecht and is the first of four TBMs which will be launched for the Doha Metro as part of the Red Line North Underground project.
The four TBMs that will bore the required rail tunnels for the Red Line North Underground project are named Lebretha, Al Khor, Al Mayeda and Al Bidda.
TBM Lebretha will be assembled and launched from the Al Wahda site towards West Bay Central. At West Bay Central, it will be disassembled and re-assembled at Al Wahda to travel towards Doha Golf Course. It will bore the West Tunnel of the drive while TBM Al Khor will bore the East Tunnel when it arrives.
Lebretha will dig through a distance of 7.95km, taking around 22 months to complete the job between the third quarter of this year and the second quarter of 2016. The average speed will be between 14m/day to 21m/day, depending on ground conditions.
Each of the TBMs for the Doha Metro measures 7.05m in diameter and 120m in length. To ensure successful transportation, Lebretha was dismantled into 22 sections, including the cutter head.
The mammoth machine began its journey by sea to Qatar and finally arrived over the weekend (late April) at the Doha Port. It will take a few months to re-assemble it into a complete machine.
The Red Line North Underground project is a design and build (D&B) joint venture that is being led by Italy's Salini Impregilo, with South Korea's S K Engineering & Construction Company and Galfar Al Misnad Engineering & Contracting (ISG JV).
The scope of work for the ISG JV on the Red Line North project comprises the design and construction of 13.4km twin-bored tunnel, including seven underground stations, between the proposed Msheireb Underground Station and Doha Golf Course via Doha West Bay. The tunnels will be built at an average depth of 20m.
A further 20 TBMs will be arriving over the coming months, to be utilised not only by the Red Line North Project but also by three more projects: Red Line South - led by QDVC receiving five TBMs; Green Line - led by PORR receiving six TBMs; and Gold Line - recently awarded to a D&B JV led by Aktor SA receiving six TBMs.
All of the joint ventures delivering the D&B contracts for Qatar Rail include Qatari companies and have been selected upon completion of a successful competitive bidding.
