TBM RECORDER
Beijing completes underwater metro drive
May 2012
Caterpillar News Release
- Canadian TBM manufacturer Caterpillar (formerly Lovat) is celebrating after its 6.28m diameter EPBM completed a tough breakthrough on an underwater section of Beijing's Metro Line 9.
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Breakthrough on the 1.2km underwater drive
- The construction of Lot 6 of a 16.45km extension consists of parallel running tunnels with a total length of 1.2km each that pass underneath a lake in the western part of China's capital. The presence of water-rich conglomerate containing boulders of between 1.2m-1.5m in diameter have made the drive one of the toughest along the alignment, providing a stiff test for Caterpillar's trademark Cat Tough Steel cutterheads.
- Project owner Beijing MTR Corporation, together with the contractor Beijing Urban Construction Group (BUCG), held a celebration ceremony at the construction site together with managers from Caterpillar Tunneling Canada Corporation.
- Caterpillar worked closely with BUCG, and its 1,200kW EPBM, specially designed to tackle such tough geological challenges, completed the drive in the middle of last month (April) after 746 days of underground excavation. The system set a new performance benchmark for fracturing boulders in this complex geology.
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Caterpillar 1,200kW 6.28m diameter EPBM
- Caterpillar has a strong presence in China, and its TBMs have worked on metro projects in Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Chongqing.
- Klaus Ukens, Vice President of Caterpillar Tunneling Canada, said: "We are proud to once again conquer tough jobs with complex ground conditions and join BUCG together with Beijing MTR Corporation in celebration of this successful breakthrough. The customer's selection of the name Diamond for this 6.28-meter TBM is a testament to Caterpillar Tunneling's unique cutting head and ripper teeth design. We continue to innovate with the incorporation of Cat Tough Steel in our cutting tools to further improve customer productivity and uptime."
- The new Line 9 runs between Guogongzhuang in the south of the city, and once completed will connect with the rest of the network at Military Museum (Fig 1). Currently the line is isolated from the rest of Beijing's metro network and ends at Beijing West Station, but this latest breakthrough completes the link (Fig 2). The Beijing West- Guogongzhuang Line 9 extension alignment has been operational since the end of last year, with the final link to complete the extension scheduled to open later this year.
- With the three extensions to Line 9, Line 8 and Line 15 the network will expand to 372 km, incuding 227 stations on 15 lines, and a daily passenger traffic of seven million. There are a further 10 lines under construction, four of which are planned for completion by the end of this year (2012). By 2020, the total length of the Beijing Metro network is expected to reach 1,000 km.
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Fig 1. Southern half of Beijing Metro (Line 9 in green)
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Fig 2. EPBM drive completes the Line 9 network connection
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NFM TBMs for Beijing metro expansion - TunnelTalk, January 2009
State visit to Herrenknecht China - TunnelTalk, February 2012
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