China-built double shield for US stormwater project 21 Dec 2017

A China built Lovsuns 3.3m diameter double shield rock TBM is to be delivered by early 2018 to Super Excavators to excavate the tunnel for the US$27 million Blacksnake Creek Stormwater Separation Improvement project in St. Joseph, Missouri.

From left: Walter Trisi of CRS/Super Excavators; Hongyu Xue, General Manager of Lovsuns Tunneling Canada; Pete Schraufnagel, Jeff Weakly and Mike Garbeth of Super Excavators; Sanjay Birbal of Lovsuns

The TBM was designed and engineered by the Canadian Lovsuns team and built by parent company Liaoning Censcience Industry (LNSS) at its Liaoyang facilities in China. It has a main drive power cutterhead with 2 electric water cooled motors with 300KW each and can operate in double shield mode with a primary conveyor belt and be converted to operate in an EPB environment under pressure up to 4 bar.

The Blacksnake Creek project will intercept and convey flows from the creek away from the combined sewer system via a new bored tunnel system using a combination of new pipes, tunnels, stream channels and other methods to separate wastewater and stormwater and convey the rainwater flow directly to the Missouri river. This will reduce the quantity of water in the existing sewer during storms and the quantity of combined storm-and wastewater that overflows to the river.

The project comprises a 2.32km long tunnel with 2.3m internal diameter of segmental concrete lining (precast gaskets) and a 38m long crossing of the railroad with 2.3m diameter auger boring. Altogether, five shafts including launch and target shaft will be built.

Due to the expected ground conditions, which include soft ground to hard rock and mixed face, a variety of soil and rock engineering units will be used.

The construction includes an 11.3m diameter baffle drop shaft, a 15m reinforced concrete box culvert which is close to the surface, a ventilation shaft with 61cm diameter, more than 51m open cut steel pipe installation with 2.3m diameter, a more than 38m long jacked steel pipe with 2.3m diameter, an energy dissipation structure, site restoration and further various job site works. The construction works are expected to be complete in mid to end of 2019.

“This is a huge step for LNSS and Lovsuns in achieving our target to deliver high-quality tunnelling machines to the North American market,” said Hongyu Xue, General Manager of Lovsuns in Toronto.