Skip to main content

Bridges and tunnels tackle congestion problems

In preparation for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games, the Black Sea health resort of Sotschi, Russia, is tackling its growing traffic jam problems.A 13km bypass and a new main road passing mainly under the city involves the construction of 15 tunnels and a number of bridges and flyovers.
February 29, 2012 Read time: 3 mins
A Wirth roadheader at the Sochi tunnels: another has been ordered
In preparation for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games, the Black Sea health resort of Sotschi, Russia, is tackling its growing traffic jam problems.

A 13km bypass and a new main road passing mainly under the city involves the construction of 15 tunnels and a number of bridges and flyovers.

298 PERI has developed and supplied a tunnel formwork carriage for construction of the six emergency parking bays (three in each direction) in a 2,607metre long tunnel on the bypass.
Here, the two-lane tunnel tube is widened from 10.8m by around 3.5m, and the biggest challenge was the design of the lifting and lowering units with integrated horizontal adjustment device.

"Because the formwork carriage was to be moved to the next emergency bay through the already finished standard cross-sections of the tunnel, this meant that the size of the complete construction had be reduced quite considerably," says PERI.
The tunnel formwork carriage developed was based on the VARIOKIT modular construction kit (the use of standardised serial components is an advantage for the contractor because the system elements can also be used for future formworking operations).

For striking and the rail-guided moving procedure to each subsequent casting segment of a parking bay, the side formwork could be folded hydraulically and the complete formwork carriage was able to be lowered. In this way, each of the emergency parking bays could be constructed in six 9m long concreting sections in weekly cycles.

To reduce the formwork carriage (from 14.3m wide to 10.10m, height from 8.7m to 7.6m) to move to the next parking bay, PERI engineers developed an accurately defined working sequence by which the formwork segments could be folded and lowered to allow passage through the substantially smaller standard cross section.

"The combination of load frames, heavy duty spindles, walers and GT 24 formwork girders ensured high utilisation and load-carrying capacity of the formwork carriage. The striking and moving process could be safely and quickly carried out by construction site personnel although all of the technology was completely new to them," says PERI.

All the tunnels on the partially-completed Stoschi bypass have been constructed using four Wirth Paurat roadheaders (heavy duty machines specifically designed for tunneling). Three of the four machines are operated by the OOO Tonneldorstroy (TDS) company, which has placed another order with Wirth for a Type T3.20 roadheader weighing about 120tonnes and with 300kW installed cutting power.

Instead of blasting the rock with explosives, the cutter head of the roadheader excavates precisely the profile that is required, without unnecessary overbreak or rock disturbance.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • New Doha highway under construction
    March 18, 2016
    Construction is now underway on the New Orbital Highway in Doha, Qatar. This project is called The New Orbital Highway contract 2 and is one of the largest projects being delivered through the Qatar’s public work authority Ashghal. The work consists of the design and construction of 47km of highway with a five-lane dual carriageway for light vehicles and two truck lanes in each direction. It also includes six viaducts, 17 bridges and underpasses and a 320m cut-and-cover tunnel. This last is particularly
  • Costa Rica concrete repairs
    February 15, 2012
    Work has started on the long awaited San Jose-Caldera Highway in Costa Rica, following numerous delays and setbacks. The new 77.5km highway will be used daily by more than 81,000 vehicles, reducing the travel time between the Central Valley and the Central Pacific Coast by at least 30 minutes.
  • Working in tandem
    August 16, 2018
    A tandem crane lift has been carried out in Kuwait on a major project in using Demag machines from Terex. The two machines have been used on the Kuwaiti government's Sheikh Jaber Al Ahmad Al Sabah Causeway Project. This 36km-long road connection is among the world's largest infrastructure projects underway at present. The project includes a 27km-long bridge over Kuwait Bay. The Kuwaiti logistics service provider Integrated Logistics Company (ILC) is carrying out key sections of the project, moving pre-a
  • Improving tunneling method selection
    December 11, 2015
    The tunnelling sector remains one of the most active segments of the construction industry worldwide, fuelling demand for equipment However, there have been issues with the efficiency of the selection process for the most suitable tunnelling method for a project in the past. With this in mind, the Italian hydraulic breaker manufacturer Indeco has been working on a new algorithm that allows a contractor to optimise the tunnelling method selection. The firm said that this system has been developed becau