Order for world's largest TBM

Russian operator company NCC (Nevskaya Concession Company) has placed an order with German manufacturer Herrenknecht for the world's largest tunnel boring machine (TBM). The Mixshield TBM, for construction of the Orlovski Tunnel, "will surpass all previous TBMs" with a diameter of 19.25m and it is designed to construct a mega-tunnel to link both halves of the centre of Russia's second city St Petersburg under the River Neva and speed up traffic.
April 10, 2012 Read time: 2 mins

Russian operator company NCC (Nevskaya Concession Company) has placed an order with German manufacturer Herrenknecht for the world's largest tunnel boring machine (TBM).

The Mixshield TBM, for construction of the Orlovski Tunnel, "will surpass all previous TBMs" with a diameter of 19.25m and it is designed to construct a mega-tunnel to link both halves of the centre of Russia's second city St Petersburg under the River Neva and speed up traffic.

At the contract signing, entrepreneur Martin 2592 Herrenknecht met the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in the city at a high level business meeting.

"Prime Minister Putin wanted to find out at first-hand about the gigantic automobile tunnel project, an extremely challenging construction project under the River Neva," says Herrenknecht.

The TBM contract is the biggest single order in the company's history and represents a huge technical challenge, which "has been well prepared by extremely thorough, intensive preparatory engineering collaboration between the customer and the contractor." Including the back-up the Herrenknecht Mixshield will be 82m long, and on its own the tunnelling shield will weigh around 3,800tonnes and deliver 8,400kW drive power to the cutting wheel.

The leap in diameter to 19.25m will enable the machine to excavate 600m³ of soil hourly, and the excavation area is said to be more than 50% larger than that for the largest TBM currently in operation in the world.

"A Mixshield is the quickest and safest solution for driving the around 1km-long tunnel bore under the Neva in the face of the high groundwater pressures. An extremely ambitious timetable has been set for implementation of the project," says Herrenknecht.

Tunnelling is set to begin in St Petersburg in the spring of 2013 with the tunnel due to be taken into operation in 2016.

At present, vehicles have to use the various bridges in order to cross the River Neva from the city centre to the northern districts and the orbital freeway.

The mega-tunnel, with two three-lane carriageway levels will considerably improve the traffic capacity.
Road Structures

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Eurasia Tunnel wins prestigious IRF award
    March 8, 2018
    New road connection linking Europe to Asia scoops IRF Global Road Achievement Award The Eurasia Tunnel was built to connect the Asian and European sides of Istanbul for the first time via a 3.4km twin-deck road tunnel going underneath the seabed. The 14.6km Eurasia Tunnel route was identified based on extensive feasibility studies conducted in 2005 for the Ministry of Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications of Turkey. Its main aim was to relieve Istanbul’s transcontinental traffic pressure, reduce
    Read More
  • Kazakhstan’s London road show woos consortia for Almaty ring road
    March 2, 2015
    Kazak and EBRD officials visited London to highlight the possibility of a public-private partnership under the country’s revised PPP legal framework. David Arminas reports. To build a road, you go on the road, and that is what Kazakhstan did in London in mid-December. Representatives of more than 100 organisations, a mix of construction companies and financial institutions, attended the roadshow-style presentation to attract foreign capital for BAKAD, the Almaty Ring Road Concession. The message was that Ka
    Read More
  • Increasing importance of alternate truck routes
    February 14, 2012
    The fabled Silk Route from China to Europe takes many forms, and is again becoming increasingly important as Patrick Smithreports The ancient Silk Road was never a single caravan route, but covered hundreds of kilometres in width extending in length for around 10,000km. This is the view of the European International Road Transport Union (IRU), and many other countries and organisations, who point out that it is a system of routes covering many countries via a series of branch roads that dates back some 2
    Read More
  • More tenders for the Lower Thames Crossing
    April 2, 2021
    The winners will build 23km of road connecting to what will be the UK’s longest road tunnel.
    Read More

Highlighted Content