Skip to main content

German minister oversees huge Herrenknecht TBM tunnel deal for Wuhan, China

German Minister of Economy and Energy, Sigmar Gabriel, attended the signing of a prized contract for the delivery of two Herrenknecht tunnel boring machines (TBM) for a large multi-functional tunnel in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
April 28, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
German Minister of Economy and Energy, Sigmar Gabriel, attended the signing of a prized contract for the delivery of two 2592 Herrenknecht tunnel boring machines (TBM) for a large multi-functional tunnel in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

The German firm’s key contract with 5250 Shanghai Tunnel Engineering Co (STEC) was signed in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province on 23 April 2014 and will see Herrenknecht TBM’s play a vital role in extending Wuhan’s Metro network from three to seven lines, from 73km to 215km, by 2017. The megaproject in Wuhan, which has a population of 10 million, will enhance the city’s status as the most important transport hub in central China.

The two Mixshields with an excavation diameter of 15.76m being supplied to STEC by Herrenknecht will Cross under the Yangtze River in Wuhan and create a twin-bore double-decker tunnel. A three-lane road will run on the upper deck, with Metro line 7 below. The 2,590m long tunnel alignment runs up to 39.5m below the water surface in complex soil. On the one hand, a high water pressure of 5.3bar must be dealt with. In addition, the tunnel runs through varying geological formations, partly completely sand and clay, partly a mixed geology with mudstone, conglomerates and sand.

With its size and multi-purpose use, the Wuhan multi-functional tunnel construction is said to be a flagship project for mechanised tunnelling worldwide.

Shanghai Tunnel Engineering Co (STEC) has previously used Herrenknecht equipment on a number of other large-scale tunnelling projects in China, usually months ahead of schedule. These include several large-diameter road tunnels in Hangzhou and Shanghai.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Bitumen technology: cutting maintenance costs
    April 8, 2022
    Thicklift in Utah, epoxy modification for Ethiopia and inbuilt de-icing in South Korea - a focus on technologies designed to lower maintenance and rehabilitation costs over the life of a pavement
  • The “rollercoaster in the dunes”: Circuit Park Zandvoort
    June 14, 2021
    Some projects are so specialist that there are hardly any construction companies with significant experience to draw on - another reason why it is so valuable to have a partner with the expertise and experience to take things forward. The rehabilitation and modification of the race track in Zandvoort was a project like this.
  • New international trade crossing linking Canada and US
    June 9, 2015
    The Detroit River is short, only 45km, and narrow in places, less than 1km. Around a quarter of the annual $658 billion Canada-US trade crosses over the river. That’s $160 billion worth of goods trucked each year between Detroit in the US state of Michigan and the Canadian city of Windsor in the province of Ontario - the Windsor-Detroit Corridor. There are several types of crossings, but the vast majority of commercial traffic must use the 2.3km Ambassador Bridge (see box). A new bridge was initially prop
  • Preparations are underway for a new bridge in Venezuela
    June 25, 2013
    A large bridge project is being planned in Venezuela, with ground investigation leading the way In Venezuela, preparation work is now being carried out for a major new bridge project. The European geotechnical specialist Lankelma is supplying its Combifloat C5 jack-up platform, JUP Sandpiper, to begin work on the ground investigation for the new Puente Nigale (in English: Nigale Bridge) over Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela. The Nigale Bridge will be the second crossing over Venezuela’s largest lake. The link,