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Paving underground

A Power Curbers 5700C machine is being used underground in Turkey to slipform the U-shaped concrete platforms on the walls of a new tunnel project.
April 12, 2012 Read time: 1 min
A 307 Power Curbers 5700C machine is being used underground in Turkey to slipform the U-shaped concrete platforms on the walls of a new tunnel project. These will house electrical conduit and serve as maintenance walkways when the tunnel is in operation.

This machine is working on a railway tunnel that forms part of a new link in Turkey's commercial centre Istanbul. This link is intended to reduce chronic traffic congestion that occurs particularly at peak periods on the crowded D100 highway that runs East-West on the Asian side of the city. The machine is working around 45m underground and has been fitted with a special 4.5tonne mould designed for this job. The job is challenging in several ways and aside from having to deliver concrete through chutes placed into the tunnel every few kilometres, securing the concrete to tunnel walls that vary in diameter has presented a real challenge. The tunnel walls are wider at train stations and then become narrower again, so Power Curbers designed a mould that can be varied hydraulically in both height and width.

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