Skip to main content

Mexico’s longest tunnel project being excavated

Congestion is particularly bad on the road from the city centre to Juan Álvarez international airport. Jams are frequent on the section of road between Acapulco Bay and the Diamante and Puerto Marques suburbs, which currently means climbing La Escénica. To tackle the problem the city authorities decided to build the new tunnel and bypass the traffic jams. The route of the 3.2km tunnel runs under the Cumbres de Llano Largo mountain. The contract for excavating the two tunnels was awarded to the Aca-Túnel con
July 18, 2017 Read time: 3 mins
Indeco has experience in configuring its breakers for use in tunnelling
RSSTwo specially configured hydraulic breakers from Indeco are being used in the project to construct Mexico’s longest tunnel. The HP 3000 ABF units are being used at the Aca-Túnel jobsite in Acapulco to help build the new tunnel, which is intended to reduce congestion in one of Mexico’s most popular tourist destinations

Congestion is particularly bad on the road from the city centre to Juan Álvarez international airport. Jams are frequent on the section of road between Acapulco Bay and the Diamante and Puerto Marques suburbs, which currently means climbing La Escénica. To tackle the problem the city authorities decided to build the new tunnel and bypass the traffic jams. The route of the 3.2km tunnel runs under the Cumbres de Llano Largo mountain.

The contract for excavating the two tunnels was awarded to the Aca-Túnel consortium, which comprises the privately held firms 2765 ICA and CARSO, two of Mexico’s key contractors.

Maquinter, Indeco’s distributor in Mexico, sells and rents out construction machinery equipment in various different states in the country. The consortium, Aca-Túnel, sent the distributor a provisioning request for Indeco hydraulic breakers. Indeco units had recently been used successfully by ICA in Oaxaca State on a road-building project, which strongly influenced the decision to opt for breakers from the same supplier. The two HP 3000 ABFs (HP 5000s in the US), have been mounted on 178 Caterpillar 320 excavators.

“Tunnelling is a particularly tough application for hydraulic hammers, due to the special conditions they are required to work under,” explained Indeco’s marketing manager Michele Vitulano. In tunnelling jobs there is more dust around the breaker than for quarrying work, due to the enclosed nature of the operating area. To prevent the risk of extra wear, additional water damping and tool greasing technology is often used in tunnelling jobs. Working temperatures can also be higher in tunnelling as there is less airflow, so hydraulics need extra cooling. And as breakers often have to be operated horizontally or even pointing upwards in tunnelling work, further measures are needed to provide protection for the internal working components.

However, as hydraulic breakers have been used successfully in Italian tunnelling projects for many years, Indeco has plenty of experience in configuring its units for use in this type of application

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Long reach equipment simplifies demolition
    April 13, 2012
    Demolition is a highly specialised business, as the machinery required to carry out the work on high-rise demolition contracts can be very site specific. Today's high reach demolition rig is no longer simply a tracked excavator with a long boom, indeed some machines cannot be used as excavators at all. Likewise a machine that is dedicated to carrying a 2.5 or 3tonne shear or hammer will need to be built to take the stresses and strains of demolition life. Many of the ultra long boom machines are designed
  • New version of world’s longest floating bridge
    August 12, 2014
    The creation of a new version of the world’s longest floating bridge in Seattle, in the US state of Washington, is among the world’s most eye-catching current bridge engineering projects. It is an impressive example of the health of the bridge replacement sector, particularly in the US, leaving it well placed for growth. Guy Woodford reports Already the world’s longest floating bridge at over 2,310m long, the Governor Albert D Rosellini-Evergreen Point Floating Bridge in Seattle in the United States is g
  • Plan to complete Colombian tunnel project
    December 1, 2014
    In Colombia plans are underway to try and revive the project to construct the La Linea tunnel. The project has been beset with problems since work commenced. Problems have included insufficient funding, unexpectedly poor ground conditions and some firms involved having the wrong kind of insurance. The Segundo Centenario consortium is building the La Linea tunnel and is keen for this to continue. The new plan involves the incorporation of local firm Construcciones e Inversiones Beta, which would acquire a 40
  • Europe’s first Hyundai R1200-9 excavator debuts in Luxembourg
    December 15, 2017
    Démolition et terrassement XL Sàrl from Nidderkuer, Luxembourg, has been using the largest capacity Hyundai excavator, the R1200-9, in Luxembourg City centre. The R1200-9, which has an operating weight of 120tonnes, started in March in the city’s financial heart on the site of the soon-to-be Bank of China complex. The huge excavator is breaking reinforced concrete foundations with a 7tonne hydraulic breaker. The first task to complete is a 35m-deep, 6-storey underground parking area.