Million dollar robot to construct Nhon metro tunnel

Video of the "Lightning Speed" robot TBM 1 digging the Nhon - Hanoi Railway Station tunnel. Source: Hanoi Urban Railway Management Board.

According to the Hanoi Urban Railway Management Board (MRB), each tunnel boring robot TBM costs from 10-15 million USD on the world market.

According to the Hanoi Urban Railway Project Management Board, as of August 28, the tunnel boring robot TBM 1 of the Nhon - Hanoi Railway Station metro project has dug about 125m. It maintains a stable speed of 10-12m/day and night. The tunnel boring machine goes from S9 station (Kim Ma) straight to S10 underground station (Cat Linh). The machine is ensured to go in the right direction based on the total station system placed along the route, combined with sensors on the drill bit.

Currently, there are 150 engineers and workers at the construction site from Vietnam, Italy, India, Ecuador, Colombia and China.

At the drill head, the waste soil during the excavation process is transported out via a conveyor belt.

The containers of waste soil are then lifted by crane to the surface and dumped into a holding tank located next to the underground station.

In the opposite direction, the crane lowered the concrete slabs of the tunnel lining into the underground station.

The tunnel lining panels are then brought inside again, via rails.

Every 1.5m of excavation, the drill stopped to install the tunnel lining.

Six concrete lining panels will be fitted together to form a circle.

Engineer Vu Trung Hieu - supervisor of the Nhon - Hanoi Railway Station tunnel excavation shared: "The tunnel drilling process has not encountered orphaned rock geology, but encountering hard clay while drilling also takes a lot of time. Because during the drilling process, we often have to stop for cleaning."

The geology is mainly clay. The excavator has to continuously spray water to soften the soil so it can be moved out.

After TBM 1 has excavated 240m, TBM 2, named "Bold", will begin operating. Both machines will operate in parallel and take about 16 months to complete the entire 4km tunnel from station S9 (Kim Ma) to station S12 (Hanoi Railway Station).

Source: https://daidoanket.vn/robot-trieu-do-thi-cong-ham-metro-nhon-ga-ha-noi-da-dao-duoc-bao-nhieu-met-10288935.html