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 digging TBM robot 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. Each day, it maintains a stable 10-12m/day and night. The tunnel boring machine goes from station S9 (Kim Ma) straight towards underground station S10 (Cat Linh). The machine is guaranteed 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 from the excavation 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 panels are then brought back inside, 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. Excavators have to constantly spray water to soften the soil so it can be moved out.

After TBM 1 has dug 240m, TBM 2, named "Bold", will start 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