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World's largest tunnel boring machines

From Encyc

A series of engineering projects have each claimed to be operating the world's largest tunneling boring machine.

Tunnel boring machines that have been claimed to be "the world's largest tunneling boring machine"
TBM name diameter installation completion tunnel length location notes
Big Becky 14.4 metres (47 ft) 2006 2011 10.2 kilometres (6.3 mi) Niagara escarpment
Big Bertha 17.5 metres (57 ft) 2013-07-30 2017-04-04 2.83 kilometres (1.76 mi) Seattle
  • Four lane expressway - two lanes in either direction, each on its own deck.[5]
Martina 17.62 metres (57.8 ft) 2011 2013 2.5 kilometres (1.6 mi) Bologna
  • Used to bore two parallel road tunnels, each carrying two lanes of traffic, plus an emergency lane.[6]
Qin Liangyu 17.6 metres (58 ft) 2015 2020 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) Hong Kong
  • An underwater "two-lane dual carriageway" tunnel.[7]
Shanhe 17.6 metres (58 ft) 2024 5.755 kilometres (3.576 mi) Jinan
  • The tunnel is expected to carry three lanes of traffic, in each direction.[8][9]

References[edit]

  1. ↑ "Niagara Tunnel Project: Technical facts". Ontario Power Generation. 2012-11-21. Retrieved 2016-01-31.
  2. ↑ "Project: Niagara Tunnel Boring Machine Removal (Big Becky)". Western Mechanical. Retrieved 2016-01-31.
  3. ↑ John Spears (2011-05-13). "Massive boring machine 'Big Becky' emerges from under Niagara Falls". Toronto Star. Retrieved 2016-01-31.
  4. ↑ Alex Hutchinson (April 2012). "New energy in Niagara: How a giant hole will help Ontario's shift away from fossil fuels". Canadian Geographic. Archived from the original on 2016-02-04. Retrieved 2016-01-31. The Ontario government finally gave the go-ahead in 2004; the billion-dollar design-build contract was awarded to Strabag in 2005; Big Becky was built from scratch in 12 months, and began tunnelling in September 2006. And then the trouble started.
  5. ↑ "Tunneling toward a new SR 99". Washington State Department of Transportation. 2012. Retrieved 2015-05-19.
  6. ↑ "A Herrenknecht gigant reaches its target". Herrenknecht AG. 2013-09-06. Retrieved 2025-03-04. This meant that the Herrenknecht Earth Pressure Balance Shield “Martina”, with its shield diameter of 15.55 meters, is the largest tunnel boring machine in the world to successfully complete a project.
  7. ↑ "Hong Kong Tuen Mun – Chek Lap Kok Link". Herrenknecht AG. 2015-11-03. Retrieved 2025-03-04. The star of the trio is the S-880 – with a shield diameter of 17.6 meters the world's largest tunnel boring machine dwarfs anything ever seen before.
  8. ↑ Sun Yu (2024-12-20). "世界最大直径水下盾构隧道掘进破千米" [The world's largest diameter underwater shield tunnel has been excavated for more than 1,000 meters]. 中国科技网 (Science and Technology Daily) (in 中文). Retrieved 2025-03-04.
  9. ↑ "Mega project in China: 17.5-meter TBM "Shanhe" is ready for construction site". Herrenknecht AG. Retrieved 2025-03-04. Herrenknecht has built a Mixshield tunnel boring machine (TBM) for the construction of a two-storey road tunnel with three lanes in both directions in the eastern Chinese city of Jinan. The Mixshield technology is designed for the extreme conditions of the upcoming undercrossing of the Yellow River.
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