White Papers

Hybrid TBM Excavation in Challenging Mixed Ground Conditions at the Mumbai Metro

Excavation in mixed ground conditions is always a challenge, but under a densely urban environment the stakes become even higher. At India’s Mumbai Metro, two 6.65 m hybrid-type rock/soft ground Single Shield TBMs are successfully boring parallel 2.8 km tunnels in basalt rock with transition zones of shale, tuff, and breccia below the city. They have made intermediate breakthroughs at the 1.2 km mark and overcome rock strengths up to 125 MPa UCS with significant water ingress, all just one year after factory acceptance, shipping, site assembly, and launch. The hybrid machines are optimized for abrasive rock geology using a robust cutterhead mounted with disc cutters and a reinforced screw conveyor at the centerline. The machines can also operate in closed or semi-closed mode using features designed to advance in soft ground with water inflows: dual ratio gearboxes to adjust cutterhead speed and torque to the geology, screw conveyors with bulkhead gates and discharge gates, ground conditioning with foam and polymers, and probe drills for pre-excavation grouting.

  Download File

Share on Twitter on LinkedIn