Category: 现场报道

这一季度世界各地的工地发生了什么？

At any given time, Robbins TBMs are operating at dozens of jobsites around the world.  Our dedicated Field Service personnel take video and pictures of the TBM progress often, so we’ve decided to offer a quarterly roundup of what’s going on in picture and video format–from deep TBM assembly in New York, USA to an epic TBM launch in the Himalayan mountains of Nepal. Read on to found out the latest.

TBM Assembly in a Deep Shaft in New York, USA

A 6.8 m (22.3 ft) Robbins Single Shield TBM, designed for water pressures up to 20 bar, is undergoing assembly and testing at the Delaware Aqueduct Repair Project. The TBM will be launched from a starter tunnel at the bottom of a 274 m (900 ft) deep shaft.

TBM Assembly Time Lapse

Epic TBM Launch in the Himalayan Mountains

In the Siwalik Range of the southern Himalayan Mountains of Nepal, a 5.06 m (16.6 ft) Robbins Double Shield embarked to bore the Bheri Babai Diversion Multipurpose Project (BBDMP). The TBM launched on October 14. See the drone footage taken by our own Field Service TBM Mechanic Thomas Fuchs:

Crossover Machine Startup in Akron, Ohio

On October 19, a Robbins 9.26 m (30.4 ft) diameter Crossover (XRE) TBM launched below Akron, Ohio, USA to bore the OCIT tunnel. The machine is excavating in soft soils that will transition into mixed face and then full face shale.  Before its launch, personnel at the jobsite filmed the cutterhead testing in a unique way. Watch the video below for more:

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Salamanders, Pseudo Scorpions, and Quartz Crystals: How my Recent Site Visit proved that TBM Tunneling is the Greenest Way to Go

The Balcones Canyonlands just north of Austin, Texas, USA is a protected wildlife preserve, and it’s not open to the public.  So when the city of Austin opted to build a 10.5 km (6.5 mi) long water line directly below it, there was understandably some concern—but not for humans. The inhabitants of the Canyonlands include some of the state’s most endangered species, from tiny, blind cave spiders to songbirds to the green-speckled Jollyville Plateau Salamander.  And don’t forget the pseudo scorpions.   The Jollyville Transmission Main, a pipeline planned to bring drinking water to the drought-ridden city, was designed deep below protected aquifers in chalk, up to 106 m (350 ft) down in limestone rock.  This made tunneling the only option.  But even so, how could the project avoid impacting such a sensitive environment?

When I visited the site in Autumn 2012, I got my answer. The contractor, Southland/Mole JV, is taking every precaution to mitigate impact, and they’ve been very successful thus far.  An environmental consultant from the city is on the site daily, and routine inspections ensure that the minimally invasive tunnel is not encroaching on the habitat of the endangered animals.

Our guides for the visit, Kent Vest and John Arciszewski of Southland Contracting, took us to the 82 m (270 ft) deep Four Points Shaft first, which has been partially reinforced with liner plates.  Kent and John explained that during excavation, water inflow from the aquifer had been high enough that the city opted to grout behind the liner plates to prevent further dewatering.  Gravel in the annular space between the liner plates and shaft walls would keep any groundwater pathways intact.

As we descended into the unlined tunnel where a 3.25 m (10.7 ft) Robbins Main Beam TBM was averaging 55 m (180 ft) per day, we talked ground support—or the lack thereof.  Three TBMs are being used to excavate portions of the tunnel in competent limestone.  Southland is not permitted to do either pre-excavation drilling or grouting because of the possibility of karst cavities and groundwater pathways—areas where endangered aquatic species might live.  While they plan to install wire mesh and rock bolts if it’s needed, the rock quality has so far been very good with little ground water.  We took a few photos while in this tunnel (see below), and then moved on to the next site.

Our last site visit of the day was the deepest—the 106 m (350 ft) Jollyville shaft next to the similarly named Jollyville Reservoir in a much more urban location.   Once we’d been lowered down the shaft, we found a small, unlined tunnel in competent limestone.  A 3.0 m (9.8 ft), contractor-owned Double Shield TBM was tunneling this reach, after having been refurbished by Robbins in Solon, Ohio.  Similarly, the machine was getting some fast advance rates of 46 m (150 ft) per day on average.

What I immediately noticed in this tunnel was the multitude of small, mostly dry karst cavities down the tunnel walls.  These cavities could potentially be home to the blind cave spiders, though none had been found during tunneling and it was likely they wouldn’t live in such small voids.  We noticed, during our ride on the muck train towards the machine, sparks of light emitting from these cavities.  Once we stopped John reached into a cavity and pulled out a handful of quartz crystals.  “These are all over, in all these cavities.  You can take some with you,” he said.  As I am part-pirate (my genealogy traces back to Sir Francis Drake on my mother’s side!), I decided to stuff my pockets with the sparkly crystals (i.e., treasure!).  I had never seen anything like this before, but John explained that the minerals in the perched water in many of the pockets caused the crystals to grow.  Since the pockets were small, they weren’t filled in or isolated and we could pluck quartz crystals to our heart’s content.

On a more serious note, Southland does have a plan of action if large cavities are found or if a groundwater pathway is very open and linked to the aquifer.  In this case, large voids would be isolated and sealed off to protect the habitat within.  If ground water inflows are severe they will install steel liner plates and grout behind them to stop the flow.  But, says Southland, they don’t expect to encounter either of these since the tunnels are so far below the aquifer.  In fact, one reach of the tunnel, already complete at the time of our visit, had encountered almost no groundwater in 1,300 m (4,400 ft) of tunneling.

Once back on the surface, it became clear to me that this well-designed project proved that tunneling, particularly TBM tunneling, could be used safely in even the most sensitive environments.  The foresight, planning, and execution by the designers and contractors was impressive.  The salamanders and pseudo scorpions thank you.

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There are Urgent Projects…and Then There’s Emisor Oriente

After visiting Mexico City’s Emisor Oriente Wastewater Tunnel, I realized something: there are urgent projects, and then there are URGENT PROJECTS.  Túnel Emisor Oriente, often abbreviated to TEO by those involved, is the latter.  We visited the site in 2011 to see the assembly of an EPB and learn about why the project is so important.

Day 1

On a good day with light traffic, the jobsite is about an hour’s drive away from the Distrito Federal, the downtown zone of Mexico’s capital city.  Our first day, I noticed how the high rise buildings and restaurants slowly dissolved into ramshackle huts as we drove further from the city to an area known as Ecatepec.  Approaching the site, we crossed a bridge in our SUV that spanned an extremely slow moving grayish brown river (more about this soon).

It was a warm day in June, Mexico’s rainy season, which is quite different from the rain in my home town of Seattle in the U.S.  Each day during the rainy season, the morning dawns sunny and warm–but by 4:00 in the afternoon a torrential downpour begins.  The water floods city streets throughout Mexico City, whose storm drains can’t handle the sudden inundation.  Sometimes the rain only lasts a few minutes, and sometimes it goes for longer.  The water eventually runs into rivers like the one we crossed by the jobsite, creating flooding risks.

We exited our SUV at the Lot 1 shaft and were greeted by several Robbins Field Service guys, including our Field Service Manager for the Americas, Jeremy Pinkham.  I was excited to learn more about the TEO project, where we have three EPB machines among six TBMs that are excavating an epic 62 km (39 mi) long wastewater tunnel. The tunnel will feed into the country’s largest water treatment plant, which is currently being built.

As Jeremy and the group walked towards the shaft to be lowered down the elevator, I was struck by a smell—something akin to a vast field of poorly maintained port-a-potties.  I asked Jeremy about the Robbins machine, which was originally intended for Lot 5 but had been fast tracked to bore part of the tunnel section at Lot 1.  I was wondering why this particular section had been deemed top priority.  “Did you see that river just a few meters away from our jobsite?” he asked. “Most rivers, when you throw a stone in, it splashes or skips and then sinks.  This one, you throw a stone in and it just goes ‘plop’, then sits there.”  It was only then that I realized that this “river” was El Gran Canal, Mexico City’s infamous open sewer originally commissioned in 1910 by President Porfirio Díaz.

The Robbins guys as well as engineers from the Lot 1 contractor Ingenieros Civiles Asociados (ICA) then explained to me that the canal in this section, lined with shacks, was prone to flooding during each rainy season due to a loss of its slope.  The effects on the people and infrastructure were severe, so the National Water Commission (CONAGUA) had fast-tracked Lot 1.  A pumping station would be put in and the first section of tunnel sealed off so that wastewater from this area could be pumped into a section of the canal downstream that still maintained its negative slope.  I was beginning to realize the importance and urgency of this project!

The guys gave us a tour of the TBM being assembled at the bottom of the shaft, which was specially designed for high pressure conditions under the water table.

On the ride home that day we were hit by a particularly nasty rainstorm that went on for several hours.  I learned via the local news later on that the very roads we had driven on to get to the jobsite were now flooded with wastewater and impassable—apparently a regular yet extremely concerning event.

Day 2

The next day we went to CONAGUA’s offices to speak with José Miguel Guevara, General Supply Coordinator for Potable Water and Sanitation.  He spoke with us about the massive scope of Emisor Oriente—a project that could improve the lives of over 20 million people in the area by increasing wastewater capacity by 20% during each rainy season. The new pipeline will bolster current wastewater lines (both El Gran Canal and Emisor Central—a pipeline built in 1964) that have lost their slope due to Mexico City’s sinking lake clays.

While Guevara was optimistic, he admitted that health problems caused by El Gran Canal were numerous for the people living on its banks.  When asked about future plans, he expressed grave concern that funds were not currently sufficient for a covered option to the open waterway.  “At this moment,” said Guevara, “The Valley of Mexico is vulnerable.  Our new treatment plant will treat 60% of the area’s water, but we need more alternatives as well.  We are working on pieces to the problem, but the problem is not solved yet.”

With Emisor Oriente scheduled to be complete in 2014, I am hopeful that at least some of those problems will be alleviated.  This is a great example of the magnitude that civil engineering works have on societies.  I for one am proud that Robbins has a part in this monumental solution to an age old problem.After visiting Mexico City’s Emisor Oriente Wastewater Tunnel, I realized something: there are urgent projects, and then there are URGENT PROJECTS.  Túnel Emisor Oriente, often abbreviated to TEO by those involved, is the latter.

Day 1

On a good day with light traffic, the jobsite is about an hour’s drive away from the Distrito Federal, the downtown zone of Mexico’s capital city.  Our first day, I noticed how the high rise buildings and restaurants slowly dissolved into ramshackle huts as we drove further from the city to an area known as Ecatepec.  Approaching the site, we crossed a bridge in our SUV that spanned an extremely slow moving grayish brown river (more about this soon).

It was a warm day in June, Mexico’s rainy season, which is quite different from the rain in my home town of Seattle in the U.S.  Each day during the rainy season, the morning dawns sunny and warm–but by 4:00 in the afternoon a torrential downpour begins.  The water floods city streets throughout Mexico City, whose storm drains can’t handle the sudden inundation.  Sometimes the rain only lasts a few minutes, and sometimes it goes for longer.  The water eventually runs into rivers like the one we crossed by the jobsite, creating flooding risks.

We exited our SUV at the Lot 1 shaft and were greeted by several Robbins Field Service guys, including our Field Service Manager for the Americas, Jeremy Pinkham.  I was excited to learn more about the TEO project, where we have three EPB machines among six TBMs that are excavating an epic 62 km (39 mi) long wastewater tunnel. The tunnel will feed into the country’s largest water treatment plant, which is currently being built.

As Jeremy and the group walked towards the shaft to be lowered down the elevator, I was struck by a smell—something akin to a vast field of poorly maintained port-a-potties.  I asked Jeremy about the Robbins machine, which was originally intended for Lot 5 but had been fast tracked to bore part of the tunnel section at Lot 1.  I was wondering why this particular section had been deemed top priority.  “Did you see that river just a few meters away from our jobsite?” he asked. “Most rivers, when you throw a stone in, it splashes or skips and then sinks.  This one, you throw a stone in and it just goes ‘plop’, then sits there.”  It was only then that I realized that this “river” was El Gran Canal, Mexico City’s infamous open sewer originally commissioned in 1910 by President Porfirio Díaz.

The Robbins guys as well as engineers from the Lot 1 contractor Ingenieros Civiles Asociados (ICA) then explained to me that the canal in this section, lined with shacks, was prone to flooding during each rainy season due to a loss of its slope.  The effects on the people and infrastructure were severe, so the National Water Commission (CONAGUA) had fast-tracked Lot 1.  A pumping station would be put in and the first section of tunnel sealed off so that wastewater from this area could be pumped into a section of the canal downstream that still maintained its negative slope.  I was beginning to realize the importance and urgency of this project!

The guys gave us a tour of the TBM being assembled at the bottom of the shaft, which was specially designed for high pressure conditions under the water table.

On the ride home that day we were hit by a particularly nasty rainstorm that went on for several hours.  I learned via the local news later on that the very roads we had driven on to get to the jobsite were now flooded with wastewater and impassable—apparently a regular yet extremely concerning event.

Day 2

The next day we went to CONAGUA’s offices to speak with José Miguel Guevara, General Supply Coordinator for Potable Water and Sanitation.  He spoke with us about the massive scope of Emisor Oriente—a project that could improve the lives of over 20 million people in the area by increasing wastewater capacity by 20% during each rainy season. The new pipeline will bolster current wastewater lines (both El Gran Canal and Emisor Central—a pipeline built in 1964) that have lost their slope due to Mexico City’s sinking lake clays.

While Guevara was optimistic, he admitted that health problems caused by El Gran Canal were numerous for the people living on its banks.  When asked about future plans, he expressed grave concern that funds were not currently sufficient for a covered option to the open waterway.  “At this moment,” said Guevara, “The Valley of Mexico is vulnerable.  Our new treatment plant will treat 60% of the area’s water, but we need more alternatives as well.  We are working on pieces to the problem, but the problem is not solved yet.”

With Emisor Oriente scheduled to be complete in 2014, I am hopeful that at least some of those problems will be alleviated.  This is a great example of the magnitude that civil engineering works have on societies.  I for one am proud to have a part in discussing this monumental solution to an age old problem.

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Adventure at West Qinling:Treacherous Roads, Spicy Food, and TBMs

A few months ago one of my colleagues and yours truly presented a two day seminar to the Dongah Geological Company of South Korea on Robbins Hard Rock TBMs. The following is our story of the ensuing trip:  Fueled by copious amounts of South Korean hospitality known as Soju (for those of you who don’t know Soju or Shōchū is a Japanese distilled beverage. It is usually distilled from barley, sweet potatoes, or rice. Typically, shōchū contains 25% alcohol by volume.  It’s weaker than whiskey or standard-strength vodka but stronger than wine and sake. It does actually taste like weak vodka, at least the first one or two do, after that…well you should get the picture!) our agent Mr. Kim in South Korea suggested that we should further develop our relationship with our hosts and provide some on-site practical training for our hosts.

We needed to find a project that would be similar to the potential project in South Korea–similar meaning, similar in purpose, design and diameter. The machines in South Korea we learned could be up to 12m in diameter and possibly larger. Someone, I am not sure who, volunteered the West Qinling project in Gansu Province, China as the project most similar to the ones in South Korea.

Robbins currently has two 10m diameter hard rock main beam type machines in operation there. With the Soju in full effect we all thought this was a great idea and it was decided that West Qinling would be our next port of call. (For more on this project, view our news release and case study).

After a day or two of recovery and not expecting to hear anything more (Soju has that affect on you) there followed a flurry of E-mails, a few phone calls and before you knew it we had arranged a trip to the West Qinling project.

Gansu province is located in the northwest of the People’s Republic of China. It lies between the Tibetan and Huangtu plateaus. The landscape in Gansu is very mountainous in the South and flat in the North. The mountains in the South are part of the Qilian mountain range. At 5,547 meters high, Qilian Shan Mountain is Gansu’s highest elevation. The West Qinling Project is located in the mountainous region to the South. Similar to the great expedition in 1845, it’s only about 500km (310miles) from Chengdu to the jobsite.

I have been to the West Qinling site before; there is no way to get there other than by a four wheel drive vehicle. You have to drive; the nearest airport was severely damaged by the deadly 7.8 earthquake in the region in 2008. On a good day the drive could take 8 hours. Generally it takes at least 10 hours. On my first trip it took over 13 hours. If it rains you can expect landslides and mudslides, it has taken some field service personnel nearly two days to get off the mountain and back to Chengdu. In a weak attempt to dissuade Mr. Kim from actually going ahead with the visit to the jobsite, we tried to paint as black a picture of the journey as we could. No matter what we told him he always replied “Guk-jung-ha-jee-ma!” which in Korean literally means “No worries!” or “Don’t worry!”  To which we replied, “But Mr. Kim are you aware that this is the rainy season?” And to that we got the same answer “Guk-jung-ha-jee-ma!”

After meeting and greeting our party of seven guests, accompanied by Mr. Kim from South Korea, at Chengdu Airport on the evening of 12^th May we held a briefing on the same evening about the journey and the schedule for the days ahead. Arrangements were made to meet in the hotel lobby the next morning. “Any questions?” I asked. “Guk-jung-ha-jee-ma!” was the now familiar reply.

8am Friday 13^th May:

I thought I wasn’t superstitious, but setting off on Friday 13^th on a 10-hour journey in the rain to a remote jobsite in the mountains gets you thinking a little. So with Mike (our field service training supervisor), Andy (the Robbins China project manager for the project) and myself in the lead vehicle we set off in convoy, 4 vehicles in total, for West Qinling. Four hours into the journey and lunchtime is approaching. As some of you will be aware meal times are sacred in China–the drivers are getting short tempered and need to stop. We’re driving through Sichuan province and we’re close to the last major town before we hit the mountains and dirt roads.

The majority of food in Sichuan is spicy. The locals love nothing more than Chilies of any and all kinds with their food. We stop at a local restaurant in Baolun, (this is one of the small number of places where you will see few, if any, American style fast food joints, a rarity in itself these days). Andy orders food and leaves instructions ‘not too spicy’ with our smiling waitress. It seems as though something got lost in translation and most of the food is spicy. There are a few newcomers in our group to this part of China and the last thing you need on a long road trip into the mountains is to be looking for restrooms. Even some of the more experienced travelers have been known to get caught out once or twice (myself included).

In the more remote parts of non-Westernized countries or parts of countries that have had limited exposure to Westerners or “lao wai” (foreigners in China) you shouldn’t expect Western style facilities either; a hole in the floor type convenience would be the norm…if you’re lucky.

We set off again after lunch, the first few hours are on black top. Although the road is winding up and over the first mountain range it’s a relatively smooth ride and the views are spectacular. We enter Gansu province around 3:30pm in the afternoon.

Relative to the food we’ve eaten and the roads we’re traveling on, the condition of the digestive system is, in weather related terms, (refer to the Beaufort Scale) around Force 7:  ‘High Wind, moderate gale, near gale.’”

Again for those of you who don’t know, The Beaufort Scale (pronounced bou–fart, need I say more) is an empirical measure for describing wind speed based mainly on observed sea conditions (on land it is categorized by the physical effects it has on vegetation and structures). Its full name is the Beaufort Wind Force Scale.

Not long after we’re on the dirt roads, top speed is roughly 20km/h (12mph) about an hour in we stop at a small village, where wind speed for some of the group has increased to force 8 (gale, fresh gale), and all of our guests need a pit stop. We find a ‘restroom’ in a small village, the wind dies down and we set off again.

We pass through an area that has just been cleared of a landslide (see photo below), which had closed the road for 2 days prior to us travelling. If the landslide had not been cleared we would have had a four hour 150km detour to endure.

Unexpectedly the wind starts to increase again, Mike is feeling it the worst, without warning we (he) experiences Force 11 (Violent storm) – we need to stop immediately!

Luckily we’re not far off another camp about 2 hours from our destination. We pull in and Mike calms the storm. There’s a lot of curiosity when we arrive at this camp. It’s not often you see four vehicles in convoy travelling these roads. Add to this the fact that we’re all ‘lao wai’ and pretty soon we’re surrounded by curious onlookers. A bit of ‘Chinglish’ (Chinese English) with the crowd, they hand out cigarettes to those who want them, we have a laugh and joke (‘laugh and joke’ by the way is cockney rhyming slang (slang mainly used in London in the UK) for ‘smoke’, and head on up the mountain.

We arrive at the camp at around 6:30pm, where we’re greeted by our host from MOR18, Mr Wang. Everyone is shown to their rooms.  We throw the bags in, wash up and head for a welcome dinner. We’re all weary after the long journey, a few beers take the edge off and the expedition team starts to relax.

Saturday May 14^th:

First day of training, we split up into two groups. Mike takes a group for some classroom study, Andy & I with the other group head into the tunnel. First of all we explain some general rules on safety and what to watch out for when we’re in the tunnel. “Any questions?” – same answer: “Guk-jung-ha-jee-ma!”

When we were on site the previous year we were there to assemble, test and commission the machines. Due to bad ground at the start of the tunnel we had to walk the machines some 2.5km from the portal to the starting point of the bored tunnel. Since then the machine we’re visiting has advanced another 4.5km. Average production on the machines is close to 500m per month. Considering the location and the logistical nightmare that this project is, this is an excellent achievement. By anyone’s standards 500m per month on a 10m main beam machine is good going.

These tunnels form part of a massive project that will eventually cut rail transportation times between two major cities in the region from 12 hours to roughly 4 hours.

It takes us an hour on the loco to get to the machine, along the way we see several slip forms that are used by the contractor to complete the final lining of the tunnel. There are two rail tracks all the way to the back of the machine. There are currently nine rail switches at roughly 500m distance throughout the tunnel, and we constantly switch from the left line to the right line as we progress towards the machine to prevent any hold ups to the works.

On this project excavation, preliminary ground support consisting of rock bolts, mesh, ring beams and shotcrete is done at the machine and the final lining using the slip forms is carried out simultaneously in both tunnels. The excavated material is transported out of the tunnel on a continuous conveyor also supplied and installed by us.

We spend the whole morning on the machine and our guests get to see a lot of activities being carried out, ask a lot of good questions and get a good feel for hard rock tunnel boring. We manage to get into the cutterhead and witness a cutter inspection. For most of our guests it is the first time they have seen a hard rock boring machine in action. In South Korea tunnels in hard rock have typically been excavated by drill and blast methods and metro tunnels have been excavated by EPB machines. I think everyone is taken aback by the sheer size of the machine, the heat and noise and the amount of activities being carried out in the tunnel.

We see first-hand the machine boring whilst the crew installs ring beams and mesh and drill for rock bolts. Behind us in the L2 zone shotcreting is ongoing.

Around 1pm we’re out of the tunnel. After a light lunch Mike and I swap teams and once again we head back into the machine with the second group. More questions, more explanations and all in all a productive educational day.

We have two machines on this project that are boring parallel tunnels, we’ve been on the left side machine all day, due to the way the project is organized this is actually the right line machine. This machine is operated by MOR18, our other machine is operated by CRTG. We think it only proper that we visit both machines. Two different contractors, two different ways of working, it’s good for our guests to see & understand that there are many different ways to approach this kind of work.

Saturday evening we get invited to dinner by CRTG, Mr. Dai is our host and knows how to throw a good reception. The food is excellent: Mike and myself demolish a large plate of bull frogs (tastes and looks just like Chicken) our guests however don’t seem too fond of them. They are washed down with Mr. Dai’s special Baijiu. Baijiu is almost the Chinese version of Korean Soju but around 50% stronger. Literally translated Baijiu means ‘white liquor’. For the most part Baijiu is an acquired taste; it kind of percolates out of you for around 3 days after you’ve been drinking it. Mr Dai has a special Baijiu that contains herbs and spices that make it good for the health, or so they say (and who am I to argue). I don’t want to upset our host and join with him in several toasts to the health of our guests — there’s no need for translation this evening. Baijiu is a wonderful translation tool — it’s funny how we can all understand each other so well. Our guests reciprocate with several toasts of their own, we sleep well that night!

Sunday May 15^th:

Sunday morning is spent looking around the jobsites as a group. We visit the segment plant (all segments are fabricated on site), the ring beam plant, the wire mesh plant, the cutter workshop and the three batching plants. Three batching plants are needed as the invert segments, the shotcrete and the final lining concrete all require different quantities of sand, cement and aggregates for each application.

We take a look at the continuous conveyor installations and explain to our guests how it all works and ties in with the boring machine.

Sunday afternoon we visit the right side machine (left line), as they have just come off an 800m plus month. We think it’s a record for this size of machine, an outstanding performance.

Later on in the day we’re invited to a question and answer session by the contractors. Our guests get a lot of useful information from them as do we.

We get a weather report for the next few days, not so good, rain is forecast. We need to change plans and decide to make a run for it down the mountain before the rains start. Sunday evening we attend another excellent dinner, this time hosted by Mr. Wang of MOR18. Once again the Baijiu replaces our translators and we communicate in a common language. We need to be cautious though; wind is also forecast for the next morning especially after a large dinner. We don’t need a repeat of our inbound journey!

Monday May 16^th

 

We cannot thank our hosts enough for their hospitality; we have been welcomed with open arms, a great experience for our guests. We set off down the mountain at 7am. Winds are Force 0 – Calm!!

Around 6pm we’re back in Chengdu. A bit of rest and recuperation is in order—a couple of hectic days & hard nights takes its toll on you.

Tuesday May 17^th

 

We pay a visit to one of the workshops in Chengdu. We are currently assembling the 2^nd machine for the Chengdu metro project there. It’s an EPB machine and is nearly completely assembled. The shop is impressive and our guests are very interested in the unit. They have a lot of experience with EPB machines and ask a lot of pertinent questions.

Later that morning we stop off at the jobsite and see the sister machine in the workshop being assembled in the pit at site. Most of the back-up is completed, the middle shield is standing up and the site crew are preparing for the arrival of the forward and tail shields.

Monday afternoon is spent taking in all the information from the visit. We have a final question and answer session with our guests and arrange a farewell dinner.

Wednesday morning 5:30am, we put our guests on the bus for the airport. We made it back from the mountains safely and the expedition is over. Mike gets on a plane for the US, Andy flies back to Shanghai; I jump on the high speed train from Chengdu to Chongqing, we have two hard rock single shield machines to build there. The first is about a month away from completion…back to reality, we’re on a tight schedule and there’s work to be done. All of a sudden I get the familiar feeling of a Force 11 (violent storm) coming on, must be something I ate at the farewell dinner. Luckily I’m on the train, there is a decent restroom and the storm is over before we know it. Winds return to Force 0 – Calm!

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The Oldest Robbins TBM still in Action? We visit a jobsite in Canada that may be using the World’s Ultimate Workhorse TBM

Bax and Kenny mentioned that daily maintenance shifts have helped keep the veteran machine in good working order.  Crews regularly check the 12-inch (304 mm) diameter disc cutters, and inspect the cutterhead and critical sub-systems. “We are not expecting a lot of wear.  Our estimated completion for this tunnel is about two months,” said Bax.  At the time of our Centennial visit, the TBM had advanced 200 m, at 1.8 to 2.1 m (6.0 to 7.0 ft) per hour, with no major issues.

The competent shale rock is certainly also a factor in limiting wear to the machine’s cutterhead and main bearing.  Robust core components, including the main beam and gripper system, are key in keeping a TBM running for a long time (43 years, in this case).

Overall, the machine looked to be well equipped for its latest tunnel drive, and though it is impossible to know if it’s the world’s oldest working Robbins machine, it is certainly on the list.  If you know of a Robbins machine that’s been operating longer, drop us a line in the comments section.  We’d be interested to hear about it, and maybe even visit it!

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Hunting Mouse: A lighthearted look at field service communications

Being in Field Service can have some interesting moments, particularly when working overseas and in countries where the English language might not be the first language. We are a department of personnel drawn from all over the world, so we each have our own take on English and the way to speak it. Add to this workers who speak a local dialect, and even communicating with each other can be confusing or comical, to say the least.  Read below for some lighthearted moments at field service projects around the world.

Sign Language
Field Service personnel often get by with sign language, drawings on the back of cigarette packets (a rarely used device these days as most of us have quit!) and by any means possible to get a point or question across. In some of the more frustrating conversations we resort to shouting the same question, as it would appear we think people can understand English by raising our voices.

On occasion we could be in a scene from a Monty Python Sketch–A reply to the question “Do we have no cutter wedges?” was met with a positive “yes” answer.  “So where are they then?”, “We have none.” It’s all very confusing, but the way the question was asked prompted the answer, so “Yes, we have no cutter wedges,” would appear to be correct when taken literally. A few years ago one of our guys (no names mentioned) was trying to explain to the waitress that we wanted one of those fancy Italian Ice Creams for dessert. Imitating holding the ice cream and moving it to his mouth several times didn’t go down too well, with a somewhat embarrassed waitress as I recall, but it was all taken in good humor (we got the ice cream by the way).

Lost in Translation
When we try to get smart and speak the local language the results are even worse…or better depending on your outlook. In Spain while ordering lunch, Macaroni with Tomato Sauce (Maccarones con tomate) came out as ‘Maricones con tomate’, which turned out to be ‘Gays with Tomatoes’…that brought more than a few smiles to the table and a bewildered look to the waiter’s face.  We still talk about it to this day.

During a lunchtime chat between three of our guys, two Americans and a Scottish guy, the topic of conversation came around to hunting. The two American guys mentioned that they had been hunting Moose somewhere in the USA a few years back and that they had needed special ammunition for the rifle. “Hunting Moose!” said the Scotsman in his strong dialect, with a confused look on his face, “Where I come from a Moose (dialect for a Mouse) is only 3 inches long!”

A few months ago we were working in China and came across this sign in Shanghai:

I did as instructed, went down the stairs, turned around and walked backwards… I couldn’t find the restroom or a Policeman??

So as you can see, communication in the field is important.  There is no need to shout. Be humble and respectful, and think about the question and the way to ask it–whatever country or situation you’re in.  Sometimes what you say or the sign language you use to get your message across can be misinterpreted, often with unexpected results.

As is often said: “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” And a final word of advice…be careful of any sign language you use, especially when asking for ice cream, more so if you’re in Italy, you’d probably end up with a slap there!!

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Visiting Mexico City’s Newest Metro Tunnel: How the Country’s Capital is Upgrading its Aging Infrastructure

I was lucky enough to visit the jobsite of the Mexico City Metro Line 12 tunnel in October, along with Tunnels & Tunnelling International’s features editor Nicole Robinson.  The country’s largest TBM, a 10.2 m (33.5 ft) diameter Robbins EPB, is excavating Mexico’s first new rail route in 10 years, below southern areas of the city.  The 7.7 km (4.8 mi) long Mexico City Metro Line 12 is being excavated just 7 m (23 ft) below downtown areas in mixed ground including watery clay and boulders up to 800 mm (32 in) in diameter.  The project is one of two major tunnels being constructed in Mexico City, the other being the 62 km (39 mi) long Emisor Oriente wastewater project, using six TBMs including three 8.93 m (29.3 ft) diameter Robbins EPBs.

During our visit to the site, the machine was between its first and second cut and cover station sites (it will hole through into seven such sites during the course of tunneling).  We walked through the tunnel to view the machine, and later sat down with metro director Enrique Horcasitas of the Mexican Federal District for an interview on the current state of tunneling in Mexico.

 Interview with Metro Director Enrique Horcasitas

 

Q: Were other methods besides tunneling with an EPB TBM considered for this tunnel?

A: Originally, the line was envisioned to be constructed using a technique of slurry walls cast in place.  Most of Mexico City’s underground lines were built using this method.  However, opening and closing city streets was not possible for a large portion of this route, while open cutting would interfere with existing municipal facilities and fragile archeological sites. In addition, cost estimates placed open cut excavation of the entire 24 km (15 mi) line at 19.5 billion pesos (USD $1.57 billion).

Our engineers needed a solution that would reduce risks and adverse impacts to traffic flow, as well as reduce project cost.  For several weeks, methods were studied, and it was ultimately determined that a solution using multiple methods would work best.  The 7.7 km (4.8 mi) long tunnel between Mexicaltzingo and Mixcoac would be excavated using a mixed ground EPB TBM, while the rest of the line between Atatonilco and Tláhuac, in much more difficult ground, would be constructed on the surface.  Smaller portions of the tunnel would be constructed using cut and cover methods.  The overall plan has a budget of 17.58 billion pesos (USD $1.41 billion).

Q:  What does the city forecast for future ridership?

 A: In the short term, it is expected this project will meet an average demand of 437,000 users per weekday.  By 2030, this number is expected to grow to 600,000 users.

 Q: How was the route of this line determined?

 A: There is a long history associated with Mexico City’s metro plan.  Engineers used to think it was impossible to excavate underground, given Mexico City’s highly complex geology.  But in the 1950s and 60s, crews hand-mined the city’s main wastewater line, Emisor Central, about 100 m (330 ft) below ground.  After the encouraging results, about 41 years ago, the project’s current contractor ICA (Ingenieros Civiles Asociados) began to make feasibility studies about metro lines running through the city.  ICA was contracted to excavate the capital’s first metro lines, and 10 years later ICA gave the Federal District a gift: A master plan with over 300 km (185 mi) of rail that would serve as our template for decades to come.

The master plan is reviewed every 10 years, and it was most recently determined to build Line 12.  The alignment is almost entirely true to the master plan, though it was made a bit longer after being reviewed by advisors, to match public demand for transportation.

Q: Are there any other metro expansions that the city is considering?

A: We are looking at doing an extension of the new Line 12, depending on the available budget.  This extension would include 1,400 m (4,600 ft) of tunnels west of Mixcoac.

The next line we are considering in the master plan is Line 15, which would run directly below Insurgentes, the longest avenue in the world (18.8 km/11.7 mi), which goes straight through the city.  A metro is absolutely needed on this route, as there are currently about 10,000 people per hour riding on just buses alone in each direction.

Q: Do you think current opinion about TBMs is changing in Mexico? What is the current climate towards TBMs?

A: I think the public can see the success of this tunnel—we arrived into the first station with precision, only 1 cm (0.4 in) to the side.  We are monitoring settlement, and have detected only about 2 cm (0.8 in) at maximum—well within the limits and not enough to affect buildings.  The public voted on where to excavate the next new line, they decided where to go, and so there is a consensus in society.  I think that is why there has been a high degree of acceptance.

The operation of TBMs is seen as more favorable than hand mining or open cut, because there is less inconvenience at the surface, and building the tunnel itself is safer.  For this reason, I think TBM tunneling will continue to increase in Mexico.

With the six TBMs currently excavating or being readied to excavate the new Emisor Oriente wastewater line, we now have seven TBMs operating in the country—this has never happened before.  I think this is a tunneling boom!

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