Project: Eastern Section of Moscow Third Interchange Circuit
Location: Moscow, Russia
Machine data: Its diameter is 10.88 m, and total weight is 1700 t.
Contractor: China Railway Construction International, CRCC 16 Bureau Group
Project overview
The project, located at the riverside of the Moscow River, passes under heavy traffic and crowded buildings. It includes two sections of a total length of 2947m. One is from Maple Avenue Station to No.2 Working Shaft; the other is from Maple Avenue Station to Nagaginsky Station.
Construction key points
The EPB TBM required excavation in an extremely cold environment of -35oC and faced many difficulties like small curve turning of 400 m, 40% large gradient, and long-distance excavation in shallow overburden. In addition, the machine bored 600 m under the Moscow River; the minimum overburden being 12 m.
Innovations in the TBM
- The EPB TBM is designed to have a heavy-duty composite cutterhead and a high-power drive system, which enables the machine to tunnel safely and reliably in the complex geologies for a long distance.
- For avoiding formation of mud cakes during drive, a big muck inlet is placed at the center of the cutterhead, and several flushing pipelines of conditioning agents are equipped, which helps to improve the plastic fluidity of the muck.
- For avoiding occurrence of ground settlement and grout leaking, the TBM is equipped with an all-around grouting system.
- For solving the problem of mega-sized TBMs to tunnel along small curved turnings, the EPB TBM is designed to have an articulation system, copy cutter bits and a thrust system with floating support.
- In response to the extremely cold climate, the EPB TBM has a low temperature resistance design which enables normal excavation in the environment of -35°C.
Construction performance
True to its name ‘Victory’, named by Marat Khusnullin, former Deputy Moscow Mayor, the EPB TBM achieved a national record of 433.8 m in one month in Russia.
