By Lynda Myer
The TBM Sofia, which has 106 m long and 1450 t weight, arrived in the future Serge Gainsbourg station (Les Lilas) on 16 Jul 2021. The main duty of this machine is the completion of the tunnel for the 6 km metro Line 11 expansion, which is due to link Mairie des Lilas and Rosny-Bois Perrier stations by 2023, with 6 new stations.
TBM Sofia’s efficiency is 14m per day and it has driven 3 km in 15 months, it extracted 200,000 m3 of spoil and connected the 4 future stations of Serge Gainsbourg, Place Carnot, Montreuil-Hôpital and La Dhuys.
The link among the available line and the new extension is a tunnel with 250 m length, which was previously constructed with the NATM method between the Mairie des Lilas station and the future Serge Gainsbourg station. Connection of the viaduct of the future Coteaux Beauclair station and the cut & cover tunnel of Rosny-Bois Perrier was also done. Daily, 15,000 passengers are going to use the future station of Serge Gainsbourg, the second station on line 11 in the city of Les Lilas.
This TBM have been named in honor of Sofia Amalou, a RATP agent who welcomes passengers on Line 11 to the station every day.
