By Ashley Karen
The last tunnelling breakthrough on building Copenhagen’s M4 Sydhavn metro extension took place lately when Chinese-built machine bored through at Havneholmen station.
After tunnelling for 15 months, TBM Olivia broke through right after sister TBM Inge. On this last step of their journey, the machines have constructed a 4.9m-ID tunnel made up of 5,651 six-segment rings, each 1.4m long and 330mm thick.
At first, the TBMs bored from Enghave Brygge to Ny Ellebjerg where they broke through at the beginning of 2021. Then, they were picked up and moved back to Enghave Brygge, where they holed the last tunnel section to the Havneholmen metro station.
By linking the southern part of Copenhagen to the metro system, the 4.5km Sydhavn extension of the M4 line is going to contain five new stations (also linked to the M3 Cityringen) from Havneholmen to the terminus at Ny Ellebjerg.
anticipated to open by 2024, the new US$566m M4 Sydhavn extension is part of a line that is going to connect through to the inner city and ends in the Nordhavn extension.
