By rosebell
As Poland’s longest rail tunnel, boring of the tunnel on railway line No. 104 between Limanowa and Klęczany was started.
While the drive of TBM Kinga has been commenced, TBM Jadwiga is due to be launched shortly to build 3.8km-long parallel tunnels.
Considering that TBM Jadwiga is the larger of the two Chinese machines, with a diameter of around 11m, a length of 85m and a total weight of 2,534 tons, the scheduled excavation time for it is 10-12 months.
Also the 4.8m-diameter TBM Kinga machine is 170m long and weights 600 tonnes.
Being named in honour of Polish saints of the Catholic Church, Queen Jadwiga of Anjou and Princess Kinga, who were associated with the region, the TBMs are being operated by the consortium of Budimex and Gülermak.
According to Budimex president Artur Popko: “The consortium had been working on section D Limanowa – Klęczany siding on LK No. 104 for a year and it was one of the most important railway projects in recent years.For this reason, we have decided to invest in new boring machines, which significantly increase our efficiency and precision.”
“The construction of the first railway tunnel drilled using the TBM method has just begun. The shields will cover an average of several meters per day, operating 24 hours a day. However, we are not about breaking records. Above all, we want to drill safely and effectively. In Poland, our shields have drilled over 40km of tunnels, and after the completion of two tunnels under this contract, it will be 50km,” said Gülermak CEO Bülent Özdemir.
Marcin Curkowicz, deputy contract manager for technical affairs from Region 2 Budimex’s Railway Construction Division, said transporting the two TBMs was a huge logistical challenge.
“The whole thing had to be transported to the construction site using a total of 118 truck combinations,” he said.
