By Auckland’s City Rail Link (CRL) project manage to push through COVID 19 ups and downs as the EPBM (7.15m in diameter), manufactured at Herrenknecht’s Chinese subsidiary in Guangzhou, passed the Factory Acceptance Test.
Francois Dudouit, Project Director for CRL’s Link Alliance, claimed, “The TBM successfully underwent more than 500 tests to make sure everything works as it should. There is now great excitement that we are ready for the next step – to bring the TBM to Auckland”.
After undergoing FAT, the TBM will soon be shipped from china to CRL’s Mt Eden site, where it will be assembled and used to excavate two tunnels, each 1.6km in length. Due arrival date in New Zealand was postponed from Oct. 2020 on account of the COVID 19 outbreak.
If the machine adheres to the construction plan, 32m per day, it will spend nine months to complete each drive. A team of New Zealand’s contractors – The Link Alliance – will apply the tunnel boring machine to run through Mt Eden to central Auckland, connecting with Britomart Station’s tunnel using the ‘cut and cover’ method.
In industry tradition, the TBM will be named after Dame Whina Cooper, Māori rights champion, ahead of its launch.
