By rosebell
Following that TBM components were moved across the city, the tunneling process is set to resume on Vienna’s U2xU5 railway expansion.
Currently TBM Debohra, which has completed the first drive from Matzleinsdorfer Platz to Augustinplatz in the summer, is ready to relaunch from Matzleinsdorfer Platz on the second tunnel tube.
In order to transporting the TBM components on an around 11km route in September, transport company Felbermayr used a tandem lift, a four-axle tractor unit and a 10-axle semi low-loader after the Herrenknecht TBM was partially dismantled.
The time duration of this operation that commenced with the nearly 73-tonne cutterhead drive unit was three night, whereas was lifted and loaded using a 400-tonne crane. This was followed by the 78-tonne cutterhead which required a tandem lift by the 400-tonne crane and a 250-tonne crane and the 34-tonne tail shield was the final component to be moved.
According to Thomas Daxelmüller, deputy branch manager at Lanzendorf and project manager on behalf of Felbermayr: “Such transports cannot be improvised; they are planned months in advance down to the smallest detail. It’s not enough to simply lift the load and drive off. We have to consider every junction, every bottleneck, every height restriction beforehand.”
For advancing this operation several intersections had to be closed and lampposts and traffic lights to be removed temporarily.
“When a 7m-wide component rolls through a metropolis, you can feel the scale of the project with every metre. For onlookers, it might seem like a spectacle – for us, it means maximum precision and concentration,” said division and project manager Gabriel Asböck.
The U2xU5 project involves the construction of the U5 line and the extension of the U2 line to the south.
