By Ashley Karen
On November 14, Dorine gave Grand Paris Express her final laps of the cutting wheel at a depth of 26 meters.
By penetrating the perimeter wall of the Rolland work, the TBM celebrated the end of the 1.2 km tunnel’ construction for line 17, which started in April 2022.
One year before, this amazing machine which is 120 meters and weighs over 1,000 tons, had already constructed the first section of the tunnel of 1.1 km for this exact line, also between the Verdun and the Rolland structure.
Also, just like during this first journey, Dorine travelled to the future Le Bourget RER station which is located at the crossing of lines 16 and 17.
In addition to the end of this saga of almost two years, it is also the final stage which links lines 16 and 17 to Le Bourget.
Constructed on either side of Le Bourget RER station, the Verdun and Rolland structures link the tunnels of lines 16 and 17 of the new metro. These structures include one or more switches enabling trains to change tracks to take distinct routes.
On September 23, Dorine Bourneton, aerobatic pilot and the TBM’s godmother moved to visit the boring machine one last time; a beautiful story that ends for the two Dorines!
