By Lynda Myer
Following that Phyllis, which is one of two TBMs constructing twin tunnels for the Vancouver’s Broadway Subway Project, has broken through to the future Mount Pleasant Station, the Broadway Subway Project Corporation, an Acciona Ghella joint venture, has made the second tunnel breakthrough.
On November 2022, Phyllis was commissioned from Great Northern Way and dug 725m of tunnel and 494 concrete liner rings have been installed along the new section.
As the first of the two Herrenknecht machines to be launched, Elsie TBM broke through at the station in January and commenced tunneling toward the future Broadway-City Hall Station on March 4.
Expanding the Millennium Line 5.7km from VCC-Clark Station to West Broadway and Arbutus Street, the Broadway Subway Project is due to provide a SkyTrain service along the Broadway corridor. The corridor is home to British Columbia’s second-largest jobs center, a nascent innovation and research hub, and growing residential communities. The determined date for inauguration of this line is the 2026.
In order to digging the 5km from Great Northern Way-Emily Carr Station to Cypress Street near the future Arbutus Station, each TBM will require approximately one year.
Connecting the 21 columns between VCC-Clark Station and the future Great Northern Way-Emily Carr Station is undergoing by installing girders by the Broadway Subway Project Corporation and advancement continues to be made at the elevated guideway. Excavation and construction of the station foundations are ongoing at the Broadway-City Hall, Oak-VGH, South Granville and Arbutus sites.
The two 150m-long TBMs are named after Phyllis Munday, a well-known nurse and mountaineer who founded the Girl Guides in British Columbia, and aircraft designer Elizabeth MacGill.
