By Lynda Myer
TBM Phyllis, which is the first of two TBMs for construction of Vancouver’s Broadway Subway, has reached its final breakthrough by arriving to the Arbutus Station pit on March 20, that is an indication of completing the excavation process of the westbound tunnel for SkyTrain Millennium Line’s Broadway extension.
Following resuming her dig from the Granville Street wall of South Granville Station, Phyllis commenced boring her last segment between stations on February 2 and the drive’s time duration was 50 days while the machine traveled the four city-block segment from Granville Street to Cypress Street.
In order to breaking through the wall at Cypress Street, TBM Elsie is also currently closing while it is building the eastbound tunnel and resumed her exacavtion process from South Granville Street on March 5.
Considring that it is estimated to TBM Elsie makes her final breakthrough at the end of April, tunnel boring for the project is due to be completed. The responsibility of launching both these Herrenknecht TBMs is up to Broadway Subway Project Corporation, an Acciona Ghella JV, whereas they will be disassembled in the Arbutus Station pit and removed.
As a method for providing a SkyTrain service along the Broadway corridor, the Broadway Subway Project is a 5.7km extension of the Millennium Line from VCC-Clark Station to West Broadway and Arbutus. The value of this project is C$2.8bn (£1.63bn) and its 5.7-km-long extension of is going to add six subway stations to the network.
The corridor hosts British Columbia’s second-largest jobs centre, healthcare services, an emerging innovation and research hub, and growing residential neighbourhoods.
