Horseshoe-shaped EPB TBM
Dissimilar to a circular TBM, a Horseshoe Shape TBM face is designed in horse shoe shape. It is mainly applied to bore soft ground tunnels of large road and railway projects in mountain areas.
The construction method with such Horseshoe-shaped TBM was used for the first time to bore tunnels of roads and railways in mountain area. The cutterhead is 10.95m high and 11.90m wide. The Horseshoe-shaped TBM differs from traditional circular machines not only in section but also in construction method. When the machine is applied to soft soil tunnelling through mountains, the tunnel space utilization will be increased by 20% to 30% in comparison to circular cutting. The Horseshoe-shaped machine will bore a 3,345m tunnel with maximum overburden of 81.05m. The machine started boring on December 29th 2016. On November 7th, 2018, the Baicheng Tunnel Project of Menghua Railway was awarded the “ITA Technical Project Innovation of the Year 2018 ”.
Rectangular Pipe Jacking Machine
The face cut by a rectangular TBM is in rectangular shape which enables best use of the face. Requiring shallow overburden and reduced construction costs, a rectangular TBM is mainly used for pedestrian passages, traffic tunnels, underground utilities, underground parking lot and underground reservoirs. Rectangular TBM is an efficient and convenient solution to urban traffic congestion.
Rectangular TBM has already been successfully used in China. On December 25th 2015, the world largest-face rectangular TBM by CREG (height 10.42m x width7.55m) was rolled off assembly line in Dalian, China and deployed to bore the underpass tunnel across Heiniucheng Road in Tianjin Metro Line 11 Project. Its size breaks the record set by a previous CREG-made 10.12 x7.27m rectangular TBM which bored the underpass across Zhengzhou Zhongzhou Avenue in China.
On February 20th, 2016, a CREG-made rectangular TBM was successfully launched at Thomson- East Coast Line Project, Singapore. This TBM requires shallow overburden and low construction cost and enables maximum use of cut face. It is to bore a drive of 156m to connect the entrance and exit of HLV Station.
References #2
References #2
