On 29 May TBM machine "Damroka" officially started tunnel boring.
15.06.2013
The tunnel under Vistula river is a part of the Słowacki Route, which shall connect the airport in Rębiechowo with the Eastern part of the port of Gdańsk. In that place, it shall meet the Sucharski Route with which it shall form a ring road around the downtown of Gdańsk.
YEOMAN Poland has been selected as exclusive supplier of CR aggregates for the needs of the investment project. Over 2-yearlong construction process shall consume approximately 200 thousand tonnes of granite. The granite aggregate deriving from the GLENSANDA Scottish quarry has been used both in concrete mixes being applied directly at the construction site as well as at the time of executing prefabricated concrete elements, the so-called TUBINGS. These elements are produced at P.B. Kokoszki S.A. prefabrication plant.
The construction of the Tunnel under the Vistula river is a gigantic undertaking – one of a kind in Poland.
Double-tunnel route section measuring 1.4 km in length shall cross underneath Vistula at the depth of almost 35 meters at the lowest point. Each of the tunnels shall have two lanes of traffic on it. It shall be linked with another tunnel by means of seven mini-tunnels being escape routes. The tunnel shall be made by boring, using TBM (Tunnel Boring Machine).
The construction of tunnel section with the already built three sections of the Słowacki Route shall consume a total of PLN 1.420 billion; PLN 1.154 billion of which is to be funded by the European Union, out of the Cohesion Fund, under the Infrastructure and Environment Programme.
Formally, the construction process was commenced by the end of 2011, however, the actual execution started in the 1st quarter of 2012. The completion of the investment project is planned by the end of 2014.
( source: GIK Sp. z o.o.)
The „Damroka” is a mixshield type TBM, adapted for boring heavily soaked grounds, provided with disk diameter of 12.6 meters, i.e. being one of the biggest in the world. TBM weighs 2200 tones and is 91 meters long. In Gdańsk it shall bore 2 tubes in the tunnel; in each one, there shall be two traffic lanes, and the length of each of these is 1076 meters. Moving forward, the TBM lays behind it, rings composed of 7 elements - 6 basic ones and the seventh so-called “wedge”. Each of the elements is reinforced, and the mass of each of the basic ones is approximately 17 tons. Average work rate of the machine is 10 meters per day.
The TBM has been made in the town of Schwanau in Germany by Herrenknecht.
Its cost is PLN 82 million.
For more information about the project, make yourself familiar with the following presentation:
( source: GIK Sp. z o.o.)