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Photo: Motti Kimchi
Construction site in Ramat Gan
Photo: Motti Kimchi

Tel Aviv Light Rail tunnel digs to begin Sunday

Four months ahead of schedule, the subterranean section of Tel Aviv's planned Red Line are ready to be dug, the minister of tourism announces.

Four months ahead of schedule, the Tel Aviv's Light Rail's tunnels will begin to be dug on Sunday, the Tourism Minister Yisrael Katz (Likud) announced on Tuesday.

 

 

The 12 kilometers of tunnel 30 meters underground will be dug with eight TBMs (tunnel boring machine) for the future Red Line in Bnei Brak, Ramat Gan and Tel Aviv.

 

The digging will begin under the Ayalon Highway towards Tel Aviv's subterranean stations on Arlozorov, Shaul Hamelech, Yehudit and Carlebach Streets.

 

Future Red Line in Ramat Gan (Photo: Motti Kimchi)
Future Red Line in Ramat Gan (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

 

The TBMs are large rotating cylinders that dig a circular path. The TBMs are about 115 meters long with a 7.5-meter diameter, and they weigh 700 tons. They dig 20 meters a day. Twenty workers from the Chinese excavating company CRTG are located inside a TBM at any given moment of operation.

 

TBM in action (Photo; Getty Images)
TBM in action (Photo; Getty Images)

 

The machines are equipped with a drilling head akin to the "Mutant Module" featured in the 1987 animated television series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The electrical-powered head breaks the rock and digs the tunnel. The front of the head is equipped with scoops that collect sand and transfer it to the center of the drill, where a a conveyor transports it out of the tunnel.

 

Each TBM has a robotic hydraulic system to install concrete rings in the newly dug tunnels. The tunnels' depths mean that no vibrations should be felt on ground.

 


פרסום ראשון: 02.14.17, 18:50
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