Tunnelbuilder Promoting the world's tunnelling industry to a huge qualified audience

View the Spanish Tunnelbuilder website View the Italian Tunnelbuilder website

Archive - News

Featured News

Bolivia Inaugurates Misicuni Tunnel

Bolivia Inaugurates Misicuni TunnelThe 19.5 km trans-Andean tunnel to transport water from the Misicuni river in the Andes mountain range in Bolivia, the world's most infamous and slowest tunnel, ... More Information

Historic Tunnel Breakthrough at Loetschberg

Historic Tunnel Breakthrough at LoetschbergWorkers have blasted their way through the final metres of rock on 28th April, 2005 to pierce the 34.6 km Loetschberg rail tunnel, a key component of ... More Information

Tunnelling Equipment for Sale

Tunnelling Equipment for SaleA JV of Razel, Bouygues and Spie Batignolles TPCI sells a CSM Bessac TBM and associated equipment fabricated in 2001, used on the Blagis-Cachan sewer tunnel built for ... More Information

Two Atlas Copco L2 C Drill Rigs at Arlaban Tunnel

Two Atlas Copco L2 C Drill Rigs at Arlaban TunnelHighway AP-1 Eibar-Vitoria in Spain's Basque region spans 46.2 km, whereof 31.9 km in Gipuzkoa province and 14.3 in Alava province. The highway has ... More Information

NFM Technologies Wins Contract for 2 TBMs for Road Tunnel in Wuhan, China

NFM Technologies Wins Contract for 2 TBMs for Road Tunnel in Wuhan, ChinaNFM Technologies, part of the Wirth group, has been awarded a contract by the China Railway Tunnel Group for the design, ... More Information

Herrenknecht Extends Market Range with New Company Herrenknecht Vertical

Herrenknecht Extends Market Range with New Company Herrenknecht VerticalTo make the company ready for the future, Herrenknecht extends its technological and market range. The newly founded ... More Information

IPS to Supply TBM Specialists to Skanska Vinci JV for Hallandsas Tunnel

IPS to Supply TBM Specialists to Skanska Vinci JV for Hallandsas TunnelOn Friday 8th April, 2005, a Letter of Intent for the supply of TBM specialists has been signed between IPS and Skanska Vinci ... More Information

Third International Conference on Traffic and Safety in Road Tunnels to be Held in May

Third International Conference on Traffic and Safety in Road Tunnels to be Held in MayThe 3rd International Conference on Traffic and Safety in Road Tunnels - Developments and Trends in Equipment ... More Information

Model of Wirth TBM for Castellanza Tunnel on Exhibit at Samoter

Model of Wirth TBM for Castellanza Tunnel on Exhibit at SamoterIn Lombardy, Italy the Malpensa airport is connected to Milan by the Malpensa Express, operated by the private railway company Ferrovie ... More Information

NFM Technologies TBM Completes Tunnelling on First Metro Line in Turin

NFM Technologies TBM Completes Tunnelling on First Metro Line in Turin'Valeria', a second hand NFM Technologies TBM, broke through into Porta Nuova station on 19th March, 2005. This completes ... More Information

At last, tunnelbuilder in Italian!

At last, tunnelbuilder in Italian!Another milestone along the information superhighway has been reached with the launch of tunnelbuilder in Italian. Apart from its stand-alone status, the new ... More Information

First Boart Longyear-AMV Mining and Tunnelling Jumbos Ready for Industrial Production

First Boart Longyear-AMV Mining and Tunnelling Jumbos Ready for Industrial ProductionBoart Longyear and the Norwegian tunnelling equipment manufacturer Andersens Mek. Verksted (AMV) entered a year ... More Information

Sicily's A20 - more tunnel than motorway

Hall of FameSicily's A20 - more tunnel than motorway On 21st December, 2004 the 41.2 km Furiano-Castelbuono section was opened to complete the A20 Messina-Palermo motorway in Sicily, Italy. On the ... More Information

Full Success for CSM Bessac First EPB TBM

Full Success for CSM Bessac First EPB TBMJust less than nine months have been required to complete the last downstream section of the VL10 sewer, which will bring wastewater into the Valenton ... More Information

Italian Renaissance

Italian RenaissanceThe revival in the fortunes of the Italian tunnelling industry over the last ten years is remarkable, with some 100 projects now listed in the tunnelbuilder.com Archive. The whole ... More Information

Tunnels are Safer than Roads

Tunnels are Safer than RoadsAltogether, there are more than 200 km of tunnels on the Spanish road network and there are 70 km under construction or study. Technicians involved in tunnel ... More Information

Atlas Copco Strengthens Presence in Asia

Atlas Copco Strengthens Presence in Asia Atlas Copco has received approval from the Chinese Authorities to convert its 92% equity joint venture, Nanjing Atlas Copco Construction Machinery Ltd, into ... More Information

Real-Scale Fire Demonstration in Italian Tunnel

Real-Scale Fire Demonstration in Italian TunnelSince September 2002, motorway company Autostrada del Brennero has been taking part in the UPTUN (UPgrading of existing TUNnels) project, started ... More Information

Smopyc Becomes a Key Event

Smopyc Becomes a Key EventThe 13th edition of Smopyc, the international show of public works, construction and mining machinery, was held in Saragossa, Spain from 1st to 5th March, 2005. The event ... More Information

Long Rail Tunnel Holes Through in Japan

Long Rail Tunnel Holes Through in JapanThe last metre of bedrock marking the breakthrough of the Hakkoda tunnel was blasted on Sunday 27th February, 2005 at an official ceremony, drawing cheers ... More Information

Juan Carlos I Tunnel Breaks Through in Vielha

Juan Carlos I Tunnel Breaks Through in VielhaThe junction between the two drives of the new Vielha tunnel in Aran valley in the Spanish Pyrenees was made at 12:57 pm on 2nd March, 2005. The new ... More Information

Odebrecht Readies Wirth Double Shield TBM in Ecuador - ec/18

Odebrecht Readies Wirth Double Shield TBM in Ecuador - ec/18The San Francisco hydroelectric power project is located 15 km east of the town of Banos on the Pastaza river in central Ecuador. When ... More Information

Longest Horizontal Water Abstraction Well

Hall of FameLongest Horizontal Water Abstraction WellIn 2004 the precision horizontal directional drilling contractor Longbore drilled a 600 m-long blind well in London, UK using a directional ... More Information

Two Herrenknecht TBMs for the Jucar-Vinalopo Water Scheme

Two Herrenknecht TBMs for the Jucar-Vinalopo Water SchemeThe Jucar-Vinalopo aqueduct will transfer 80 million cubic metres of water a year from the Jucar river to the Upper and Medium Vinalopo, ... More Information

Fast and Safe at Brixlegg

Fast and Safe at BrixleggThe client, Brenner Eisenbahn, awarded a contract in May 2004 for the construction of the 3.5 km Brixlegg tunnel, which is part of the Lower Inn Valley railway in Austria. ... More Information

Skanska - behind the UK's most prestigious underground projects

Skanska - behind the UK's most prestigious underground projectsThe Tunnelling Division of Skanska UK Civil Engineering, incorporating the tunnelling activities of Cementation UK, is a most ... More Information

Wirth TBE Breaks Through First Uetliberg Tunnel in Switzerland

Wirth TBE Breaks Through First Uetliberg Tunnel in SwitzerlandWirth's Tunnel Bore Extender (TBE), an innovative tunnelling system, broke through the first bore of the Uetliberg tunnel on 1st ... More Information

Herrenknecht TBM Breaks Through DTSS Tunnel T-05 in Singapore

Herrenknecht TBM Breaks Through DTSS Tunnel T-05 in SingaporeSembcorp Engineers and Constructors successfully completed the 12.3 km Kranji tunnel as part of Contract T-05 for the Public Utilities ... More Information

New Record for NFM Technologies TBM

New Record for NFM Technologies TBM'Besi', the 11.95 m-diameter TBM supplied by NFM Technologies (Wirth Group) for the excavation of Line 9 of the Barcelona metro, has just established a new world ... More Information

Low Road to Orkney - a ferry story

Theatre of DreamsLow Road to Orkney - a ferry storyProposals to build a 11.2 km long subsea tunnel across the Pentland Firth linking Orkney to the Scottish mainland were presented to the Orkney ... More Information

Barcelona Metro Service Tunnel Collapses

Barcelona Metro Service Tunnel CollapsesOn 27th January a major collapse occurred on a 233 m-long service tunnel under NATM construction as part of line 5 extension to Spain's Barcelona metro, ... More Information

Testing Verifies Creep Resistance of Steel Fibre Concrete

Testing Verifies Creep Resistance of Steel Fibre ConcreteAs a world leader in steel fibre technology, Bekaert operates a fully serviced concrete laboratory capable of testing all types of fibre ... More Information

Microtunnelling System For Immediate Sale

Microtunnelling System For Immediate SaleUsed Herrenknecht AVN 500 microtunnelling system for sale with 665 mm-diameter machine and range of additional equipment, from job site in Ventspils, Latvia. ... More Information

Robbins Breakthrough in Singapore

Robbins Breakthrough in SingaporeOn 26th January, 2005 Robbins 4.3 m-diameter double shield TBM 1413-301 broke through in Singapore. This completed the excavation of the second and final tunnel on ... More Information

European Commission Grants EUR620 Million to Major Transport Infrastructure Projects

European Commission Grants EUR620 Million to Major Transport Infrastructure ProjectsThe European Commission has just granted EUR620 million for the assessment and construction of trans-European ... More Information

Atlas Copco Drill Rigs for Tunnels in Mecca

Atlas Copco Drill Rigs for Tunnels in MeccaAtlas Copco has supplied seven drill rigs for the construction of four motorway tunnels to ease the movement of the millions of pilgrims who visit Mecca ... More Information

Tunnelling News

IN MEMORIAM - OLIVIER VION (1962-2024)

Through the past decades, the energy and foresight to lead the management of the ITA International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association has been in the hands of Olivier Vion, a man ... More Information

Amtrak awards construction contract for East River Tunnel rehabilitation

The $1.6 billion project calls for demolishing all existing tunnel systems down to the liner, then restoring both tubes. During the project, one tube ... More Information

Strabag in €110 million deal to equip transalpine tunnel

Austrian contractor Strabag has won a €110 million (US$120 million) to equip a transalpine tunnel linking Austria and Slovenia... More Information

19 tunnel boring machines for Manila subway set

A close-up of the tunnel boring machine head, with a diameter of 6.9 meters. ... The first cutter head of the first tunnel boring machine (TBM), named ... More Information

$16 billion Gateway Tunnel Project gets federal funding boost after years of delays

The $16.1 billion project includes a new rail tunnel linking New York and New Jersey — and is set to be open by 2035 ... More Information

Preferred bidder announced for second tunnelling contract

The global consortium of WeBuild S.p.A, GS Engineering and Construction Australia and Bouygues Construction ... Tunnel Project, North East Link ... More Information

Bechtel Picked as CM for $12.7B Single-bore BART Extension

Officials with the VTA are aiming to begin major construction and tunnelling for the $12.7-billion BART Silicon Valley Phase II Extension Project next ... More Information

Stonehenge could be put on world heritage danger list over tunnel plan

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has recommended that Stonehenge be listed as ‘World Heritage in Danger’ due to the A303 upgrade scheme and is ... More Information

World’s longest railway tunnel to reopen after a year

The tunnel closed on 10th August last year following the derailment of a freight train, and SBB has since been pushing ahead with repair work... More Information

Afcons Infrastructure Wins Bid for Thane Tunnel Project

Afcons Infrastructure secures the L1 bid for a tunnel project in Thane, marking a significant milestone in infrastructure development. More Information

Kolkata Metro: D-Wall's Construction Work At Victoria Metro Station Is Advancing Swiftly

For the tunnelling work of the stretch from the Khidderpore to Park Street stretch of this Corridor, two Tunnel Boring Machines (TBM) will be deployed ... More Information

K2D Skøyen – Vækerø

Implenia has been awarded the contract for section K2D Skøyen - Vækerø, which is part of the entire Fornebu line that will be completed in 2030... More Information

Massey Tunnel replacement project hits design-build proposal stage

Tunnel replacement project has finally hit the design-and-build proposal stage. The Transportation Ministry announced Wednesday that three bid ... More Information

Barhale wins £36m East London sewer remediation

Thames Water has appointed Barhale to deliver essential remediation works on a Victorian gravity sewer as it passes above the Jubilee Line and Docklands Light Railway in East London... More Information

Reaping Rewards From Continuous Innovation

In boring underground tunnels for Malaysia's MRTs, Gamuda developed the world's first autonomous tunnel boring machine (A-TBM), utilizing in-house ... More Information

5 of the longest tunnels in the world and how they were built

Since the invention of the tunnel boring machine in 1853, engineers have used advanced technology to drill, blast, and bore into the earth. From ... More Information

Femern - inauguration of the first tunnel element

We are pleased to announce that H.M. King Frederik X will take part in the inauguration of the first tunnel element on the construction site on 17 June. H.M. King Frederik X will arrive at ... More Information

HOCHTIEF-MURPHY Joint Venture (HMJV)

A busy first half of the year on the HOCHTIEF-MURPHY Joint Venture (HMJV) Package 5 Headhouses & M&E contract on National Grid’s LPT Phase 2... More Information

Tesla Cybertruck escorts Boring Co's Prufrock-3 tunnel boring machine

The Boring Company's Prufrock-3 tunnel boring machine (TBM) recently completed a tunnel to Giga Texas, and in true Elon Musk fashion, ... More Information

Kazakhstan’s First Automobile Tunnel and Largest Bridge to be Completed this Year

As reported by the Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Transport, Kazakhstan’s first automobile tunnel through the Shakpak Baba Pass and the country’s largest bridge over the Bukhtarma Reservoir ... More Information

HRBT Expansion Project hits big milestone, could be on track for early completion

The tunnel boring machine, known as Mary ... construction of our two new bored tunnels,” said Project Director Ryan Banas... More Information

TBMs Pass Factory Test For Lesotho Highlands Water Project

A team of engineers and tunnel experts from the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority (LHDA) together with consultants and contractors working on the Polihali transfer tunnel recently ... More Information

Royal Cargo opts for Goldhofer heavy transport equipment

It has also been in action moving tunnel boring machines (TBM) for the Metro Manila Subway project ... machine part posed a significant challenge due ... More Information

Tunnel breakthrough on NI Water's £7.8M Portadown wastewater project

The tunnel boring machine excavated roughly 1,000m3 of material, which would have risen to 8,000m3 of spoil with a more traditional open-cut method. More Information

The Boring Company announces Cybertunnel at Tesla Texas HQ

In January, the company's latest tunnel boring machine (TBM), Prufrock 3, was first spotted near Tesla's Giga Texas. Prufrock-3 has ... More Information

How do you build tunnels and bridges underwater?

Underground construction usually uses powerful tunnel-boring machines to excavate soil directly. This machine is often called a mole for a reason. More Information

Five Huge New Construction Projects Coming To The US

A spokesperson for the project told Newsweek: "The Hudson Tunnel Project is a generational investment that is expected to create 95,000 new jobs and ... More Information

Chennai Metro Corridor 3: Adyar River Tunnel Work Hampered By Geological Setbacks

For the stretch between Greenways Road and Adyar, CMRL engaged two TBMs, 'Kauvery' and 'Adyar.' These machines were launched from Greenways Road ... More Information

French and Danish firms to build Valby 'cloudburst tunnel'

The underground tunnel will be 2,380m long and will be constructed as a drilled tunnel with an internal diameter of 3.4m. The tunnel will have the ... More Information

Howard's approved budgets include $44.9M for Ellicott City tunnel

The Howard County Council has approved a $2.4 billion operating budget for fiscal 2025, along with a $413 million capital construction budget that ... More Information

DC Water Breaks Ground On Potomac River Tunnel Project

DC Water on May 21 hosted a groundbreaking ceremony to officially commence construction activities for the Potomac River Tunnel Project... More Information

Silvertown Tunnel portal connections completed

A complete transformation of the tunnel shape was needed to connect the circular tunnel boring machine (TBM) constructed ... More Information

The $4BN Tunnel to Save Stockholm - The B1M

Above: A tunnel entrance under construction. When it completes in 2030, the $4BN project will be one of the longest road tunnel systems in the world. More Information

OHLA awarded the Gjønnes tunnel in Norway for nearly 160 million euros

The Norwegian Public Roads Administration (Statens Vegvesen) has awarded the company the design and construction of the Gjønnes tunnel for 156 ... More Information

Utilities tunnel dug through 'challenging' ground conditions under River Tees

Main contractor Farrans Construction worked with specialist contractor Joseph Gallagher to construct the tunnel. During its five weeks of tunnelling ... More Information

China develops world's first boring and blasting machine

In a groundbreaking development, the world's first boring and blasting machine, jointly developed by Tsinghua University and China Railway Science and Industry Group, has successfully ... More Information

Tunnel boring machine wedged in hard rock, leaving Snowy 2.0 hydropower project with new issues

Tunnelling problems are plaguing the $12 billion Snowy 2.0 hydropower project, with a boring machine previously bogged in soft ground now wedged in ... More Information

Construction Complete On New High-Speed Rail Tunnel

Inside the completed Desheng Tunnel, and inset, a Chinese high-speed train. Work on the project is now complete. © China ... More Information

DC Water Breaks Ground on Potomac River Tunnel Project

The Project consists of a large-diameter deep sewer tunnel, diversion facilities, drop shafts, and support structures to capture flows from existing ... More Information