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

Eight-lane toll-free tunnel to replace George Massey Tunnel

Eight-lane toll-free tunnel to replace George Massey Tunnel

Recently the Transportation Minister Rob Fleming provided an update on the long-awaited replacement for the 62-year-old George Massey Tunnel connecting Richmond (Vancouver) and Delta on Highway 99: ... More Information

SIWW2022 Water Convention - Call for papers

The Water Convention is a platform for gathering professionals and technology providers from around the world to share their knowledge, practical experiences and novel technologies to address the ... More Information

Cross River Rail – Second breakthrough at Roma Street

Cross River Rail – Second breakthrough at Roma Street

On 23/08/2021 Merle, the second Cross River Rail’s 1350 t TBM, broke through into the 280-m-long cavern at Roma Street, joining TBM Else, the project’s other machine in the future ... More Information

Kalininsko-Solntsevskaya metro line

Tunnelling of the 2 km section between Pykhtino and Rasskazovka stations of the Kalininsko-Solntsevskaya metro line (Yellow line) in Moscow is 43% completed. To date, the TBM Rosa (6 m diameter) has ... More Information

BTS Conference and Exhibition

British Tunnelling Society 2020+1 Conference and Exhibition will be held at the QEII Centre, Westminster, London SW1P 3EE, UK from September 30th - October 1st , 2021  The BTS 2020+1 ... More Information

Moscow metro construction updates

Moscow metro construction updates

Lyublinsko-Dmitrovskaya metro line  - The new section of the Lyublinsko-Dmitrovskaya metro line will have 3 stations – Yakhromskaya ( with the working name Ulitsa 800-letiya Moskvy) , ... More Information

Cross River Rail breaks through at Roma Street

On the 06/08/2021 TBM Else (1350 t and 165 m long), the first of Cross River Rail’s two massive TBMs, which had launched from the Woolloongabba site in early 2021 has broken through a ... More Information

TBM drive starts for Ship Canal Water Quality Project

TBM drive starts for Ship Canal Water Quality Project

Webuild Group’s U.S. subsidiary, Lane, began excavating with the MudHoney TBM the 2.7-mile (4.2-m) storage tunnel for the Ship Canal Water Quality Project, an ... More Information

STRATA Worldwide and TAC Ontario Chapter August Webinar

STRATA Worldwide and TAC Ontario Chapter August Webinar

TAC Ontario Chapter's next webinar will feature a presentation by Mike Rispin and Ian Cadieux of Strata Worldwide on Emerging Safety Technologies for North American Tunnelling. The webinar will ... More Information

Swiss Tunnel Colloquium 2021

The Swiss Tunnel Colloquium 2021 «Tunnelling in densely populated areas» will take place in the Concert Hall of the KKL Luzern on September 13, 2021. The Concert Hall, which offers space ... More Information

STUVA Conference 2021 Planned as a Face-to-Face Event

Press release - The STUVA conference with accompanying trade exhibition (STUVA-Expo), to allow the public to attend the event in the usual manner from November 24 to 26, 2021 at the Karlsruhe Trade ... More Information

TBM Wyspiarka gets closer to Wolin Island!

TBM Wyspiarka has already bored 970 m under the Swina river for the Swinoujscie tunnel  on the S3 Swinoujscie-Troszyn expressway: in about 30 m the TBM will cover the entire riverbed of the ... More Information

Balfour Beatty Bachy Soletanche Singapore JV awarded S$644 million Ang Mo Kio Station and Tunnels contract in Singapore

Press release - Balfour Beatty today announces that its 50:50 joint venture, Gammon, has been awarded a S$644 million (c. £345 million) contract for the design and construction of Ang Mo Kio ... More Information

FAMA 2021 Convention on “Women of Success”

FAMA 2021 Convention on “Women of Success”

FAMA’s 2021 Convention on “Women of Success” has been successfully concluded. After the presentation of the Company’s activities and update on the current world ... More Information

Robbins Crossover TBM Breaks World Records Twice Over

Robbins Crossover TBM Breaks World Records Twice Over

History has been made twice over at Turkey’s Eşme-Salihli Railway Tunnel where a 13.77 m (45.18 ft) diameter Robbins Crossover XRE TBM has set new world records for best day, week, and month ... More Information

Normet launches new technologies for concrete spraying

Normet brought their sprayed concrete layer thickness control system, the SmartScan, to the market in 2019. The SmartScan is aimed at all underground sprayed concrete applications to deliver ... More Information

Cross River Rail Construction updates

Cross River Rail Construction updates

Roma Street station -  The two Cross River Rail TBMs have left Albert Street station in Brisbane’s CBD,  where they both arrived between June and July  At the beginning of ... More Information

Grand Paris Express - New Breakthroughs in July

Grand Paris Express  - New Breakthroughs in July

Line 15 South - End of excavation for TBM Camille - TBM Camille, launched from the Creteil l’Echat station in October 2019 and after 4.2km - reached Salengro (Champigny-sur-Marne) on Line 15 ... More Information

TERRATEC TBM celebrates final breakthrough on Pune Metro package UG-01

TERRATEC TBM celebrates final breakthrough on Pune Metro package UG-01

Gulermak-TATA Projects JV celebrates TBM breakthrough on the underground works for the package UG-01 of Line 1 of the Pune Metro, in India. On July 22, 2021, TERRATEC joined officials from ... More Information

Snowy 2.0 Project – July Updates

Snowy 2.0 Project – July Updates

It's winter in the Snowy Mountains and activity is hotting up at the Snowy 2.0 construction sites!   There's already more than 1,000 people working on the massive pumped-hydro project ... More Information

New Terzo Valico dei Giovi breakthrough

The Fegino construction site has had a new breakthrough between the Voltri interconnection tunnel (the so-called “odd-numbered” track) and a large structure in the already completed ... More Information

Tideway Project Press Release - Connection tunnel breakthrough at Carnwath Road

A significant milestone for London’s super sewer has been achieved at the Carnwath Road Riverside site in Fulham with the breakthrough of the West main tunnel connection into the Central ... More Information

First functional section of M4 metro line in Milan approved

The M4, Milan's new blue metro line (Linate - Forlanini FS section) has passed all its tests and been approved. The Italian Ministry of Infrastructure and Sustainable Mobility has authorized the ... More Information

ITA Tunnelling Week from 20-24 September 2021

ITA Tunnelling Week from 20-24 September 2021

ITA, the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association, organizes the first ever Tunnelling Week from 20 to 24 September 2021. These 5 days of online conferences and debates dedicated ... More Information

TBM for Cefalù railway tunnel arrives

TBM for Cefalù railway tunnel arrives

The TBM, which will be used to drive the Cefalù twin-tube tunnel (7 km), for the project to double and speed up the Palermo - Messina railway line, has arrived at the Termini Imerese port ... More Information

Lunchtime Lecture Series - #7 Tunnel Refurbishment

Event by ITACET Foundation for Continuous Education and Training on Tunnelling and Underground Space Use. Held online on Tue, Sep 21, 2021, 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM (your local time). This seventh episode ... More Information

Excavation begins for HS2’s first ‘barn design’ tunnel vent shaft

Excavation begins for HS2’s first ‘barn design’ tunnel vent shaft

Following the launch of HS2's first two giant TBMs, engineers working on Britain’s new high-speed railway have now begun excavating the first of five shafts that will provide ventilation ... More Information

TBM Sofia completes Metro Line 11 Extension in Paris

TBM Sofia completes Metro Line 11 Extension in Paris

On 16/7/2021 the TBM Sofia (length 106 m, weight 1450 t) arrived in the future Serge Gainsbourg station (Les Lilas). The machine has now completed the tunnel for the 6 km metro Line 11 extension, ... More Information

Lower Thames Crossing - Eight-week public consultation

The community impacts consultation – running from  July to 23:59 on Wednesday 8 September 2021 - gives Highways England communities the opportunity to have their say on ... More Information

Pair of Crossover TBMs completes Triple Tunnel Drives in Mumbai

Pair of Crossover TBMs completes Triple Tunnel Drives in Mumbai

In the Spring of 2021, the second of two 6.65 m (21.8 ft) diameter Robbins Crossover XRE TBMs made its third and final breakthrough for India’s Mumbai Metro Line 3. The first machine made its ... More Information

Italy - Breakthrough in the Marana tunnel on SS260

Italy - Breakthrough in the Marana tunnel on SS260

On the 16/07/21 there was a breakthrough in the 1148 m Marana tunnel (1,148 m), which is part of the construction works for the Amatrice - Montereale - L'Aquila section on the SS 260 Picente in ... More Information

Simplon railway tunnel: SBB is looking for volunteers for a rescue exercise

On Sunday 12 September 2021, SBB will carry out a rescue exercise to verify the intervention and evacuation procedures in an emergency event. This will take place in the over 100-year-old Simplon ... More Information

EXPO Ferroviaria opens at Fiera Milano Rho from 28th to 30th September 2021

The EXPO Ferroviaria 10th Edition will be the first Italian rail industry exhibition since the COVID pandemic started. The show covers all aspects of rail-related technology and services (including ... More Information

The First Tunnel of the Fuzhou Binhai Express Line Is Completed

The First Tunnel of the Fuzhou Binhai Express Line Is Completed

Recently, the jointly built by China Railway 17th Bureau and CRCHI, the earth pressure/TBM double-mode boring machine successfully completed the left line of Dailing Tunnel. This tunnel is part of ... More Information

TBM EPB Jinxiu ready to go into operation for the Chengdu - Zigong high speed railway

TBM EPB Jinxiu ready to go into operation for the Chengdu - Zigong high speed railway

On the 10/07/2021 China’s largest homemade EPB TBM rolled off the production line at Changsha N.2 Industrial Park where CRCHI (China Railway Construction Heavy Industry Corporation Ltd) is ... More Information

BART Silicon Valley Phase II Extension Program announcement

The following protocols and instructions apply to the Pre-SOQ meeting that Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) intends to convene with private sector Participants who have downloaded ... More Information

Tunnelling News

Bhopal Metro's Orange Line Tunnelling Begins

The Bhopal Metro project has recently reached an important milestone as tunnel boring machines (TBMs) have been positioned to begin digging work on ... More Information

A Chinese team rescued a $50M tunnel machine stuck 177 feet underground

Chinese engineers have pulled off a stunning rescue, saving a tunnel boring machine (TBM) stuck 177 feet underground beneath the Yangtze River. More Information

Fort Smith named finalist in Elon Musk's Boring Company tunnel challenge

The company selected Fort Smith's proposal from 487 applicants. The company says the winning project will receive construction of a one-mile tunnel ... More Information

Bengaluru: Four infrastructure firms bid for Hebbal short tunnel

Bengaluru infrastructure: Four firms, including Dilip Buildcon and Max Infra, bid for BDA's Rs 1086 crore Hebbal short tunnel project... More Information

TBM readied for Montreal's Blue Line extension

A custom-made 9.7m-diameter tunnel boring machine (TBM) has been assembled and lowered ready to excavate the tube from the future Vertières stop to ... More Information

$11.5B Brenner Base Tunnel Nears End of TBM Excavation

With TBMs Olga and Wilma closing in, the 55-km rail project shifts from excavation to systems integration ahead of its planned 2028 opening beneath ... More Information

$6.75 Billion Unlocked for Turkey's Bosphorus Rail Project

Multiple Earth Pressure Balance (EPB) Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs) will need to be mobilized to carve out the subterranean corridors leading up to ... More Information

Tunneling for Nashville's underground Tesla project has begun

The Boring Company said that the first three weeks of the project will consist of the Prufrock-MB1, a machine that will help carve out the tunnel, ... More Information

Hudson Tunnel Project construction resumes

I look forward to celebrating the launch of our tunnel boring machines through the Palisades once GDC has assurance it will receive the steady flow ... More Information

Lower Thames Crossing

British suppliers could meet 90% of low carbon steel requirements. The proposed machine would be 16.4m in diameter, large enough to create a three‑lane tunnel bore, and is intended to dig ... More Information

Inside the Tunnel Boring Machine, Southampton Link Main project

A six-tonne tunnel boring machine is digging deep below the ground in Hampshire to help keep the county's taps and rivers flowing... More Information

TBM maestro inspects sites ahead of massive tunnel drive

The first machine components have arrived for the tunnel boring machines (TBMs) to be deployed on the Suburban Connect sites in Melbourne. More Information

Metrolinx provides major updates on subway and LRT projects across the GTA

Tunnel boring is advancing on multiple projects, with Scarborough's TBM ... Metrolinx says “Diggy Scardust,” the project's tunnel boring machine, is now ... More Information

Work in Progress: High-tech TBMs ready to carve underground corridor

The Bhopal Metro Rail Project is transitioning into its most challenging and sophisticated phase as two state-of-the-art Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs) ... More Information

Sarens helps extract TBM at BC water supply project

The Annacis Water Supply Tunnel Project aims to increase the reliability and capacity of the water supply system in New Westminster, British Columbia. When complete, the tunnel will ... More Information

Judge rules in favor of New York and New Jersey for now in $16B tunnel fight with Trump

A federal judge ruled Friday to temporarily block the Trump administration from suspending federal disbursements for the Gateway Tunnel Project... More Information

Webuild: award for Sustainability Report for commitment to decarbonise through innovation

This includes the large tunnel-boring machines deployed on some of Europe's most complex projects: from the Salerno-Reggio Calabria ... More Information

Clearwater update reports initial entry area is 'stable and intact'

The tunnel boring machine being used in the project remains trapped underground just ahead of where the breach occurred. The ambitious, $630 ... More Information

Tunnel Boring Machine Market Size estimated at USD 7.08 Billion

The Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) market is experiencing significant growth, driven by increasing urbanization, infrastructure development, ... More Information

Completing the First Section of Line 3: Tunnel Boring Machine Roars as it Emerges at Balboa

The Panama tunnel boring machine emerged and completed its first major task: the first section of the Line 3 Metro tunnel. More Information

Twin tunnel-boring titans prepare to dig new road under Sydney Harbour

Twin tunnel-boring titans are preparing to launch under Sydney Harbour to dig out a new road crossing from Birchgrove to Waverton... More Information

Monica Breaks Ground on Snowy 2.0

Monica the tunnel boring machine, with the renewable energy mega-project now more. TBM Monica is among the world's most advanced tunnel boring machines... More Information

Snowy 2.0 sets new tunnel boring machine to work, completes 46 underground concrete pours

Snowy 2.0 has set to work a fourth tunnel boring machine, a $75 million piece of drilling equipment purpose built to complete excavation of the huge pumped hydro project’s “geologically ... More Information

World's 'largest' underground assembly of tunnelling machines happening beneath Sydney

Workers are craning into place about 167 major pieces that will form the first of two giant boring machines. Once assembled like giant Meccano sets, ... More Information

Tunneling Begins on Major Water Pipeline for South Hillsborough

TAMPA, Fla. — Tampa Bay Water has begun construction on a major underground pipeline project aimed at meeting rising water demand in southern Hillsborough County, where population growth ... More Information

The massive £3billion tunnel designed to connect two continents under the sea

The construction of a huge underwater multi-tiered tunnel is underway in Turkey, that will create a direct route from Asia to Europe - and is expected to carry 1.3 million passengers a ... More Information

Riederwald Tunnel in Frankfurt is further delayed

Traffic was supposed to start flowing through the controversial Riederwald Tunnel in Frankfurt in 2033. But that's unlikely to happen. The €1.5 billion project is facing further delays – ... More Information

What happens to our metro tunnel boring machines when they hit the end of the line?

These mechanical behemoths were Betty and Dorothy, the tunnel boring machines tasked with digging the Sydney Metro West tunnels. Loading. The ... More Information

The incredible £2.8bn underwater tunnel connecting Europe and Asia

A huge new tunnel will connect Europe and Asia - and construction has already started. The Great Istanbul Tunnel is a major project. It will carry ... More Information

China develops "smart brain" for tunnel boring machines to boost underground construction

A team from Hunan University in central China has collaboratively developed an intelligent operating system for tunnel boring machines, giving these massive underground giants a "smart ... More Information

How China rescued highway project under Yangtze River

The incident occurred in February 2023 during construction of the 6.4-kilometer Jiangyin–Jingjiang Yangtze River Tunnel. Midway through excavation, at ... More Information

HS2 final tunnel drive to Euston starts next week

A team from SCS will drive a 4.5-mile twin-bore tunnel linking Old Oak Common to Euston using two tunnel boring machines, Karen and Madeleine. More Information

Work begins on £48M Knutsford sewer upgrade featuring 1.8km stormwater tunnel

Sean Reid, United Utilities county business lead for wastewater in Cheshire said: “This project highlights our ongoing commitment to improving water ... More Information

$14.6M boost moves Gering–Fort Laramie Canal Tunnel project forward

After nearly six years of planning, construction is moving forward on the Gering–Fort Laramie Canal tunnels... More Information

Webuild: second breakthrough at Trebisacce Tunnel along Jonica State Road 106

Project will help transform Jonica State Road 106 into a strategic corridor linking Ionian coasts of Calabria, Basilicata and Puglia... More Information

Ground preparation for Lower Thames Crossing tunnelling

Work is ongoing to overcome sub-optimal ground conditions in preparation for the start of tunnelling on the Lower Thames Crossing in late 2028, according to the project’s tunnels director... More Information

LA Metro approves massive $25B underground rail line to bypass 405 Freeway

The LA Metro Board unanimously approved an underground heavy rail line to connect the San Fernando Valley and the Westside, bypassing the congested 405 Freeway. The nearly 13-mile route, ... More Information

TUNNEL VISION Mega £7.4bn undersea tunnel connecting two CONTINENTS just got one step closer

A MAJOR £7.4 billion underwater tunnel connecting two continents has taken a step closer to construction. Experts have said the 24-mile tunnel is “technically viable”, paving the way for ... More Information

TBM breakthrough in Sydney

Tunnel boring machine (TBM) Jane Starkey successfully completed her 1.2km underground journey through challenging Sydney sandstone... More Information