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Robbins Webinar - Rapid Excavation: How to Speed up Your TBM Tunnel

Robbins Webinar - Rapid Excavation: How to Speed up Your TBM Tunnel

In this complimentary 40-minute webinar, Robbins Engineering Director Brad Grothen and Elisa Comis, Associate at McMillen Jacobs, will discuss what rapid excavation really looks like in the field. ... More Information

M4 Metro Line breakthrough

M4 Metro Line breakthrough

On the 25.02.2019 the second of the two TBMs that are excavating the tunnels of the Western Section of the M4 in Milan reached Frattini Station. In only 22 days the TBM excavated approximately 570 ... More Information

Thames Tideway Super Sewer

Thames Tideway Super Sewer

Rachel, the TBM digging the west section of the Thames Tideway Tunnel, has been lowered 35 m down the shaft at Tideway's Carnwath Road site in Fulham. Over the coming months, she will begin her ... More Information

WTC 2019

WTC 2019

THE WORLD TUNNEL CONGRESS 2019 IN NAPLES, ITALY FROM MAY 3RD TO MAY 9TH 2019. The whole underground industry will meet in Naples to study and discuss the state of art of tunnelling in connection ... More Information

6th Breakthrough on Mumbai Metro 3

6th Breakthrough on Mumbai Metro 3

On the 20.02.2019 Mumbai Metro 3 Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ corridor achieved a 6th TBM breakthrough at Sahar Road Metro station, which is being built under Mumbai’s crucial Tansa water ... More Information

STUVA Expo 2019 - 150 exhibitors already registered!

STUVA Expo 2019 - 150 exhibitors already registered!

STUVA Expo 2019 - one of the world's leading and largest events in the tunnel. The current demand to exhibit at STUVA Expo 2019 in Frankfurt am Main again indicates a strong participation. Already ... More Information

4th TBM for the Grand Paris Express

4th TBM for the Grand Paris Express

On the 7th of February the shield for the fourth TBM, which will drive 3.4 km of the Line 15 South for the Grand Paris Express was lowered into place. The TBM will begin its journey at what will ... More Information

Press release for BBT

Press release for BBT

Breakthrough in the Tulfes–Pfons section - On February 12th, 2019, the last breakthrough by blasting took place in the Tulfes-Pfons section. On that occasion, a small ceremony was held for ... More Information

TELT update

Paris, 19 February 2019 - The Board of Directors of TELT (the public promoter entrusted by Italy and France with the construction of the cross-border section of the Lyon-Turin railway line), ... More Information

Undersea tunnel planned for Cua Luc Bay in Vietnam

Undersea tunnel planned for Cua Luc Bay in Vietnam

The People’s Committee in the northern province of Quang Ninh want to build an undersea tunnel at Cua Luc Bay. They have submitted the pre-feasibility report to Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan ... More Information

Robbins Crossover TBM completes Turkey’s Longest Water Tunnel

Robbins Crossover TBM completes Turkey’s Longest Water Tunnel

Excavation of Turkey’s longest water tunnel came to an end on December 18, 2018. To get there, a 5.56 m (18.2 ft) diameter Robbins Crossover (XRE) TBM and the contractor JV of Kolin/Limak had ... More Information

ITACET Training Courses during WTC2019

ITACET Training Courses during WTC2019

Two ITACET training sessions will be organized on the 3rd and 4th of May during WTC2019. •             Tunnelling 4.0 information ... More Information

Struma Motorway - Lot 3.2.1 update

There have been ten offers for the design and construction of the 13.2 km Struma motorway in the 23.6 km section between Kresna and Krupnik, through the Kresna Gorge (Lot 3.2.1). The Lot 3.2.1 ... More Information

News from Australia’s longest road tunnel project

News from Australia’s longest road tunnel project

The last truck of spoil excavated from the NorthConnex tunnel was delivered to Hornsby Quarry on 25.01.2019. More than one million cubic metres of spoil was placed to partially fill the quarry, ... More Information

Bahrain Metro Project

Bahrain Metro Project

Press release-Bahrain announces consultancy tenders for phase one of its metro project. Bahrain's Ministry of Transportation has launched tenders for the appointment of a transaction advisor and ... More Information

Press release - Fourth mega borer starts work on metro tunnels

The fourth of five mega tunnel boring machines (TBMs) has started tunnelling under Sydney. TBM Mabel has been launched at Chatswood to help deliver 31km of tunnels between Marrickville and ... More Information

5th TBM Breakthrough for Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ

5th TBM Breakthrough for Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ

On the 13th of February 2019 a fifth TBM breakthrough was reached for Mumbai Metro 3 corridor at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) - T2 metro station. The TBM Wainganga 3, ... More Information

First TBM setting sail for Teesside (UK)

First TBM setting sail for Teesside (UK)

First TBM (length 225 m, weight 1,800 t), after final checks in Germany, is ready to be shipped to Wilton International, Redcar. The TBM will be reassembled and start tunnelling in the second ... More Information

Foundation stone laid for Sela tunnel project

On the 09.02.2019 Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the Sela Tunnel Project in Arunachal Pradesh. The Project (BRO) will be completed in the next three years. The ... More Information

First TBM breakthrough on MRT SSP line

First TBM breakthrough on MRT SSP line

The first tunnel boring machine (TBM) breakthrough for the MRT Sungai Buloh-Serdang-Putrajaya (SSP) Line took place on 29 January 2019 at the Chan Sow Lin MRT Station construction site, marking a ... More Information

Forrestfield TBMs stopped due to mechanical issue

On Friday January 18, workers operating TBM Grace reported a potential mechanical issue with the machine. Since then tunnelling experts from SI-NRW and German TBM manufacturer Herrenknecht have been ... More Information

Femern A / S receives German approval.

On 06.02.2019  Femern A / S received the signed German regulatory approval for the Fehmarn tunnel in Kiel. The German approval concerns only the construction on the German side. Activities on ... More Information

Sydney Metro tunnel

Sydney Metro tunnel

On the 16.01.2019 Sydney Metro’s third mega TBM started digging the 6.2 km of tunnel from Chatswood to the edge of Sydney Harbour at Blues Point. This marks the next stage in delivering the ... More Information

MaMaJo TBM

The cutter head of the more than 400-foot long TBM MaMaJo was lowered nearly 200 feet down Monday, Feb. 4, 2019. The machine will drill a 5-mile tunnel designed to protect rivers from sewer overflow ... More Information

Twin Breakthrough on the Tel Aviv Light Rail

Twin Breakthrough on the Tel Aviv Light Rail

The TBMs Wonder Woman and Niki Haley breakthrough into the Ben Gurion station shaft. This completes 18.5 km of the 20km of tunnelling on the eastern section of the redline project in Tel Aviv. The ... More Information

West Link update

West Link update

On the 01.02.2019 the Supreme Court decided not to grant ‘leave to appeal’ in the case of awards for construction of the West Link (Vastlanken) railway project in Gothenburg. The ... More Information

AFD signed EUR245million funding for Pune Metro

On the 28.01.2019 AFD (French Development Bank) and DEA (Department of Economic Affairs) on behalf of the Government of India signed a Credit Facility Framework agreement in New Delhi for extending ... More Information

Twin Tunnel Breakthrough in India

Twin Tunnel Breakthrough in India

On 31.01.2019 Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC) witnessed a twin tunnel breakthrough of the third and fourth TBM of Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ Metro3 corridor at Dadar Metro Station. Krishna 1, the ... More Information

Robbins Blog

Robbins Blog

A Brief History of Rapid Excavation in 7 Key Points Posted by Brad Grothen | Jan 29, 2019 Rapid Excavation: It’s a term bandied about throughout our industry, but what does it mean? ... More Information

Waterproofing system for Buenavista 2 Tunnel

 Waterproofing system for Buenavista 2 Tunnel

The new Chirajara-Villavicencio roadway represents the final third of the Bogotá-Villavicencio corridor, between the departments of Cundinamarca and Meta, with a total length of 22.60 ... More Information

Northgate Link construction reaches 70% completion

The Northgate Link light rail extension in Seattle is about 70% complete and on track to open in 2021. Progress on Sound Transit's Northgate Link construction includes track installation, which ... More Information

Breakthrough on Metro Line 1 in Milan

Breakthrough on Metro Line 1 in Milan

The 22nd of January 2019 saw the breakthrough of the tunnel for the future Sesto Restellone and Monza Bettola stops on the Metro Line 1 in Milan, Italy. The Sesto Restellone station construction ... More Information

A fleet of TERRATEC EPBMs gear up for action in Istanbul

A fleet of TERRATEC EPBMs gear up for action in Istanbul

TERRATEC is pleased to announce the delivery of a further two new 6.56m diameter Earth Pressure Balance Tunnel Boring Machines (EPBMs) for the ongoing expansion of Istanbul’s Metro system, ... More Information

Press Release - The British Tunnelling Society Hyperloop Challenge

Press Release - The British Tunnelling Society Hyperloop Challenge

Elon Musk has promoted the concept of Hyperloop in tunnels but considers this viable only if the cost of tunnelling can be reduced by a factor of ten or more. His suggestion is that this could be ... More Information

New TBM launched for the Big Circle Line in Moscow

New TBM launched for the Big Circle Line in Moscow

On the 26th of January the fifth TBM, made by China Railway Construction Heavy Industry Group, for Moscow’s Big Circle Line was launched in the south-western section. The TBM Mary (6 m ... More Information

Second TBM reaches Gelsomini station in Milan

Second TBM reaches Gelsomini station in Milan

On the 23rd of January 2019 a second TBM broke through in to what will be the future Gelsomini station. This is one of the TBMs driving tunnels in the West section from San Cristoforo to Solari ... More Information

Tunnelling News

Spain Confirms Feasibility of €8.5 Billion Morocco-Europe Tunnel

The study was conducted by German company Herrenknecht, the world leader in tunnel boring machines, at the request of the Spanish government's ... More Information

TxDOT spends $748M to burrow bus-size tunnels under Central Austin

The first tunnel boring machine will be deployed near ... Industry experts say tunnel boring machines typically advance about 50 feet per day. More Information

6 TBMs on Duty on the 27-Kilometer Line in Körfezray

Two of the six Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs) that will serve in the first 27-kilometer phase are actively excavating tunnels, while the ... More Information

Construction on HS2's Euston tunnel will start 'fairly soon', says rail minister

Construction on the HS2 tunnel from Old Oak Common station to Euston station will start “fairly soon”, the rail minister has said... More Information

Blue Line Extension TBM Arrives at Port of Montreal

Railway Track and Structures Construction site of the future Vertières station (Pie-IX) in June 2025. Caption and photo courtesy of STM. MONTREAL - The tunnel boring machine (TBM) ... More Information

Tunnel break through milestone for Mt Messenger Bypass project

A 110 tonne excavating machine, called Hinetūparimaunga, has broken through at the northern end of the project's 235 metre-long tunnel ... More Information

$3.9 billion tunnel and bridge link for VA

Costing around $3.9 billion, the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel (HRBT) upgrade Expansion project for Virginia will improve traffic flow for a key ... More Information

Extended North Tunnel Flood Mitigation Project Receives $18.2 Million in State Funding

The funding advanced by the board includes a $17.2 million loan and $1 million grant for the construction of the mile-long tunnel, which will divert ... More Information

Gateway Project faces new uncertainty amid government shutdown

Federal funding for the $16B Hudson Tunnel Project, aka Gateway, has been paused during the government shutdown, sparking political backlash. More Information

Tunnel Boring Machine Emily Passes Key Factory Test for DC Water Potomac River Tunnel Project

Tunnel boring machine (TBM), Emily. This test confirms that Emily is ready to begin excavating the southern leg of the Potomac River Tunnel — a ... More Information

Sydney Metro West achieves world-first in tunnelling technology

Sydney Metro West has achieved a world-first in tunnel construction with a Lining Erector Machine (LEM) successfully being used to line the mined ... More Information

Gateway construction continues despite Trump's claim of termination

Tutor Perini, the general contractor on the Manhattan Tunnel Project, confirmed construction activity is currently continuing as planned... More Information

Tunnelling complete for Annacis water supply project

Metro Vancouver has completed the tunnelling phase of the $450 million Annacis Water Supply Tunnel, which will complete in 2028... More Information

Santa Clara VTA confirms single tunnel plan for BART extension

With VTA now owning the tunnel boring machine, the agency assumes full responsibility for its performance, agency officials said. To manage the risk, ... More Information

Chennai: Tunnel Boring Machine Vaigai achieves breakthrough at Mandaveli Metro Station

CHENNAI: The Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) on Saturday achieved a major milestone in Phase II tunnelling works, as Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) ... More Information

Trump 'terminates' $16 billion Hudson River tunnel project linking N.J. and N.Y.C.

President Trump said funding for the $16 billion Gateway Tunnel project is "terminated" at a press conference. New Jersey officials said they will ... More Information

$676 million underwater tunnel for India

The project is expected to cost around $676 million, with a Detailed Project Report (DPR) having now been completed. India's road transport network is ... More Information

€1.4 billion Belgian tunnel project approved

The first phase of the €1.4 billion project for Belgium’s new Limburg Noord-Zuid link has been approved. Construction should commence in 2027 on the project, which will form a section of ... More Information

Tunnel boring machine S-639B achieves breakthrough under Kanpur Metro Phase I Project

The package KNPCC-06 involves design and construction of a tunnel through TBM, cut and cover tunnel, underground ramp from Kanpur Central end of ... More Information

Lawmakers propose construction of undersea tunnel to link Luzon and Visayas

Several lawmakers from the Visayas region are proposing the construction of an underground tunnel that will serve as a permanent land connection ... More Information

Oman-UAE rail project hits major milestone with start of tunnel excavation

Tunnel excavation has begun in Oman's Al Hajar Mountains, marking a major milestone for the cross-border Oman-UAE Railway... More Information

Engineering the depths: innovative tunnelling for hydropower projects

Major schemes in Austria, China, and Germany are applying advanced underground construction techniques for hydropower projects. More Information

New tunnel, new standard: Silvertown project showcases innovation in surface protection

Originally approved in 2018, construction of the tunnel began in March 2021. In September 2023, following the completion of tunnelling works, ... More Information

Metro Manila Subway Project: DOTr launches third tunnel boring machine

Dubai: The Department of Transportation (DOTr) has launched a third tunnel boring machine (TBM) for the Metro Manila Subway Project (MMSP), ... More Information

Skanska JV wraps up $450M Baltimore tunnel nearly 2 years early

A joint venture has reached substantial completion on the $450 million Howard Street Tunnel Project in Baltimore nearly two years ahead of the original completion date, according to a ... More Information

Work continues on NYC megaprojects, despite $18B federal funding pause

Contractors on two of New York City’s largest infrastructure projects will keep digging, but they might glance over their shoulders toward Washington... More Information

HS2 Chipping Warden tunnel project moves step forward

HS2 Ltd An aerial view of the HS2 tunnel construction at Chipping Warden. A road HS2 Ltd. The 1.55 mile (2.5km) Chipping Warden tunnel will be ... More Information

First of three Tunnel boring machines on way to SA as beams go up for tram overpass

The first of three tunnel boring machines that will be used to complete the northern and southern tunnels project is on its way to SA as part of a ... More Information

Chennai Metro Rail's TBMs to begin tunneling between Thiruvanmiyur and Indira Nagar

Chennai Metro Rail begins tunnelling work in challenging stretch for phase II project, facing obstacles due to hard rock... More Information

Custom lifting gantry aids TBM removal - Construction Briefing

The four TBMs excavated the 8.4 mile (14 km) Northolt Tunnel section. Two went in each way, digging a pair of tunnels from both ends towards each ... More Information

Tunnel construction begins on Barskoon — Bedel road in Issyk-Kul region

According to the project, two tunnels, 5,340 and 3,840 meters long, respectively, will be built at Sook and Ashuu-Suu passes. They will be among the ... More Information

China debuts world's mightiest centrifuge, unleashing ultra-intense gravity

China leads the way in shield tunnelling machine development · Shield machine of south line of Yellow River tunnel starts boring in Jinan · A close ... More Information

Boring Company Launches Global Operations Control Center in Bastrop, Texas

The Boring Company has officially opened its new Global Operations Control Centre in Bastrop, Texas, the tunnelling start-up announced on X... More Information

Port of Longview Lands $35.9MM Federal Loan for Rail Expansion

Active Construction on New Hudson Tunnel Project Supporting Domestic Jobs and Economic Output ... Bridges/Tunnels, Class 1, Freight, Ports, Track ... More Information

TBM Parvati Achieves Breakthrough At Kakadeo Station Of Kanpur Metro Line 2

Brief Scope: Design and Construction of TBM Tunnel, Cut and Cover Tunnel, ramp after Double Pullia, ramps in Agriculture Depot for main line and ... More Information

Howard Street tunnel reopens ahead of schedule, boosting Baltimore's freight capacity

The Howard Street Tunnel has been reopened after being out of service since February 2025.The nearly 130-year-old tunnel extends north from Camden Yards to the Mount Royal Station and is ... More Information

Progress update on the Tunnel Boring Machine for National Grid

Following its launch in May this year, Buddug, the Eryri VIP tunnel boring machine (TBM) is making good progress digging the tunnel which will ... More Information

Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet Train Project Clears Major Hurdle

After months of delay, the tunnel-boring machine stuck in China is being shipped to India, clearing the path for underground construction of the ... More Information

Bright lights: This Las Vegas tunnel is getting a major upgrade

Construction is underway on Desert Inn Road between Paradise Road and Joe W Brown Drive as part of a $9.2 million improvement project on Friday, ... More Information