On the 1st if December 2018 the third TBM for the Grand Paris Express project will be launched. The celebrations will include a light show which will be open to everyone who wants to see it.
The new 200 km long metro rail network will have 170 km of tunnels. The TBM, the first in the Haut-de-Seine area, arrived at the beginning of September. It will start tunnelling from the Robespierre pit which is 42 m deep in Bagneux. The TBM will excavate 4 km of the ‘15 South Line’ as far as the station at Fort d'Issy - Vanves - Clamart, from where it will surface in the summer of 2020.
The name of the TBM will also be revealed on the 1st December. It has been chosen after a competition between 5 classes of the Henri Wallon B school in Bagneux.
Steffie-Orbival, the first TBM, started boring on the 03.04.2018 from the Champigny-Plateau pit and it is currently advancing at 10-12 metres per day, working at a depth of 25 m. It will arrive at the Sentier des Marins site in Villiers-sur-Marne in the spring of 2019.
In the second TBM Malala is still in its assembly phase. In September she had a ‘break-in phase and land test’ . She is currently 100 meters from the Ru de Nesle pit in Noisy-Champs where the final set-up is in progress. The Malala TBM will excavate 4.9 km to the Bry - Villiers - Champigny station and will also finish in the summer of 2020.
From 2019, over 10 TBMs will be excavating the tunnels for the Grand Paris Express. Click here and fr/127 for the tunnelbuilder archive. Visit https://www.societedugrandparis.fr. 46/18.
https://www.societedugrandparis.fr/gpe/actualite/km5-assistez-lallumage-du-tunnelier-bagneux-2069
