Last week on the 14/10/22 Elsie, Broadway Subway Project Corporation's first TBM, was launched at GNW (Great Northern Way)-Emily Carr Station. This was the start of the tunnel excavations to connect 6 new underground stations on the 5.7-km extension of the Millennium Line in Vancouver. The second TBM, named Phyllis, is being assembled and is expected to begin operating this winter.
The TBMs have been given the names Elsie and Phyllis, after two influential British Columbian women, Elizabeth (Elsie) MacGill and Phyllis Munday.
Elsie MacGill, the world’s first female aeronautical engineer, was born in Vancouver on March 27, 1905 and died on November 4, 1980. In 1923, Elsie was the first woman admitted to the engineering program at the University of Toronto. She graduated in 1927 and completed her master’s degree in aeronautical engineering in 1929.
Phyllis Munday was born in Sri Lanka in 1894 and moved to British Columbia in 1901. She lived much of her life in North Vancouver and Victoria and died in 1990. As well as a nurse, she was a pioneer for women in mountaineering and summitted more than 100 peaks throughout her career.
Each TBM is 6 m in diameter and 1000 t in weight, and is expected to take about a year to carve out the 5 km subway’s inbound and outbound tunnels, from GNW-Emily Carr to Cypress Street, near the future Arbutus Station, about 15 m below Broadway. At the Broadway-City Hall Station, the new tunnels will be 20 m underground, below the existing Canada Line station.
In preparation for the TBMs, tunnel liner rings, manufactured in Nanaimo, were transported to the construction site as crews built the concrete base slab and assembled the conveyor system to transport the excavated material out of the tunnel. At the same time, work is progressing on the elevated guideway and station locations along the line, including relocating utilities, building traffic decks and excavation.
Once tunnel boring finishes, crews will complete construction of the underground stations, and install the train tracks and supporting systems. The final steps include testing and commissioning of the new line.
The Broadway Subway will extend the Millennium Line from VCC-Clark Station to Broadway and Arbutus, saving the average transit commuter almost 30 minutes a day and relieving congestion along Broadway.
For further information please click here and ca/38 for the tunnelbuilder archive. Also visit https://news.gov.bc.ca/ and https://www.broadwaysubway.ca/. 42/22.
