Russian President Vladimir Putin and Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin opened a new almost 24 km section of the BCL including 10 stations (Terekhovo , Kuntsevskaya , Davydkovo, Aminevskaya , Michurinsky Prospekt , Vernadsky Prospekt , Novatorskaya/Notarov Street, Vorontsovskaya , Zyuzino and Kakhovskaya). The section was completed by the tunnelling of 9 TBMs of different diameters.
The double-track tunnels between the stations Mnyovniki, Terekhovo, Kuntsevskaya and Davydkovo, on the Western section, were driven by the 10 m diameter TBMs Nadezhda and Lilia, TBM Lilia set a record of 500 meters per month. The excavation of this section had difficult hydrogeology and working conditions for the TBMs because of the confines of a dense urban development and going under the Moskva River.
The other single-track tunnels were built using 6 m diameter TBMS:
- the South section between Kakhovskaya, Zyuzino, Vorontsovskaya and Novatorskaya stations has been driven by TBMs Rosa and Natalia;
- the South-West section has been excavated by TBMs Maria, Polina, Galina, Eugenya and Daria.
The Big Circle Line is the main project of the Moscow metro development program. The line with 31 stations - 22 of which are already open - is expected to be completed in 2022 and will become the longest in the world, at 70 km, surpassing that of Beijing underground by more than 10 km.
The Big Circle line is part of the large-scale off-street rail transport system development program launched in 2011. By 2024 its size will have doubled, exceeding 1000 km, and the number of stations will have increased by 120. The consolidated transport system includes the Moscow Metro, ground level interchange line (Moscow Central Circle) and several suburban railroads (Moscow Central Diameters).
For further more detailed information please click here for the tunnelbuilder archive and visit https://stroi.mos.ru/ and https://www.mos.ru/en/. 49/21.
