The city of Akron (Ohio) has never seen a construction project quite like the Ohio Canal Interceptor Tunnel (OCIT). 1902m of ground lies between the Little Cuyahoga River on the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath and Lock 1 of the canal at West Exchange Street in the city’s downtown area. To connect the two locations, a TBM is going to do the hard work of clearing the underground path for construction. With the removal of shale, soft rock, hard rock and the occasional boulder, the TBM will rely heavily on bearings working in these harsh conditions. Robbins will provide the first Crossover TBM in the U.S.A for this project and Robbins has called upon Timken to provide the bearings on this TBM.

The large diameter Crossover XRE machine is currently under assembly and scheduled to launch in 2017.

In the meantime construction crews prepare for the arrival the TBM.  Other tunnelling has already started in the city limits. Under West Exchange Street, the Rack 17 consolidation sewer has now been completed and was built with small pneumatic (air) equipment and various hand tools,

Underground blasting has begun at the following places :-  OCIT-2 (West Market Street/Dart Avenue/Rand Avenue area) ; in the Rack 19 drop shaft (Southwest corner of West Market Street and Dart Avenue); OCIT-2 drop shaft (Northwest Corner of Glendale Avenue and Rand Avenue). Blasting in the other construction site at the OCIT-3, below West Exchange Street, near the intersection of Exchange Street and South Main Street, is anticipated to begin in the next few days and will continue for six months. Click here for tunnelbuilder archive. Visit http://www.akronwaterwaysrenewed.com/ocit.aspx, http://www.therobbinscompany.com/ and http://www.timken.com/.  50/16.