Two Herrenknecht EPB Shields for the
Metro Line C in Rome.

 

The Joint Venture "Metro C", lead by the Italian construction company Astaldi S.pa., ordered two EPB-Shields (diameter 6,690mm each) for the construction of the Line C of Rome?s metro. The tunnel boring machines are planed to start excavation in spring 2008 and will drive a total of 11 tunnel kilometres underneath densely built-up historic downtown Rome.



Schwanau, 14 March 2007. Rome, the Eternal City, is suffering from ever growing inner city traffic like most European metropolis do. Road traffic is always just about to collapse. Rome, though, is fighting the infarct and step by step expands its underground metro system. In addition to the already existing Lines A and B the new Line C is planed to connect northern Rome with the south east. The contract to construct the new Line C was awarded to the Joint Venture "Metro C", lead by the Italian construction company Astaldi S.p.a.

 

On Thursday, March 8, 2007 a contract was signed concerning the delivery of two Earth Pressure Balance Shields (EPB Shields, diameter 6,69 meters each) to tunnel the lot "Malatesta" to "San Giovanni" (Lot 4) and the lot "Teano" to "Allesandrino" (Lot 5). In spring 2008 the two Herrenknecht machines will start their drives of 4.5 and 6.5 kilometres. To pass safely and precisely underneath Rome?s Old Town on the proposed tunnel route, the challenge for Herrenknecht?s engineers is to build machines designed for small radii and a minimal overburden of 8 metres. The project?s time schedule is tight. Already in 2010 the first driverless trains are to operate on Line C to relieve the north-to-south connections in the Italian capital.

 

With the newly ordered TBMs S-409 and S-410 a total of four EPB Shields from Herrenknecht will be in charge of expanding Rome?s metro system. In 2006 two EPB Shields (S-387, S-388; diameter 6.77 each) had been ordered from Herrenknecht by the Italian company Seli S.p.a. These two machines? job is to work on tunnels for the Line B and are scheduled to be in their launch shafts late in 2007.

 

EVEN MORE SERVICE FOR OUR CUSTOMERS.

For our customers it is important that their tunnel projects have an optimum start. This is why Herrenknecht has expanded its service range by founding the subsidiary 'Underground Technology Services AG' - UTS for short. Our new company has a lot to offer: from consultancy to machine start-up.