Six months and one day after being launched for a subway tunnel in Madrid, a 9.37m diameter Herrenknecht EPB machine broke through to its reception pit on 7 December 2005.
The TBM was launched on 6 June last year for the 2,600m long tunnel through clay and sand by joint venture partners Ferrovial and Agroman for client Metro Madrid Nuevos Ministerios – Chamartin.
With a cutterhead power rated at 3,600kW, the best daily performance achieved was 28 rings or 42m. The best weekly performance was 131 rings, which equates to 196.5m.
Events moved quickly for the TBM and disassembly soon got underway.
