Tunnelling on Madrid’s Metro Line 11 from Plaza Elíptica to Conde de Casal is expected to start in March next year.
This week the regional minister of housing, transport an infrastructure, Jorge Rodrigo, received the TBM at Herrenknecht’s factory in Germany.
The EPBM, named Mayrit, will now be transported to the future Comillas station, in the district of Carabanchel, and reassembled. It will be transported by boat to the Port of Santander and then by lorry to the construction site.
The 9.4m-diameter machine is 98m long and weighs 1,500 tonnes. It has a rotation speed of 3r/minute and is equipped with 12 drive motors and 53 discs. It is capable of drilling up to 15m per day.
It will build the nearly 7km section of Line 11 from Plaza Elíptica to Conde de Casal, which includes new stations.
Rodrigo said TBM Mayrit would become “a witness and symbol of an important period of development in the region”.
“Its arrival represents the regional government’s commitment to public transport and the expansion of the Madrid underground,” he said.
