TBM Mayrit was launched from Comillas station to begin the 6km drive to Conde Casal. It will excavate about 90% of the project’s underground route, with an estimated daily advance of up to 15m. It will operate at depths of between 20-30m.
Approximately 600m of the line extension will be excavated by the traditional method.
The Herrenknecht machine – the first TBM to be deployed in Madrid for nearly 15 years, according to Infraestructuras de Transporte Colectivo – has a 9.4m diameter, is 98m long and weighs around 1,500 tonnes. It has 54 discs, 172 spades and a turning curve radius of 200m.
Transporting the TBM from Herrenknecht’s factory in Schwanau was a major project in itself. More than 70 special loads travelled by road from Schwanau to Madrid, while 21 loads, including the main shield, the drive and the central part of the cutterhead, travelled from Schwanau to the Port of Khel, then by river boats to the Port of Rotterdam and by sea to Santander. Once in Spain, the components made the final journey by road. Three more loads transported the tail shield from Venice to the Port of Barcelona and from here by land to Madrid.
