Shatin to Central Link (SCL) is a major infrastructure investment currently under construction in Hong Kong and aims in connecting a number of existing railway lines passing through different districts of the island. The line passes through already developed urban areas, encountering different topography and geology conditions, which require not only the application of different construction methods, but the use of different types of the same equipment as explained by two of the leading companies in the tunneling construction industry, having undertaken the construction of specific tunnel sections.
Rail tunnels, stations and pedestrian subways are included among the construction works, for the project, which upon its completion, it is expected to reduce travel times across East Kowloon, New Territories East and Hong Kong Island, for more than one million passengers daily. It is also expected to generate transportation benefits of total worth of about HK$4.1bn ($0.52m) and during its construction, 15,000 employment positions are going to be created.
The diverse topography and geology conditions encountered in the area, require the application of different construction methods, such as drill and blast, cut and cover and tunnel boring machines (TBMs). Additionally, a 1.3km cross-harbour tunnel is going to be constructed with the immersed tube tunnel method, with precast units, each measuring 150m in length. The soil conditions variability also becomes evident by the different TBM machines used in the opening of four tunnel sections in the East West Corridor. Dragages Hong Kong and Bouygues Travaux Publics, two leading companies in the tunnel industry, which have undertaken the opening of four sections of a 6km tunnel rail extension, will use two different TBMs: a slurry TBM and an earth pressure balanced TBM. The works are scheduled to take about six years to complete and it is estimated that 500 people will be working on the site. Deputy chief executive of Bouygues Construction, Philippe Bonnave stated: "This latest success further demonstrates our ability to meet technical challenges and carry out very large-scale infrastructure projects."
Learn more on the SCL project in the project's official page!
Sources: railway-technology.com, theconstructionindex.co.uk
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