The ‘FAST’ consortium undertaking the work, and led by FCC, also includes Samsung C&T, Alstom, Strukton, Freyssinet Saudi Arabia, and Atkins.
An FCC spokesman said, "The drilling works, which began on 30 June 2015 at the new central office for the Ministry of Education, will continue on the north section of line 5 (green line) until they reach Riyadh Airbase Roundabout. There they will be met with our other 9.77m TBM ‘Dhafrah’, the first machine to start drilling works on the Riyadh Metro project, which will be used to finish the [full] 12.9km tunnel of Line Five."
Work is expected to complete in late 2018. FAST received a USD 7.9bn contract to construct and design lines Four, Five and Six of the metro. The scope of contract includes construction of 64.6km of rail track, 29.8km of viaducts, 26.6km of underground track and 8.2km of over ground track.
During his speech, project director of the FAST consortium, Jaime Freyre, mentioned "his satisfaction that both tunnel boring machines have been the first to reach the milestone which entails drilling this section of the tunnel and meeting the set deadlines. Dhafrah was the first machine we launched and San’ah was the first to get going on the Riyadh Metro project".
