The ITA’s Nordic Forum provides an opportunity for Canada and other countries to collaborate and exchange information. Nicole Robinson looks at the underground construction in the Nordic region.
Iceland
Under construction: Dyrafjordur Tunnel
1 In April contractors Metrostav and Suðurverk celebrated the final blast on what will become a new two-lane road tunnel. The first blast was in September 2017. Located in Iceland’s western fjords, the new road tunnel will connect Arnarfjordur and Dyrafjordur. The tunnel is 5.7km long, and has been excavated in bedrock by drill and blast, with rock bolt and sprayed concrete reinforcement. The diameter is circular with an approximate width of 8m.
In operation: Vadlaheidargong
2 The 7.5km-long Vaðlaheiðargöng or Vadlaheidi highway tunnel opened to the public in December 2018. Previously profiled in this magazine (Tunnels & Tunnelling October/November 2016), the drill and blast project faced many geological challenges. Temperatures of the rock up measured up to 60°C, and the geothermal inflows got up to about 46°C. Steam formed near the face, and much of the tunnel approach had reduced visibility, affecting working hours as well as sequences of activities such as mucking out. Vadlaheidi is Iceland’s second longest road tunnel, though it has the largest cross-section profile of a tunnel open to public traffic.
Future planning: Lava Express
3 Keflavík International Airport is roughly 50km south of capital city Reykjavík, and currently has no rail service. Analysis by engineering company Tractebel, working with Gallup, found 39 per cent of travelers drove and parked at the airport, another 35 per cent were dropped off, 13 per cent used an express bus and 5 per cent used a taxi. A report from 2014 proposes a 49km-long train line, which would include approximately 14km underground. Development company Fluglestin þróunarfélag has told local media the rail line is still on track with work starting as early as 2022.
Denmark
In operation: Cityringen
1 Copenhagen saw the opening of Cityringen just this July. The new 15.5km-long metro line is completely underground, making a ring around the city, with 17 new stations. Starting in 2013, four TBMs excavated the 4.9m-diameter twin tunnels through gravel, sand and stone. The contractor responsible for civil construction work was the Copenhagen Metro Team joint venture comprising Salini, Tecnimont and Seli. Cowi, Arup and Systra handled vibration analysis as well as all other design and engineering works.
Under construction: Sydhavn Metro
2 Connecting with recently completed Cityringen will be Copenhagen’s forthcoming Metro Line 4. A Vinci-Hochtief joint venture is executing a design-build contract for the 4.4km-long underground line. The project calls excavation using two EPBMs, and construction of five underground stations and two crossover structures. It also includes electrical and mechanical systems, architectural interior works, and in-tunnel ventilation. The tunnels will have an interior diameter of 4.9m and an exterior diameter of 5.5m. Client Metroselskabet awarded the EUR 469M (USD 530M) in February 2018.
In preparation: Fehmarnbelt
3 Upon completion the 18km-long immersed Fehmarnbelt will be the world’s longest road and rail tunnel. Connecting Denmark and Germany the tunnel will comprise 79 individual elements, each 217m long, and 10 special elements with a lower floor for tunnel operation and maintenance equipment. The price is DKK 52.6 billion (USD 7.97bn) with four main construction contracts, three of which are held by consortium Femern Link Contractors (led by Vinci with Per Aarsleff Holding, Wayss & Freytag Ingenieurbau, Max Bögl Stiftung & Co., CFE, Solétanche-Bachy, BAM Infra and consultant Cowi), for the immersed tunnel and tunnel factory north and south (two separate contracts), and the portals and ramps. Preparatory work is underway to ensure the construction site is ready for the contractors as soon as the Danish Parliament gives the green light. The main tunnel work is expected to start in 2020 and last eight-and-a-half years.
In exploration: HH Tunnel
In 2009 a steering group called HH Gruppen began promoting the idea of a fixed link between Helsingør, Denmark, and Helsingborg, Sweden, specifically a tunnel. The Swedish Transport Administration and the Danish Road Directorate have agreed to look at the possibilities for a permanent connection, and are doing a two-year study as of July 2018. HH Gruppen has provided its own prospectus identifying a 9km-long rail connection where the strait is its narrowest, with twin tunnels, and a 14km-long tunnel south of the cities for road traffic.
Sweden
Under construction: Stockholm Bypass
1 Greater Stockholm is building a 21km-long roadway to create an arterial route around the city, primarily in tunnels (about 18km). According to Aecom, which is providing design services with consultants ÅF, the bypass consists of two parallel tunnels with traffic travelling in opposite directions. Both tunnels will have three lanes, increasing to four at the six interchanges along the route. At their deepest, the tunnels are almost 100m below ground. The project has seen starts and stops due to politics, but several drill and blast contracts have been awarded and are underway. Among the contractors are Skanska, Vianini/CMC JV, LSAB JV, Implenia Construction, Züblin Scandinavia, along with Strabag Sverige.
In preparation: Stockholm Metro Extension
2 The capital city’s metro system is also seeing an extension through several different projects. There’s an 11km-long blue line extension to be built entirely underground in rock, an extension to the yellow line of 4.4km in rock, and a separate blue line extension at the other end of 4km length, which started this March. These components are all roughly 30m below ground and will use drill and blast excavation. Other work for the system expansion includes enlarging the Högdalen depot, which requires laying a new track, 2.5km long in a tunnel 20m below ground. Officials have also announced a new metro line and six stations, with planning expected to start in 2022.
Norway
Under construction: FOLLO Line
3 The second pair of four Herrenknecht TBMs excavating the 22.5km-long twin tunnels Oslo’s Follo Line made their breakthrough this spring. Each 9.96m diameter TBM did an approximately 9kmlong drive through hard rock to complete the rail tunnels, which will reduce commuting time by half between the capital city and nearby Ski. The contractor is a joint venture of Acciona/Ghella, which launched the first TBM on September 5, 2016.
In Design: Fornebubanen
4 A new metro line in Oslo will connect the Majorstuen area of the capital city to the Fornebu peninsula, running 8.5km underground with six stations. A joint venture between Cowi and Multiconsult ASA secured the project’s design contract in September 2017. Construction is expected to start in 2021.
In Operation: Nordnestunnelen
5 Located on European route E6 the Indre Nordnes-Skardalen tunnel in Northern Norway allows drivers to avoid rock falls and avalanches on a main north-south route. The Nordnestunnelen is located within the Arctic Circle, about 60km east of Tromsø and included the excavation a 5.81km-long double lane tunnel via drill and blast. It opened to traffic in November 2018. The designers were Statens Vegvesen, EFLA and Rambøll Norge AS, the contractor for the electrical installations was Mesta AS and the contractor for the civil engineering works is Marti Nordnes DA.
In planning: E39 Costal Highway Crossings
6 Norway has an ambitious plan for route E39, a coastal highway from Kristiansand in the south to Trondheim in the north that is currently approximately 1,100km, takes around 21 hours to drive, and requires seven ferry connections. The aim is to create an improved E39 road without ferries, which will reduce travel time by 10 hours and distance by 50km. A number of fjords with great depths will need to be crossed and the ideas pitched thus far include extreme engineering from a submerged floating tube bridge to floating suspension bridges. Estimates for the entire highway are clocking in around USD 47bn.
Under construction: Rogfast
7 Preparatory work has started for Rogfast—the name given to the sub-sea road tunnel crossing Boknafjorden and Kvitsøyfjorden as part of the E39 project. Located in the southwestern part of Norway it is a twin tunnel, 27km long, 10.5m diameter, at depths of as much as 390m below sea level. Roughly halfway there will be a sub-sea intersection to access another 4km-long road tunnel connecting to the island of Kvitsøy. When completed it will be the world’s longest and deepest sub-sea road-tunnel. Norconsult is the engineer. The tunnels are likely to be bid in three packages, with a shortlist expected for the first contract this year. Contractor NCC is building a 2km side tunnel from Arsvågen near the north end of the main tunnel. The tunnel (a twin tunnel, both drives now complete as of this spring) will be used for transport during the construction of the main drives, and then as a ventilation tunnel when the E39 Rogfast opens.
Proposed: Stad Ship Tunnel
8 In April 2017 Norwegian transport minister Ketil Solvik-Olsen included the Stad Tunnel, the world’s first ship tunnel, as part of the country’s National Transport Plan 2018-2029. The 1.7km-long tunnel, 49m high by 36m wide, would make passage through a hazardous shipping lane much safer. A combination of currents and topography makes navigation very unpredictable and high waves make the exposed region dangerous. Norwegian press has remarked that “even the Vikings feared this water.” Construction time is expected to be three to four years at a cost of EUR 293M, based off a design study that was concluded in 2010. Excavation is expected to be by drill and blast, with 8Mt of rock needing to be removed. The Norwegian Coastal Administration has released designs it commissioned from firm Snøhetta for the entrances of the tunnel, however there is no update on when funding will be allocated for further work despite its inclusion in the current transport plan.
Finland
Under construction: Lansimetro
The Western Metro extension in Helsinki (known locally as Lansimetro) is a 7km twin tunnel addition to the 35km Helsinki metro in the Finnish capital with five underground stations. Drill and blast tunnel drives started in 2014 and are now complete. The client, Länsimetro Oy, a company jointly owned by the cities of Espoo and Helsinki, bid the tunnel drives in several contracts, with separate packages for stations. Contractors have included Destia Oy and Kalliorakennus-Yhtiöt Oy for tunnel drives; GRK, YIT, ARE, SRV and Skanska are among the companies working on various station contracts. Operator, Helsinki City Transport, will take over the stations and the track in 2023. The consortium responsible for geological investigations involved engineers from Taratest, SMOY, Pöyry Finland and City of Espoo.
In planning: Tallinn-Helsinki
Proposals for a tunnel connecting Tallinn in Estonia with Helsinki in Finland have floated around over the last few decades with little traction, however Finnish entrepreneur Peter Vesterbacka—creator of Angry Birds—has been publicly sharing his vision. In 2016 Vesterbacka set up a working group for the project, FinEst Bay Area Development, which has secured private financing from Dubai-based ARJ Holding and is in negotiations with China’s Touchstone Capital Partners as well. A publicly-sponsored feasibility study found a connection could be constructed in 15 years with an opening in 2040. Vesterbacka has called for pursuing a much more aggressive schedule, with an opening of 2024. An EIA from FinEst updated in March shows 17m twin tunnels, excavated by TBM, with several alternatives all roughly 100km long. His plan also calls for the creation of two artificial, off-shore islands to be used for staging construction (and for future development upon construction completion). He says this would facilitate six tunnel drives with 12 TBMs.
Russia
Under construction: Moscow Metro
One of the world’s busiest metro systems is quickly adding more and more kilometers of track each year. One project in particular is the 70km-long Bolshaya Koltsevaya also called line 11 or Circle Line, which, as the name implies, is a large, outer ring route allowing passengers to travel around the city without going to the center. The line is being built in phases and has 19 interchanges with existing metro lines. The first phase of two, of the first section, comprising 10.5km, opened in 2018. There remains three phases of the northeastern section; the western section; the southwestern section; the southern section, which includes renovation work; and the eastern section. According to the mayor’s office all remaining sections of the circle line are under construction with seven TBMs currently deployed and at least 12 more to be used in the future. The entire line is expected to open in 2022.
In operation: Line 15
Another component of the Circle line project is the creation of the 18.6km-long Line 15 in the southeast, which will have nine stations and link to the Circle Line. The first phase opened for service in June. The mayor’s office reports tunnels for this project range from 10m-diameter, single bore to 6m-diameter twin bore.
