The Tunneling Association of Canada (TAC) is a member of the Nordic Forum, gaining exposure to unique and challenging projects in other forum countries.

Membership is limited by geography and the forum meets one to two times a year at WTC and or at one of the participating nations. TAC hosted the forum at its 2014 Conference in Vancouver.

Jason Mann, TAC regional director for Manitoba and Saskatchewan and a geologist at KGS, attended a Nordic Forum meeting in Iceland last year.

“There are quite a few underground challenges the Icelandic tunnelling industry encounters, and they seem to have a strong tenacity in seeing the projects through,” Mann says. He notes the challenging geology and the industry’s approach to drill and blast.

“They encounter challenges and just do what it takes to push through it. Also, their tunnels can have seepage groundwater temperatures in the order of 60oC—something quite unique and challenging relative to staging the work, and staging personnel.”

Iceland boasts about 150km tunnels, mainly for roads and for hydro power, and this works out to be about 0.5m of tunnel per person. Read more about road tunnel construction on page 32.

Nordic update

Iceland

Road tunnel projects are ongoing with lengths between 7 and 8km. Hydro power projects are also underway requiring water tunnels and an underground powerhouse. In the near future two more road tunnels are on the horizon, starting before 2020.

Denmark

Demand for tunnelling is increasing, and excavation of metro tunnels in Copenhagen will continue. The city’s new circle line is a 15.5km twin tunnel that will, as the name suggests, add a circular transport route around the city, connecting with the existing metro lines. The new system, which is due to open in 2018, will have 17 new stations.

The 18km-long submerged tunnel between Denmark and Germany, Fehmarnbelt, reached the end of its public consultation period on August 26. The German section must be approved by German authorities before construction can get underway while the Danish section is already approved. Femern A/S signed conditional contracts this summer with the consortia chosen to construct the tunnel. Femern Link Contractors, consisting of Vinci Construction Grands Projects, Per Aarsleff Holding, Wayss and Freytag, Max Bogl, Bachy Soletanche, CFE, Bam Infra, Bam International and Dredging International, secured the Tunnel North Contract; Tunnel South Contract and Tunnel Portals and Ramps Contract. Fehmarn Belt Contractors (Boskalis International, Van Oord Dredging and Marine Contractors, Hochtief, and Zublin) have the Tunnel Dredging and Reclamation contract. Cost estimates suggest the project will be at least USD 8bn.

Norway

About 75 tunnel projects are ongoing with more to start soon. In 2015 statistics show the country excavated a total construction volume of 7 million cbm of solid rock.

The largest on-going project is the 20km-long, twin tunnel Follo rail line in Oslo. Four Herrrenknecht 9.96m-diameter double shield TBMs are being deployed, with the first expected to start boring in September by a contractor JV of Acciona Infraestructuras and Ghella. Outside Bergen there is the E16 highway rebuild, which will include about 32km of new tunnels. There is also the upgrading of the Ulriken railway line with about 7.8km of new tunnel mostly excavated by an open TBM. Norway is also hosting the 2017 WTC in Bergen June 9-15.

Sweden

In Stockholm there is the City Bypass (Forbifart Stockholm), a series of underground roadways with about 16km of tunnels. Contractors for tunnel work include Svevia, Hochtief, Bilfinger Berger, Skanska, Züblin-Pihl, PEAB, Veidekke, Oden and Bravida and Tunnelentreprenader AB.

For rail, the USD 2.4bn Stockholm City Line, or Citybanan, comprises at least 6km of tunnelling and two underground stations. The line is scheduled to open in 2017. Atkins Sweden, as part of a consulting team of ÅF, Rejlers and Tyréns has been commissioned to carry out the detailed design of the system. Contractors include , Joint Venture Söderström – Züblin (and previously Pihl & Søn), NCC, Bilfinger, Strabag, Züblin and PEAB. Designers are Cowi, WSP, Sweco/Grontmij, WSP, Ramböll, Ramböll/ELU and Cowi/Centerlöf & Holmberg.

There is also a 14km tunnel for high voltage cable on the design board, and in Gothenburg 6km of tunnel is on the design board. Railway plans between Stockholm and Gothenburg also include a lot of tunnels.

Scotland/UK

The Shieldhall Tunnel will be Scotland's largest wastewater tunnel at 4.7m in diameter and 5km long. It will form part of the biggest upgrade of Glasgow's wastewater network in more than a century. Scottish Water awarded a JV of Costain/Vinci the contract to build the tunnel, and they are using a Herrenknecht TBM with precast rings supplied by Buchan Underground. Completion is anticipated in early 2018.

Further south, the Thames Tideway project will be the largest infrastructure project ever undertaken by the UK water industry, with a main tunnel 25km long, shafts up to 72m deep and numerous connecting tunnels. The rail mega projects Crossrail Two and High Speed Two seem almost a certainty, valued at around USD 30bn and USD 60bn each. Additionally a 4.1m-diameter, 37km tunnel has been confirmed to transport minerals from a new polyhalite mine in North Yorkshire to the Port of Scarborough.

Finland

Tunnelling is continuously ongoing, so much so Finish tunnelling companies have enough projects and have not gone much abroad for construction projects. In Helsinki the City Center link tunnel of about 6km is in the planning stage.

In January political leaders in Estonia and Finland signed a memorandum of understanding stating the intention to improve connections between the two countries – including a long-mooted tunnel between the cities of Helsinki and Tallinn.

A subsea tunnel would reduce travel time from the current two-hour ferry ride to 30 minutes. Additionally, plans to link Tallinn to the European high-speed rail networks could be extended to Helsinki. A recent pre-feasibility study suggested that the tunnel could be constructed for less than USD 14bn. EU money is required for further studies