The first of the seven TBMs that will excavate the Lyon-Turin base tunnel has been named Viviana.
The Herrenknecht TBM will excavate the 9km tunnel between Saint-Martin-La-Porte and La Praz, in France.
The TBM was named in honour of the wife of Mario Virano, TELT’s first general director who died in June 2023 and was a key figure and supporter of the Lyon-Turin project.
The Herrenknecht TBM has a 10.4m diameter, is 180m long and weighs 2,300 tonnes. The cutterhead is equipped with 61 cutters. An integrated conveyor belt system will carry the excavated rocks to the surface.
With a power of 8,100kW, TBM Viviana will advance at a speed of 300-450m per month.
It will be operated by CO 6/7, the Italian-French consortium comprising Vinci Construction, Webuild, Dodin Campenon Bernard and Campenon Bernard Centre Est.
The Lyon-Turin railway is under construction with 11 operational construction sites on both sides of the Alps, above-ground and underground. One of the most important is the 6/7 construction site for the excavation of a total of 36km of base tunnel between Saint-Martin-la-Porte and Modane. Viviana will excavate 9km of tunnel, in parallel with the tunnel already constructed in 2019 by TBM Federica as part of preliminary works. The other two TBMs will excavate the twin-tube tunnel in the section between La Praz and Modane.
This construction site, which operates from two main access points, Saint-Martin-la-Porte and La Praz, includes not only the excavation of the two tubes of the base tunnel, but also the construction of service tunnels and the creation of the necessary safety infrastructure. A total of 46km of tunnels will be excavated.
To date, more than 41km of excavation work has been completed of the 164km for the new railway line.
TELT president Daniel Bursaux and general director Maurizio Bufalini said the naming ceremony for Viviana was a decisive moment for the project.
“Over the next three years, seven TBMs will be progressively used to excavate the tunnel simultaneously, significantly speeding up the work. We are proud to participate in an initiative that will allow Europeans to be better connected by train in the future. Viviana represents not only a technical breakthrough but also a tribute to Mario Virano, who played a crucial role in our project,” they said.’
