NFM Technologies has received an order for another EPBM to work on the expanding metro network in Kazan, in the Republic of Tatarstan, in the Russian Federation.

The 5.89m diameter foam-injection machine is to drive a single, 2km long tunnel for the twin tube section of the Central Line (Line 1) between Kozya Sloboda and Moskovskaya. The stations are to be opened in 2009 and 2011, respectively.

The EPBM is to be manufactured in NFM’s le Creusot plant and is due for delivery to site in June next year. Geology along the alignment comprises sand and sandy clay. The client on the project is the city’s metro developer, Kazmetrostroy.

Following the completion of the work the TBM – which was specifically designed also for ease of dismantling – is to be used for another project in Russia, said NFM, but details were not available.

This is the second EPBM that NFM has supplied to the project and it has the same characteristics as the first, delivered in 2004. The second was a refurbished NFM machine that had been used on the Copenhagen metro. It had its cutterhead diameter increased from 5.71m and was equipped to work in pressures up to about 3 Bar.

Site investigation for the metro first began in the mid-1980s during the Soviet era. Work proceeded to detailed studies in the late 1980s but the troubled finances of the Government led to a halt on all metro construction in the Soviet Union.

Construction of the Kazan metro did not start until 1997 and envisages a quarter century of development work. The first section of the planned, Central Line was brought into operation just over three years ago and presently has five stations, which running outward from the city centre are Kremlin, Tukaya Area, Sukonnaya Sloboda, Ametievo and Gorky.

NFM’s first shield – “Altynchach” – was used for a 1.790m drive to build one of the tunnels between Kremlin and Tukaya Area, the other having been driven by a Lovat machine – “Syuyumbike” – the first TBM on the project, in 2000. The bore was the Lovat TBM’s third of four drives.

Altynchach is currently excavating the second tube in the opposite direction, from Kremlin to Kozya Sloboda, the first having been completed earlier this year. The new NFM machine will be working on the next extension of the line beyond Kozya Sloboda.

Lovat supplied four EPBMs to Kazan’s metro, the other being Katyusha, Olga and Polina. In addition, the metro scheme has bought three shields from local manufacturers.


Kazan metro orders second NFM shield like first