March 2001 will mark the scheduled start of boring on the 2.4km long, FFr150M ($25.3M) Lire-Sud SAGEP tunnel project in Paris, France.
Contractor JV Chagnaud/ Desquene will drive the tunnel using a recently purchased and refurbished 3.8m diameter Lovat TBM.
The JV has completed the shaft diaphragm wall and is injecting the ground at the starter shaft location near the Porte des Thernes. The JV expects to start excavation of the chamber next month.
The tunnel will be driven through heavily fractured and weathered chalk with flints, with an alignment that includes several 300m radius curves. The 171t, 64m long TBM has been equipped with a soft ground cutting head with rippers and scrapers and has chromium carbide plating to increase wear resistance in more abrasive ground. A probe drill port allows probing of the ground ahead.
The project, to be constructed for client Societe Auxiliaire de Gestion des Eaux de Paris, will house a new fresh water pipe and optical fibre communication cables.
