Boring of the westbound tunnel broke through last month on the 12.9km long Pinglin road tunnel in Taiwan.
The project has been plagued by problems since it began in 1991, (see T&TI, May 2002, p14), but a completion date has now been set for September 2004.
The 10.8m i.d. twin-tube tunnel is being built by RSEA Engineering Corporation with Wirth and Robbins TBMs. Pedestrian cross passages link the tubes every 300m, and vehicular cross passages every 1,400m. The difficult geology includes sandstone, quartz and fault zones.
