TBM assembly is under way in preparation for boring the first underground Metro line in Valencia, Venezuela.
Contractor Ghella Sogene CA is scheduled to start excavation of the 4km long, 9.5m diameter Line 1 between Plaza de Toros and Sedeo stations in January 2002. Altogether seven stations are being built as cut and cover structures.
The tunnel will be excavated using a Lovat EPBM at depths of between 7 and 15m. The 40cm thick lining will consist of a universal precast ring of steel reinforced concrete formed from seven segments: six and one key.
The alignment runs through Quaternary deposits which have filled the Valencia Lake plain to a thickness of more than 100m. The Quaternary deposits lie over schists bedrock, and comprise deposits of clay, silty clay, silty and clayey sand and some layers of sand.
The client for the US$40M project is Valencia Municipality and the financier GEOmecDATA Ingenieria de Tuneles CA of Caracas. Tunnelling is scheduled to be completed in November 2002.
