Source: www.gulf-times.com
Qatar Railways Company (Qatar Rail) has taken delivery of the first of 21 tunnel boring machines (TBMs) and the machine is expected to start work in the third quarter of this year at the Al Wahda site, next to the Qatar Exhibition Centre.
TBM S-865, also known as Lebretha, was manufactured by Germany’s Herrenknecht and is the first of four TBMs which will be launched for the Doha Metro as part of the Red Line North Underground project.
The four TBMs that will bore the required rail tunnels for the Red Line North Underground project are named Lebretha, Al Khor, Al Mayeda and Al Bidda.
TBM Lebretha will be assembled and launched from the Al Wahda site towards West Bay Central. At West Bay Central it will be disassembled and re-assembled at Al Wahda to travel towards Doha Golf Course. It will bore the West Tunnel of the drive while TBM Al Khor will bore the East Tunnel when it arrives.
Lebretha will dig through a distance of 7.954km, taking around 22 months to complete the job between the third quarter of this year and the second quarter of 2016. The average speed will be between 14m/day to 21m/day, depending on ground conditions.
Each of the TBMs for the Doha Metro measures 7.05m in diameter and 120m in length. To ensure successful transportation , Lebretha was dismantled into 22 sections, including the cutter head.
The mammoth machine began its journey by sea to Qatar and finally arrived over the weekend at the Doha Port. It will take a few months to re-assemble it into a complete machine. More info
