By
With tunneling on the Doha Metro roughly 60 percent complete, some of the massive boring machines that have spent months underground are starting to surface.
Residents recently caught a glimpse one of the country’s 21 tunnel boring machines (TBM) at Qatar Rail’s Al Messila site, which is both a station location and logistics center located off Jassim bin Hamad Street near Al Rayyan Road.
Known as TBM S-846, or Al Rayyan TBM, the machine dug out more than four kilometers of the Doha Metro Green Line before achieving its final “breakthrough” at Msheireb central station, Qatar Rail said in a statement. The German-made machine is now being dismantled.
The Al Rayyan TBM is not the first to reach Msheireb. In June, Al Mayeda TBM broke through at Msheireb and was then transported by road to the Corniche station to start digging out the section of the Red Line towards the Doha Exhibition Center.
Earlier this year, Qatar Rail set a world record for the highest number of TBMs in operation at once.
While Al Rayyan TBM’s work may be done, more than a dozen others appear to be continuing to dig below Doha’s surface, according to an online map charting their progress. More info
