The Botlekspoor Tunnel
From April 1999 to November 2000, Wayss & Freytag built the first bored railway tunnel, the Botlekspoor Tunnel, in the Netherlands in a joint venture. The Botlek tunnel is part of Betouweroute, the new railway line between Rotterdam and Ruhr. This tunnel eliminates the traffic bottleneck at Havenspoorlijn, which occurred because of the lift bridge Botlekbrug at Oude Maas.
The two tunnel tubes, each 1,835 m long, were driven with an EPB-shield with a cutting wheel diameter of 9.75 m. The sparse ground cover of only 6.50 m, difficult geological conditions and the limited space due to railway, motorway and refineries required a new conditioning of the Pleistocene sands with a supporting pressure of up to 3.5 bar.
The tunnel lining was carried out with a total of 1,220 tunnel rings, consisting of seven 1.50 m wide concrete segments each and a keystone. The rings were connected to each other by the „groove and tongue“ system, which was modified in accordance with the test results of the Technical University of Delft. The tunnel is designed for a life expectancy of 100 years.
Further details:
- 8.65 m inner diameter
- 40 cm concrete segment thickness
- 800 t weight of EPB-shield
- 50.000 kN maximum driving power
- 14 double thrust cylinders for the drive