80% of the tunnelling work under Dubai Creek complete, says official

Dubai: Some 80 per cent of the tunnelling work for the underground track of the Dubai Metro running under the Dubai Creek has been completed without any trouble, said an official.

Adnan Al Hammadi, Director of the Dubai Metro Construction Project at the Dubai Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) said that the 1,479 metre long tunnel is being constructed to connect the underground metro line between Burjuman Station in Bur Dubai and Union Square Station in Deira, which are also currently under construction.

"The Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) called Al Wugeisha should breakthrough the Burjuman reinforced concrete wall sometime around mid-August. So far the TBM has completed over 1,203 metres of tunnelling with 802 out of 986 rings already placed," he explained.

Construction

He added another TBM, Al Wugeisha 2, is to tunnel a distance of 2,261 metres to City Centre via Al Rigga Street. Currently, TBM 2 is over 50 per cent on the way to Al Rigga [from Union Square] with 320 of the total 633 rings placed to date making the tunnel 480 metres long.

Tunnel construction on the Green Line is yet to start. There will be a total of 12.6km of underground metro lines including 4.7km tunnel for the Red Line and 7.9km long tunnel for the Green Line.

A tailor-made tunnel boring machine is being used to excavate. Al Wugeisha has been designed and assembled in Japan especially for the Dubai Metro. It has a diameter of 9.56 metres. It is 82 metres long and weighs about 1,000 tonnes.