More than 69,000 tunnel rings have been installed
“29 six-metre and four ten-metre tunnel boring machines (TBMs) carried out the tunnelling of the Big Circle Line (BCL) of the Moscow Metro”, said Andrey Bochkarev, Deputy Mayor of Moscow on Urban Planning and Construction.
Mosinzhproekt Engineering Holding is the operator of the Moscow Metro Development Programme.
“A total of more than 3.5 million cubic metres of soil was excavated during the tunnelling work. More than 69,000 tunnel rings have been installed in the tunnels of the Big Circle Line,” informed Andrey Bochkarev.
According to the Deputy Mayor, during the tunnelling work, the tunnel boring machines crossed the metro lines 23 times, the MCC and MCD facilities – 18 times and the water areas of rivers – 7 times.
Yuri Kravtsov, General Director of Mosinzhproekt JSC, specified that 13 tunnel boring machines were involved at the peak of the tunnelling work in the Big Circle Line in the first quarter of 2020.
The head of the holding recalled that in March 2020, the Guinness World Records referee recorded the world record for the largest number of tunnel boring machines working simultaneously on a single project, the Moscow Metro Development Programme.
“Thus, more than half of the 23 TBMs working at the time were involved in the construction of the Moscow major mega-project, the Big Circle Line of the metro,” emphasised Yuri Kravtsov.
On 7 December 2021, Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, and Sergei Sobyanin, Mayor of Moscow, launched an underground train operation at 10 stations of the Big Circle Line: Terekhovo, Kuntsevskaya, Davydkovo, Aminyevskaya, Michurinsky Prospekt, Prospekt Vernadskogo, Novatorskaya, Vorontsovskaya, Zyuzino and Kakhovskaya. This is the most large-scale one-time launch in the history of the Moscow metro system.
The BCL length will exceed 70 km, and it will accommodate 31 stations, 22 of which are already servicing the passengers.
Recall that the tunnelling of the last tunnel of the Big Circle Line (BCL) between the Nagatinsky Zaton and the Klenovy Bulvar stations was completed on 29 December.
“The tunnelling of the biggest in the world metro circle line is complete. The total length of metro lines (one-way) is 143 km. It’s a large amount of work. There is a entire city beneath the city. “I wanted to thank the builders for the exploit they made, having done such a tremendous job,” stressed Sergei Sobyanin, Mayor of Moscow.
