About 208,000 pieces of equipment have been installed at the 10 start-up stations of the BCL
“More than 50 utility systems ensure the proper operation of each new station on 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 a general designer and general contractor to construct new lines and stations of the Moscow metro.
“Each station commissioned on the Big Circle Line of the metro in 2021 has about 55 utility systems installed, which fully ensure the integration of new stations with each other and with the existing underground facilities, maintain the operation of station complexes and an appropriate level of transport safety for passengers and staff of the metro services,” said Andrey Bochkarev.
According to him, a total of about 208,000 pieces of equipment have been installed at the 10 start-up stations of the west, southwest and south sections of the BCL for this project.
“Thanks to the work done by the builders on the installation of the utility networks, all systems are integrated with each other: communications, including computer-aided dispatch, automatic train operation, escalator and power management, and transport safety, which includes the installation of intelligent video surveillance and firefighting systems,” explained the deputy mayor.
For his part, Yuri Kravtsov, General Director of Mosinzhproekt JSC, specified that over 223,000 meters of pipeline, 61,500 meters of ducts, and over 6,000 kilometres of cable have been laid to operate the new stations.
“To ensure an uninterrupted operation of the utility systems at each of the new stations, the builders install up to 600 kilometres of cable, of which around 20% is spent on the integration systems with the existing metro facilities in case of interchange hubs with the radial line stations,” said the head of the holding.
He also added that in this case it is necessary to coordinate the old and new systems, involving additional skilled workers and a large number of engineering staff.
“The engineering systems of the new construction and the existing underground can be coordinated only at night, which makes the work very time-consuming and labour-intensive: it takes two and a half hours just from removing the contact rail to applying voltage and receiving passengers,” explained Yuri Kravtsov.
As a reminder, Sergei Sobyanin, Mayor of Moscow, has carried out the technical launch of the southern section of the Big Circle Line from the Prospekt Vernadskogo station to the Kakhovskaya station.
The Big Circle Line project is the main one for the capital’s metro development programme. There will be 31 stations along 70 km, making the BCL the largest underground circle line in the world.
