Project Y

dates are increasingly becoming
shorter. The planning phases are
long - and each machine is one of
its kind.
The machine is to leave the factory
as soon as possible as the storage
costs are extremely high. The
machine is almost completely assembled
(95 %) when the customer
performs the factory tests and accepts
the machine. All electro-mechanical
and hydraulic functions
work. The only thing that cannot be
tested is actual drilling. The technical
acceptance is the first hurdle
the manufacturer has to master and
is part of a contractually regulated
procedure. In most cases a contract
is fulfilled only once the tunnel
boring machine arrived at its final
destination, has been completely
assembled and performed the first
few metres of tunnelling.
transPortation is
taken into account in
construction
Construction must already take into
account that the machine will be
assembled, disassembled and reassembled
at its final destination. “30
years of experience play their part in
handling logistics” says Achim Kühn
from the company Herrenknecht
AG in the city of Schwanau (Baden-
Württemberg). About half of all
tunnel boring machines produced
world-wide are manufactured by
this German company.
The logistics part is enormous:
There are about 90,000 individual
parts to a machine. As few components
as possible are disassembled
and the modules are kept as large
as possible for transportation. They
all must arrive at the final destination
according to an exact schedule.
“The hub of it all is project management”
Achim Kühn points out. The
precious goods are protected from
dust and dirt by custom-developed
transportation boxes.
98 % of transportation occur on
water, only 2 % on land. The first
leg from the factory in Schwanau to
the harbour at the city of Kehl (at
the river Rhine) is partially handled
with extra-wide and extra-long
trailers. This is where the parts are
loaded onto ships and shipped via
inland-water-transport routes or
via Rotterdam and the open see.
at the Base of the hiMalaYa
A considerably tougher challenge
is a transportation to India. This is
where ALPINE (as part of a consortium)
constructs an 11.3 km-long
headrace tunnel for a hydropower
station in Tapovan-Vishnugad.
The main bearing of a tunnel boring
machines weighs 85 tons and must
be shipped in two parts as streets
do not allow a weight of more than
60 tons. Not all machine parts must
be shipped to India as the less sensitive
parts are manufactured in India
according to German plans and
subjected to the same tests.
First the containers or transport
boxes arrive at one of the Mumbai
harbours. One harbour only handles
containers and the other only
general cargo. The handling of containers
is faster than that of general
cargo. The goods belonging together
however must be shipped
together despite such differences.
Custom clearance can take between
4 to 6 weeks due to Indian bureaucracy.
“Key to it all is the cooperation
with the right shipper” Paul Bargmann
points out. He is responsible
for the preparation of all machines
necessary for tunnelling.
700 kM in 8 to 10 daYs
Next comes the heavy-load transportation
on the motorway. It takes
from 8 to 10 days to cover the 700
km from Mumbai to Rishikesh at
the base of the mountains. In India
a centre rail, if there at all, serves
only as a rough guideline. Vehicles
and bicycles are tightly packed
on the roads and cows have to be
avoided. The challenge becomes a
real challenge once the base of the
maintains has been reached. The
monsoon may well sweep away a
road or giant rocks may block the
roads that usually are in bad repair
or not solidified at all and soaked.
High humidity may creep into container
and damage machine parts.
Instructing experts and handling
insurance claims is part of the daily
routine once a damage occurred.
There is little space at a tunnel construction
site and all parts must be
delivered in an exact sequence -
as must all material necessary for
construction. A fourwheeler with
a payload of 8 - 10 tons requires
about a day from the storage place
on the plains to the construction
site in about 2,000 m above sea
level. A heavy-goods truck takes
much longer. “Once we even have
lost a container on its way up” Paul
Bargmann tell us. He adds “Once we
had sent a search party we found it in
the middle of the road”. Flat concrete
floors usually exist for the assembly
of a TBM. In this location the work
has to be done on soft and muddy
ground.
However, this cannot unnerve Mr.
Bargmann (in business since 1972)
or his Indian customer. A former
colleague once stated: “We have
deadlines. The Indians have time.” //
Ü www.herrenknecht.de
Ü www.alptransit.ch
29
A tunnelling
construction site
offers very little
space – meeting
exactly defined
delivery schedules
is essential.