On Monday, a week dedicated to reflection and knowledge exchange opened in Athens, where TELT, international companies, associations and industry specialists presented their projects and innovations related to the world of underground works.

In particular, the public promoter of the Lyon-Turin project presented the excavation advancement in the Saint-Martin-la-Porte construction site with the achievement of the first 10.5 km of the base tunnel (through the paper by Jérôme Senemaud) and the design solutions implemented to coordinate project control with geological monitoring (paper by Maria Elena Parisi and Alberto Rajevich, respectively geology manager and head of project planning and control). In the speech about this last topic, the authors explained to the audience of professionals how TELT had managed to build a digital database open to all players involved in the construction site.

TELT partners in Athens

Among the many partners involved in the Lyon-Turin project, including Systra, Pini Group and SOCOTEC, there is also the German company Herrenknecht, European leader in the construction of TBMs. Yesterday, HK received an order for other two machines that will excavate 18 km each of the base tunnel from the Modane construction site towards Italy.

The contract signed by the ELYOT CO5 consortium [Eiffage (group head) / Spie Batignolles / Ghella / Cogeis], follows the one signed by the CO6-CO7 consortium [Vinci Construction Grands Projets (group head) / Dodin Campenon Bernard / Vinci Construction France TP Lyon / WeBuild] for the first three TBMs, which will be officially presented in July and will then be transported and assembled in the La Praz construction site to start the works.

At the peak of the activities, there will be seven TBMs excavating in the single construction site of the Lyon- Turin line between France and Italy: each with a 10.4 m diameter rotating cutter for a total length of 330 m.