The big Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) that will excavate the City Rail Link tunnels is soon heading our way.
The TBM will have three jobs:
Excavating the tunnels
Removing tunnel spoil
and installing concrete segments to line the tunnels
Specialist German manufacturer, Herrenknecht has built the TBM at its factory in Guangzhou, China. Herrenknecht designed and built Alice, the TBM used to construct Auckland’s Waterview motorway tunnel.
It will arrive here in October in sections and will be reassembled at the Link Alliance’s Mt Eden site.
The TBM will start tunnel excavation from Mt Eden in April 2021.
It will take nine months for the TBM to complete the first of its two 1.6 kilometre-long journeys from Mt Eden to the Aotea Station in central Auckland to connect with the twin tunnels already built from Britomart Station and under Albert Street.
At peak operation the TBM can travel 32 metres a day. After its first underground drive to Aotea, the TBM will be returned to Mt Eden in sections and reassembled to excavate the second tunnel.
Tunnel Boring Machine Route Map
Facts about the TBM
City Rail Link’s Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) will excavate two 1.6-kilometre-long tunnels from Mt Eden to central Auckland and connects with the tunnels already built from Britomart Station.
The diameter of the cutter head at the front of the machine is 7.15 metres (an adult giraffe is about six metres tall), weighs 910 tonnes (that’s roughly the combined weight of nine blue whales, the largest animal ever known to have existed) , and the total length is 130 metres (a rugby field is up to 120 metres long).
The TBM was built by the German tunnel machine company, Herrenknecht, in China for the Link Alliance – the group of New Zealand and international companies responsible for the main CRL contract for City Rail Link Ltd.
The TBM’s likely cost is NZ$13.5 million
Following mining tradition, the TBM has been named after an inspirational woman - the Māori rights champion Whina Cooper
After successfully completing factory assessment tests, the TBM is now being shipped in sections to New Zealand.
When the machine arrives in October 2020 it will be reassembled at CRL’s Mt Eden construction site and will undergo further tests.
The Link Alliance will start tunnelling in April 2021.
The TBM has three jobs underground: excavating the tunnels, removing dirt and rocks to the surface, and installing precast concrete panels that will line the tunnel walls
It will take about nine months to excavate each tunnel.
At peak operation, the TBM can travel 32 metres a day.
The TBM will work 24/7, operated by a crew of 12 underground
After its first underground drive to the Aotea Station in central Auckland, the TBM will be returned to Mt Eden in sections and reassembled again to excavate the second tunnel.
Up to 1,500 tonnes of spoil can be excavated each day. Spoil will be transferred from the TBM by conveyor belt to the Mt Eden site and then transferred to disused quarries
Excavation of the second tunnel is planned to start in March 2022
While the TBM is underground, people above it will feel little to no impacts. This is because it is an Earth Pressure Balanced TBM – it controls and balances the pressure of the earth it excavates which stabilises the tunnel face and reduces any possibility of settlement occurring.
Documentary about TBMs
The TBM’s name
We asked for your help to name the TBM after a ground-breaking NZ woman past of present and thank all who have participated. The chosen name is Dame Whina Cooper.
Dame Whina Cooper is a national icon who, at 80, was the inspirational leader of the Māori land march on Parliament in 1975.
Dame Whina founded the Māori Women’s Welfare League and devoted a life to fighting discrimination and improving living conditions for her people. This was a TVNZ documentary about her amazing life.
It’s a tradition that a TBM can’t start work until it has a woman’s name to honour St Barbara, the patron saint of underground workers, as a sign of good luck for the project ahead.
A panel of people from CRL Ltd and the Link Alliance – which will operate the TBM – and representatives from Auckland Council’s Albert-Eden and Waitematā Local Boards had narrowed the list to three.
The other finalists were:
Dr Margaret Bradshaw, a trailblazing and internationally recognised Antarctic scientist. She was the first woman to lead a deep field party to the frozen continent, discovered fish fossils in the Cook Mountains there, and Bradshaw Peak is named in her honour.
Georgina Beyer is a Kiwi ground breaker in every sense of the word. Born a boy, she became the world’s first trans-gender Mayor and later was elected to Parliament as the world’s first trans-gender MP. She champions human and gender rights.
City Rail Link Chief Executive Dr Sean Sweeney says: “These women have all played very different roles in helping shape New Zealand, but they also share the same outstanding qualities – brave, compassionate and fearless leadership. They continue to inspire so many and remain timely and staunch reminders during COVID-19’s extreme challenge to this country of why we can be proud of ground-breakers like them to lead New Zealand forward.”
Media releases
On its way! TBM passes big factory tests
20 August 2020
New Zealand’s largest transport infrastructure project is celebrating a significant milestone – Auckland’s City Rail Link (CRL) has formally accepted ownership of its big Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) after extensive factory tests in China.
“The successful factory assessment tests and the handover of the TBM to the Link Alliance is a very clear and strong indication that the CRL project can meet critical milestones in a Covid-19 world,” says Dr Sean Sweeney, Chief Executive of City Rail Link Ltd.
The tests were conducted on the fully constructed TBM by the German manufacturer, Herrenknecht, at its factory at Guangzhou in southern China.
“The TBM successfully underwent more than 500 tests to make sure everything works as it should. There is now great excitement that we are ready for the next step – to bring the TBM to Auckland,” says Francois Dudouit, Project Director for CRL’s Link Alliance.
Rigorous checks tested the TBM’s three big jobs underground: excavating the tunnels, transporting tonnes of excavated spoil to the surface, and installing the thousands of concrete panels that will line the tunnels.
“It is a unique, world class machine – an underground factory - purpose built to carve its way through Auckland’s sticky soil,” Mr Dudouit says. “Just about everything that moves was tested to make sure it can do the transformational job it’s been designed for. ”
The TBM will be used by the Link Alliance - the group of New Zealand and international companies building the substantive tunnels and stations contract for City Rail Link Ltd - to excavate two tunnels side by side between Mt Eden and central Auckland to connect with cut-and-cover tunnels already constructed from Britomart Station.
The Link Alliance describes the TBM as big by international standards for rail projects. The revolving cutter head at the front of the TBM is 7.15 metres – slightly taller than one of Auckland Zoo’s adult giraffes – weighs 910 tonnes – that is roughly the equivalent of nine blue whales, the largest animal ever known to have existed - and at 130 metres stretches the length of a rugby field.
The TBM is now being dismantled and will be shipped in pieces to New Zealand. It is due to arrive in October. The arrival has been delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic which forced the closure for several weeks earlier this year of the factory in China.
The TBM will be reassembled at CRL’s Mt Eden site, where it will undergo further testing and be officially blessed for safe journeys before it starts the first of its two excavation drives next April. Both tunnels are one-point-six kilometres long and each TBM drive will take about nine months.
Mining tradition will be observed before the start of tunnelling when the TBM is formally named after an inspirational woman. Earlier this year New Zealanders voted for the TBM to be named in honour of the Māori rights champion, Dame Whina Cooper.
The Naming Announcement
City Rail Link’s Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) will share the name of one of New Zealand’s most inspirational leaders, Dame Whina Cooper, a woman who spent most of an illustrious life leading the fight for social justice and land rights for Māori.
Dame Whina Cooper’s name topped a nationwide poll ahead of internationally recognised Antarctic scientist, Dr Margaret Bradshaw, and the world’s first elected openly transgender mayor and Member of Parliament, Georgina Beyer.
“The project is both proud and honoured that our TBM will carry the name of a woman of such mana – Dame Whina Cooper,” said City Rail Link Ltd’s Chief Executive, Dr Sean Sweeney.
“We were looking for the name of a New Zealand woman who inspired - brave, compassionate and fearless - and all those outstanding leadership qualities are well and truly represented by the very remarkable Dame Whina Cooper.” Dame Whina’s family welcomes their mother’s new association with a project that will bring many changes to the Auckland she had called her home for many years.
“Mum was very much a people person,” says Dame Whina’s daughter Hinerangi Puru Cooper.
“She had so much energy and was heavily involved in community projects across Auckland. But to us she was just mum.” Dame Whina was born in 1895 at Panguru, Northland, and died in 1994. She began her first campaigns for Māori as a teenager before moving to Auckland in 1949 where she was identified as one of the “100 Makers of Auckland” in a book featuring influential people who helped develop the city.
Dame Whina was the first president of the Māori Women’s Welfare League and played a significant role in improving Māori living conditions across New Zealand.
In 1975 aged 80, she led a land rights march from the Far North to Parliament. She was made a Dame in 1981 and was awarded the country’s highest honour, the Order of New Zealand, in 1991. Dame Whina, Dr Bradshaw and Ms Beyer were the shortlisted finalists selected from more than 300 women’s names nominated by New Zealanders.
Around 3,500 participated in the competition with Dame Whina Cooper securing just under 50 per cent of the final total vote.
“I am grateful to all New Zealanders for their support and their nominations and votes, particularly at a time when we were all grappling with a pandemic. I would also like to thank Dr Bradshaw and Ms Beyer for allowing their names to be considered for our TBM.” Dr Sweeney said.
Tradition dictates that a TBM must have a woman’s name - a sign of good luck and safety for the project ahead and an acknowledgement to Saint Barbara, the patron saint of those who work underground.
CRL’s TBM is due to arrive in kitset sections from China in October.
It will be reassembled at the Link Alliance project site at Mt Eden. The newly named Dame Whina Cooper TBM will be blessed before the Link Alliance starts the first of two 1.6-kilometre underground excavations from Mt Eden to the Aotea Station in the central city to connect with the twin tunnels already built from Britomart Station and under Albert Street.
Sod-turning ceremony at Mt Eden
DigCRL: CRL Ltd CE Dr Sean Sweeney, Auckland Mayor Phil Goff and Minister of Transport Phil Twyford
Spades in the ground at the sod-turning ceremony cleared the way for work to start on driving 66 concrete piles between 38 metres and eight metres long into the ground to support the curved-shaped retaining wall 127 metres long and 25 metres high.
The portal will take 10 months to build. When completed, it will be the launching pad for the TBM and the two separate journeys it will make under Auckland from Mt Eden to the Aotea station in the central city.
A German company, Herrenknecht, will build the $13.5 million TBM. The machine will be built at the company’s factory in China and shipped to New Zealand in sections next spring where it will be reassembled in front of the portal. The TBM will start tunnelling in February 2021.
Transport Minister Phil Twyford says tunnelling from Mt Eden into central Auckland is a big and exciting next step for the CRL project.
“Not only will CRL boost Auckland’s transport system, it will stimulate urban regeneration with jobs and affordable housing around Mt Eden station and elsewhere along the city’s rail corridors - a completed CRL will double the number of the number of people within 30 minutes of central Auckland, New Zealand’s biggest employment hub,” Mr Twyford says.
Auckland Mayor Phil Goff says the CRL is New Zealand’s largest ever transport infrastructure project… a gamechanger for Auckland, allowing 54,000 people an hour to travel into the city at peak times. It adds capacity equivalent to three Harbour Bridges or 16 extra traffic lanes into the city at peak.
“The TBM will be the star of the show, providing the mechanical muscle required to get the job done as quickly as possible.”