Qatar Rail Marks 100km of Tunnelling on Doha Metro
Qatar Rail marked the completion of 100km of tunnelling on the Doha Metro, representing 90% of the total tunnelling on the network. A further 11km of tunnelling has yet to be undertaken. The milestone was passed on a southern section on the Red Line. Overall progress of the Doha Metro project is now at 41% of completion.
A celebration was held to mark the achievement at Al Waab Station on the Gold Line. It was attended by workers and senior management of Qatar Rail, as well as Dr. Eng. Saad Al Muhannadi, Qatar Rail Chief Executive Officer and Samuel Adair McChesney, Project Director for the Gold Line.
The tunnelling is currently being undertaken by 11 tunnel boring machines (TBMs), although a record-breaking 21 TMBs were operational at the outset of the project. The achievement featured in the Guinness World Records for “The Largest Number of Tunnel Boring Machines Operating Simultaneously in a Single Project”. Now that ten of the TBMs have completed their sections, they have been decommissioned.
This month, Qatar Rail also completed tunnelling on the Gold Line on 19 May 2016 at Msheireb station. Tunnelling on the Gold Line began on 3 March 2015, by TBM Lusail. She bored a total of 4.3km of tunnel from start to end of that time. The total length of the Gold Line is 15km.
Dr. Eng. Saad Al Muhannadi, Qatar Rail Chief Executive Officer, said:
“I would also like to take the opportunity to thank all those involved in the completion of tunneling on the Gold Line which was achieved through nearly 27 million safe man-hours. While we strive to deliver our project on time and to schedule, we always aim to do so with the highest levels of occupational health and safety, to help safeguard our employees, partners and the wider public.
“We expect Doha Metro to have a transformational effect on the nation, better connecting our communities with a sustainable and environmentally friendly transportation solution. The achievement of these double milestones brings us one step closer to its much anticipated delivery.”
Samuel Adair McChesney, Project Director for the Gold Line, said:
“I am extremely proud of the outstanding performance achieved by the six tunnel boring machines (TBMs) during the successful completion of all the tunnelling works on the Gold Line project.
“The TBMs set many records on their 22km journey across Doha, from the quickest TBM manufacture, delivery and launch time; to the best progress for a TBM achieved in a single day of 60 metres. I am especially proud that the tunnels have been built to a world class standard, with the very highest standards of Quality and Safety being achieved on all six of the TBM tunnel drives. This is all testament to the hard work and dedication of the specialist tunnel crews who diligently carried out the tunnelling works keeping the TBMs moving forward day and night. It is fantastic to successfully achieve this critical project milestone and it is a huge step forward for the team towards the successful delivery of the Gold Line project.”
The next milestone on the project will be on the Red Line (the longest line on the metro). At the end of the year, construction will move towards the installation of track, power supply and signalling systems. The architectural finishes will also be put on Doha Metro’s stations. The first phase of the project will be complete in 2020.
The three networks of Doha Metro, Lusail Tram and the long-distance rail will all be completed by 2030. The metro alone will deliver 630,000 passenger journeys a day by 2021, through 37 completed metro stations. Journey time between each station will be an average of 3 minutes.
