José Raúl Mulino, President of the Republic of Panama, personally pressed the start button in September 2024: the cutting wheel of the XXL tunnel boring machine of the Mixshield type began to turn to drive the Metro Line 3 tunnel in Panama City. The colossal machine, which is 13.46 meters in diameter, will bore 4.8 kilometers from the Farfán launch shaft in a westerly direction to the target shaft at Albrook station.
The drive will see a first: it will be the first time that a tunnel boring machine has been used to build a tunnel under the Panama Canal. In view of the complex geology and high groundwater pressure expected at a depth of up to around 60 meters below sea level, Herrenknecht engineers designed the largest TBM in Latin America for a support pressure of up to 7 bar. The design of the cutting wheel allows the cutting tools to be changed from behind under atmospheric pressure, making the process safer and faster.
At the customer's request, Herrenknecht and the Group companies are also supplying a comprehensive package of additional equipment and services to ensure that everything runs smoothly on the construction site: including a separation plant, a complete segment factory, the TBM navigation system, multi-service vehicles, a ventilation system, a water cooling system, a 2-component grout mixing plant for annular gap grouting, as well as a connection to the customer platform Herrenknecht.Connected for continuous analysis and processing of all relevant tunnelling parameters.
