‘Mayrit’. This is how the powerful tunnel boring machine has been named, which will accelerate the earth extraction work to expand Metro Line 11 between Plaza Elíptica and Conde de Casal. It is scheduled to begin operating at the end of 2025 or beginning of 2026 because it is still being manufactured in Germany, but once it is launched, it will do so at a rate of 15 meters per day, compared to two for the traditional method that already has begun to be used.
The president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, visited this Thursday the works that are being carried out in the Comillas de Carabanchel park, where the Comillas station is being built, one of the two that this station will have. first phase of the ‘La Diagonal’ expansion project, which will also have a stop in Madrid Río and connection with Palos de la Frontera and Atocha. The investment of the regional Executive to carry out these works is 518 million euros.
As the president explained, ‘Mayrit’ owes its name to the name that the Arabs gave to the city of Madrid due to the wealth of its water flows. “We are a government that firmly believes in the importance of public transport and we are extremely lucky to have one of the best, modern, fast, clean, punctual and that always grows with all ages in mind, structuring the entire region,” he highlighted. Ayuso.
The regional president has indicated that the works on the future Comillas station “are the first step” for the expansion of Metro Line 11, “which was the shortest line of the Madrid Metro, with just eight kilometers, and will become the great diagonal of Madrid with 33 kilometers that will cross the city”.
The leader of the Madrid Executive reported that it will connect with seven interchanges, of which five are already built, and predicted that it will serve six and a half million travelers and recalled that it is a work that is being done in four sections “due to its magnitude”.
This is how the tunnel boring machine will arrive in Madrid
For his part, in statements to the media, the general director of Collective Transport infrastructure, Miguel Núñez, explained that The tunnel boring machine is currently under construction in Germany and it is scheduled to be completed in June 2025.
Once finished, It will be disassembled and transported to Madrid, where it will have to be reassembled. “This disassembly and transportation takes three months, because it is taken by river traffic to Antwerp and then comes to a Spanish port and from that Spanish port to the capital. And it takes us another three months to reassemble that enormous Meccano of parts. so that the machine can work,” he explained.
According to these forecasts, the tunnel boring machine will be able to start working at the end of 2025 or beginning of 2026. It will do so at an approximate rate of 15 meters a daywith an average of about 500 meters per month, compared to two meters for the traditional method. This formula will allow earth extraction work to be accelerated “seven or eight times” faster.
A machine of almost 100 meters
It is a tunnel boring machine that has an approximate length of almost 100 meters (98 meters) and was manufactured specifically for the geotechnical and geological characteristics of the Madrid terrain. It has an EPB (Earth Preasure Balance) shield, which is normally used in excavating cohesive terrain.
“The head, the shield, is an EPB shield, those shields have specific grippers and cutters for the soil of Madrid, it is not valid for any other soil,” Núñez clarified. Twelve people will work on average in each shift during the works.
The most notable innovation of this tunnel boring machine, Núñez highlighted, are “the injections of two-component matter, that is, all the consistency that is made around the tunnel boring machine with the ground.” “That is the great novelty because technology has advanced a lot and now a very consistent two-component is added to everything outside the shield of the tunnel boring machine so that the terrain is perfectly consistent as the tunnel boring machine advances,” he explained.
“Tunnel boring machines are top-level machines, it is the most advanced technology in the world and has a very high cost. From four kilometers onwards a tunnel boring machine is profitable for a work of this magnitude,” pointed out the general director. Although it has been built with this specific section in mind, Núñez pointed out that it could be reused in other sections “if the terrain is very similar.”
In any case, not all of the tunnel will be done with this tunnel boring machine. So, In September, manual excavation of land began, with the traditional methodin a stretch of about 700 meters between Comillas and Plaza Elíptica, which advances with about 50 meters per month and which would have to be ready when ‘Mayrit’ arrives.
“The excavation well began in September and we have reached a lower level of 25 meters, which is approximately where the working level is, and the two fronts have already been opened. With the average performance that we expect, due to the consistency of the terrain, we consider that by the end of 2025 the entire traditional method, that is, those 700 meters, will be built,” Núñez explained.
A pharaonic work
La Diagonal, this is the name of the extension of Line 11 of the Madrid Metro, which began as a two-station branch between Plaza Elíptica and Pan Bendito passing through Abrantes and which will now cross the entire city to connect Cuatro Vientos with Valdebebas. A pharaonic work that will be developed in 4 parts and will have 33.5 more kilometers of network.
The sections of the project go from La Fortuna to the Cuatro Vientos station on Line 10 (southern section), the second is the one between Plaza Elíptica and Conde Casal that is currently under construction, the next is the central section between Conde de Casal and Mar de Cristal, whose award was suspended due to the changes introduced in the previous section; and the connection of the latter with Valdebebas Norte.
Only in the creation of section between Plaza Elíptica and Conde Casal More than 210,000 m3 of concrete will be used, the equivalent of 84 Olympic swimming pools and 32,000 tons of steel, which quadruples the weight of the Eiffel Tower structure. In addition, an earthwork of more than one million cubic meters will be carried out, with which two football stadiums the size of the Santiago Bernabéu could be filled. The works have a completion period of 42 months.
This project contemplates a route of about 4 kilometers in length and the construction of a maximum of two stationsnew or interchange, to connect La Fortuna with L-10 and Metrosur (Line 12). In addition, it includes the study of connections with the existing Metro network, Cercanías -line C-5- and other means of transport.
Traveler record
For her part, the head of the Madrid Executive announced this Thursday that Metro will exceed 700 million passengers this yearthe highest figure in its 105 years of history, while recalling other works that are underway to expand the suburban network, such as those of Line 3 – about to be completed – to link Villaverde Alto to El Get married in Getafe; or the beginning in the first quarter of 2025 of the extension work on the 5 to connect the Alameda de Osuna with the three terminals of the Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas International Airport.
Díaz Ayuso has also highlighted the extension of Line 9 with Los Ahijones and Los Berrocales so that they have their own station, or the new one in Madrid Nuevo Norte that will have three stops, as well as the modernization of the Circular (L6) with automation in the driving of its trains, incorporating doors on the platforms for greater safety.
Added to this is the award of 80 new trains that are currently being manufactured to modernize the suburban fleet and improve the quality of service, which will allow 1,385 passengers per train to be accommodated, 17% more than the current capacity. “It is the largest renovation in the 105 years of Metro’s history, with an investment that will exceed 900 million, an unprecedented performance,” he concluded.
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