From Newsgroup: uk.railway

A definitely boring, but I was interested enough anyway, video of the
first TBM on Bucharest's new M6 metro line breaking through at Baneasa
Airport station:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvGS_QoT648&t=4s

It's quite remarkable the accuracy of these things.


This TBM, "Sf|onta Maria" (St. Mary), is drilling southbound starting
from "Tokyo" station (outside the Baneasa retail complex) boring the southbound running tunnel, and will continue south. A second TBM,
"Sf|onta Ana" (St. Anne) is working in parallel boring the northbound
running tunnel. Both will eventually reach 1 Mai station, which is the connection with existing line M4.

Those TBMs are boring the southern half of the line; the northern half -
from Tokyo station to Otopeni airport construction is also underway but
boring hasn't started yet (station boxes are very much in-progress
though - rendering the short-stay carpark outside the main airport
terminal a large hole in the ground and making Otopeni look even more of
a tip than usual. All in a good cause though.)

The construction contracts were awarded in two tenders, and I believe
the northern half is a different contractor - I assume that means they
will bring in two new TBMs in due course to go north. I guess it's
possible they could re-use the TBMs, but I don't know if the hole in the ground at 1 Mai would actually be big enough to extract the things.
(The Tokyo station site where the two current TBMs were
assembled/lowered is, based on Mk1 eyeball, the largest hole in the
ground of the construction.)



This project has a special place in my heart, because the new Baneasa
Airport metro station will be about 20 minutes walk (or two tram stops)
from my home, and being able to get the metro to Otopeni Airport is
going to be bloody brilliant.
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