“New Harbour” in Doha/Qatar - Putzmeister Holding GmbH

Back view
About 30 years ago:
Putzmeister and the Eurotunnel
On 6 May 1994, Queen Elizabeth II
and Francois Mitterand officially opened
the Eurotunnel to rail traffic. 15,000
construction workers had toiled for six
long years to build this unique structure.
The Eurotunnel cost 15 billion euro to
build. Every year, almost seven million
people use the tunnel.
57
Six huge tunnelling machines cut
through four to six metres of chalk rock
per hour, leaving around 120 cubic metres
of rock and chalk dust in their wake.
This spoil was transported out of the
tunnel by rail. Putzmeister installed a
plant next to the end of the tunnel on the
French side to break down the rock and
mix the remaining spoil and water into
a pumpable mass. Eight large-capacity
Putzmeister high density solids pumps
conveyed during a total of 90,000 operating
hours 8 million cubic metres of
chalk mash to the disposal site.
The second fundamental contribution
by Putzmeister was anchoring the tunnel
pipes to the rock. The pipes consist
of hundreds of reinforced concrete rings
– so-called lining segments. They had to
be concreted perfectly into the surrounding
rock. For this job, Putzmeister provided
three mortar injection and filling
units, which were unique at the time. Installed
on carriages attached directly to
the tunnelling machines, the units mixed
and injected mortar into the voids between
the lining segments and the rock.
p Trains travel along the two large tunnels, while the central tunnel is reserved for
maintenance personnel and emergencies.
q Three mortar injection units, which were unique at the time, were mounted on
carriages behind the tunnelling machines to fill the voids behind the lining segments.
58
56
28 PM 4452 GB