Breakthrough in first Liefkenshoek tunnel

11 August 2011 - Events - Belgium

On 16 May 2011 in Antwerp (Belgium), after 13 and a half months of boring works, the pressurised-mud TBM Wiske broke through the first tunnel of the Liefkenshoek project, a 6 km-long structure with an internal diameter of 7.3 m. The Liefkenshoek rail-link project concerns the financing, design-construction and maintenance for 38 years of a 16.2 km-long double-track railway infrastructure, passing beneath the Escaut River to link the north and south banks of the port of Antwerp. The contract was signed in November 2008 by a consortium composed of VINCI Concessions, CFE (VINCI Construction) and BAM PPP.

The works, worth €680m, are being supplied by VINCI Construction Grands Projets, MBG (CFE) and two companies from the Dutch group Royal BAM, with the participation of Soletanche Bachy and its subsidiary Fontec, both Soletanche Freyssinet entities (VINCI Construction). The driving of the second tunnel, by the TBM Schanulleke, is due for completion next July. The new infrastructure is scheduled to come into service in 2013; it will ease