The Martina tunnel boring machine (officially named as the S-574.
) is a hard rock
tunnel boring machine
A tunnel boring machine (TBM), also known as a "mole" or a "worm", is a machine used to excavate tunnels. TBMs are an alternative to drilling and blasting methods and "hand mining", allowing more rapid excavation through hard rock, wet or dry so ...
built by
Herrenknecht AG. It is the largest hard rock tunnel boring machine in the world and has been used for drilling the Sparvo Tunnel, a part of the larger
Variante di Valico project in
Italy
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
.
Specifications and operations
The Martina cost 60 million USD,
[ has a shield diameter of 15.55 ]metres
The metre (or meter in US spelling; symbol: m) is the base unit of length in the International System of Units (SI). Since 2019, the metre has been defined as the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of of ...
, an excavation diameter of 15.62 metres, a length of 130 metres, a total weight of 4500 tonnes
The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1,000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton in the United States to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the s ...
and an annual operating consumption of 62 million kWh. The cutterhead required 12,000 kW of power whilst the overall vehicle requires 18 MW total installed capacity to function.
See also
*List of longest tunnels
This list of longest tunnels ranks tunnels that are at least long. Only continuous tunnels are included. Pipelines, even those that are buried, are excluded. The longest tunnels have been constructed for Water supply network, water distribution, ...
* List of long tunnels by type
* List of mining companies
References
{{reflist
External links
tunneltalk websitetunnelbuilder website
Heavy equipment
Tunnel boring machines