MARSEILLE TGV

This article describes the tunnelling work to be done in the construction of the high-speed railway line along the Rhone Valley between Valence and Marseille in France, due to open in May 1998. The 7.8km long tunnel will be under the hilly Les-Pennes-Mirabeau on the final stretch between Cabries and Marseille; when complete, it will be the longest rail tunnel in France. Over 5km of percussive coring and drilling was undertaken, to explore and specify the tunnel's alignment. The main sections of the tunnel are: (1) the 1530m Pennes-Mirabeau natural tunnel in Eocene clays and brecchias; (2) the 400m Bellepeire cut-and-cover in marls; (3) the 5414m Marseille tunnel in mixed marls and clays; and (4) the 490m St-Andre cut-and-cover in clayey material. External constraints reduced the construction time to 33 months, forcing the designers to use shafts to increase the number of faces in the main tunnel to six, to speed up its excavation. The main tunnel has a single arch profile of 100 square m excavation cross section, which will be reduced to 63 square m when fully lined and ballasted. The main tunnelling machine is a computer-controlled electrohydraulic Tamrock Data Super 316 G drillrig, with three booms and 20ft feeds, which can drill faces of 15-105 square m cross section from a single position.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/09568700
• Corporate Authors:

  THE MINING JOURNAL LTD

  60 WORSHIP STREET
  LONDON,   United Kingdom  EC2A 2HD
• Authors:
  • Smith, M
• Publication Date: 1997-4

Language

• English

Media Info

• Pagination: p. 103,110,112
• Serial:
  • WORLD TUNNELLING AND SUBSURFACE EXCAVATION
  • Volume: 10
  • Issue Number: 3
  • Publisher: THE MINING JOURNAL LTD
  • ISSN: 0956-8700

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Alignment; Clay; Construction; Core samples; Cut and cover tunneling; Drilling; Excavation; Excavations; High speed ground transportation; High speed vehicles; Railroad tracks; Speed; Tunnel borers; Tunnels
• Geographic Terms: France
• ITRD Terms: 2894: Alignment; 4177: Clay; 3655: Construction; 5700: Core (boring); 3395: Cut and cover; 3871: Drilling; 5155: Excavation (process); 8036: France; 3383: Full face tunnelling machine; 1163: High speed; 3374: Tunnel
• Subject Areas: Bridges and other structures; Construction; Railroads;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00739547
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Transport Research Laboratory
• Files: ITRD
• Created Date: Aug 28 1997 12:00AM