After years of slow progress, things are heating up along Saigon’s Metro Line 1.
According to Tuoi Tre, the city’s Management Authority of Urban Railways has begun the installation of a Japanese-made tunnel-boring machine that will help workers to carve out underground subway tunnels beneath District 1.
The device, which was imported to Vietnam in January, will begin running in May. Construction workers are currently installing the device at the riverside Ba Son Station, where the machine will drill a 781-meter subterranean tunnel under District 1 to the Opera House Station, reports the news outlet.
At 70 meters long and weighing 300 metric tons, the machine’s installation 17 meters below ground is no simple feat. The device uses a 12.5-meter-long drill to bore its tunnels and is operated by a control room; an engine room and a cement mortar supply chamber are also included in the machine.
Once installed, the device will be able to drill 12 meters of tunnel per day.
[Photo via Tuoi Tre]
