OREANDA-NEWS. Units of the SK MOST Group of Companies have started driving the left hand tunnel between Zhulebino and Kotelniki stations. The tunneling is done from Zhulebino Station using the Herrenknecht EPB-6150 Tunnel Boring Machine. The work is carried out in the test mode now. The builders have installed seven temporary tubing rings and two permanent lining rings by mid-February.

"The shakeup operations are carried out normally," says Aleksandr Mushenko, Electrician of LLC Tunnelny otryad No. 18 attending to the Herrenknecht EPB-6150 Tunnel Boring Machine. "We are testing the main drive hydraulic systems and assemblies of the tunnel-boring machine under operation conditions." This machine has a great record of driving the 1,778-meter-long left hand tunnel between Lermontovsky Prospekt and Vykhino stations with the tunneling rate that averaged 400 to 450 meters per month.

The 922-meter-long tunneling work between Zhulebino and Kotelniki stations is scheduled for completion in May 2013.The Herrenknecht EPB-6150 Tunnel Boring Machine will be then turned around to start driving the right hand tunnel between Zhulebino and Kotelniki stations.