OREANDA-NEWS. The tunnel builders LLC Tonnelny Otryad No. 12, Bamtonnelstroy, which is part of the SK MOST” Group of Companies, have completed driving the tunneling the top (cap) part of the Tomusinsky tunnel. The tunneling was carried out from the western and eastern entries using mining machines.

The cap parts of the tunnel were connected at the end of November - it took the tunnel builders a little more than one year to connect the two tunnel faces. The driving of the strosss (bottom part) is conducted simultaneously with the tunnel operations. The builders will have to drive through 150 more meters; the tunneling is scheduled for completion in summer 2014. The total length of the tunnel is 1157 meters.

The Tomusinsky tunnel is to be commissioned in 2015 after all the finishing operations have been completed, with the most important work consisting of tunnel wall consolidation with cast-in-place reinforced concrete. A concrete mixing plant has been deployed at the construction site to support the concreting work. In order to commission the project on schedule, about 400 people will be working in the connected tunnel in two rotation shifts.

The New Tomusinsky tunnel is a strategic project for the Kuzbass region. The new tunnel, which does eliminates the snow cleaning problem in the cold season, will significantly improve reliability and raise the throughput capacity of the railway section between Kuregesh and Karlyk on the West-Siberian railway.