Qatar Rail, the company overseeing the construction of the country’s integrated railway network, said the work at the Doha Metro line was progressing well with the tunneling phase on track for completion by 2017.

The company on Thursday announced the successful breakthrough of one of its tunnel boring machines (TBM) at Msheireb station. The breakthrough is the first at this main metro station marking the progress of the underground tunneling works.

Commenting on the progress, Hamad Ibrahim Al Bishri, the deputy chief executive of Qatar Rail, said: "The TBM named Al Mayeda, belonging to the Doha Metro Red Line, was deployed at Al Corniche station in November last year and it achieved breakthrough today at Msheireb having dug 1.6km of tunnel. Having completed its first job, it will now be transported to Al Qassar station where it will start work again."

Al Mayeda is one of 21 TBMs assigned for the Doha Metro project. The breakthrough of Al Mayeda was subject to a few days delay at the end of its journey, he stated.

"Shortly before breakthrough the machine unexpectedly encountered a water source which had to be dealt with properly and safely prior to its appearance into the open air at Msheireb," he added.

Msheireb station, the flagship station which will be the central hub of Doha’s public transportation system, will be the major interchange for, Red Line, Green Line, and Gold Line. Excavation at Msheireb is approximately 40m below ground. Construction works there are scheduled for completion by 2018.

According to him, all Qatar Rail TBMs are currently operational and have completed about tunneling work of 30km out of a total of 113km. When Qatar Rail last reported progress in April, the figure was 18.5 km, stated the official.

Msheireb station is currently seeing important milestones in the delivery of its foundation works.

According to Qatar Rail engineers, the station’s excavation is equivalent to the length of Burj Qatar, and the land area is equivalent to five football pitches. As for the weight of the excavated soil, it counts as much as 500,000 Toyota Land Cruisers!

"During the past year, we have achieved significant developments on the Doha Metro project thanks to the joint efforts of the company and its contractors. While the excavation phase is making good progress at all stations under the supervision of our skilled team, we are happy to celebrate a new successful breakthrough here at Msheireb," remarked Al Bishri.

"Mining through different ground layers that vary constantly under highways and road facilities with a large-diameter TBM is a feat in itself. The short delay at the end shows how unpredictable our work can be sometimes and how important is the skill of our engineers and quality of planning," he noted.

"It is not always possible to know when these incidents might happen, but it is certain that they will occur at some point and we plan on this basis," he added.  

Chris Haskell, the senior project manager of Msheireb Station, said Qatar Rail has had over 70,000 lorry movements for excavation at this station.
 
"If all the trucks were lined up, the queue would stretch from Doha to Makkah. Each day, we de-water the equivalent of an Olympic-sized swimming pool. It is only when we put our project into such perspective that we realize the sheer scale of this exciting project and how much we have accomplished up to now," he added.

The Red Line has deployed all its TBS namely Lebretha, Al Mayeda, Al Khor, Al Biddaa, Lehwaila, Al Wakra, Msheireb, Doha and Al Zubara, said a Qatar Rail statement.

In parallel, the Green Line also launched its Al Rayyan, Al Gharrafa, Al Messila, Al Sheehaniya, Leatooriya and Lijmailiya TBMs, while the Gold Line has deployed Lusail, Sharq, Al Sadd, Al Waab, Al Sailiya and Ras bu Abboud (Airport City North) at the sites.-TradeArabia News Service