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May 26 - another spy mission collecting footage for the analysts. :)

60 minutes of worksite activity compressed into 60 seconds.

Francis Gary Powers
Looks like they are doing a lot of digging since there's so much soil being removed and also the inventory of tunnel liners seems to be running low as well.

I find it kind of funny that each truck can only transport 4 tunnel liners though.......... Those things are heavy!
 
someone should be able to do the math right? a tunnel liner is 10m or so? 10 or so per 10 meters?
 
someone should be able to do the math right? a tunnel liner is 10m or so? 10 or so per 10 meters?
I thought they need 8 liners to advance 1 ring... but I'm not sure how long each ring is

I think they explained it somewhere in their social media accounts but I have to dig for that. 😓
 
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I thought they need 8 liners to advance 1 ring... but I'm not sure how long each ring is

I think they explained it somewhere in their social media accounts but I have to dig for that. 😓
Clues on the surface:
Screenshot_20250526_205204.jpg

Source
 
I got this...
Original speed was about 10-15m per day.
With each liner being about 2.5m wide and I eyed about 200 of them used in 10 days compared to the same photo from may 15
If my math is right then theyre going at full speed now over 10m per day
There is a post above about how at a point 1km south is scheduled for lane restrictions in september, makes sense depending on the speed they go.

Nonetheless this means they wont get to Kennedy until 2027 :eek:
 
I got this...
Original speed was about 10-15m per day.
With each liner being about 2.5m wide and I eyed about 200 of them used in 10 days compared to the same photo from may 15
If my math is right then theyre going at full speed now over 10m per day
There is a post above about how at a point 1km south is scheduled for lane restrictions in september, makes sense depending on the speed they go.

Nonetheless this means they wont get to Kennedy until 2027 :eek:
With enough intelligence photos we wouldn't even need to have the TBM tracker 😂
 
I got this...
Original speed was about 10-15m per day.
With each liner being about 2.5m wide and I eyed about 200 of them used in 10 days compared to the same photo from may 15
If my math is right then theyre going at full speed now over 10m per day
There is a post above about how at a point 1km south is scheduled for lane restrictions in september, makes sense depending on the speed they go.

Nonetheless this means they wont get to Kennedy until 2027 :eek:
That's what a 2-year delay does ;)

This isn't opening in 2030 at this point. I'd be surprised if Scarborough has service by 2033.
 
Is it possibly to dig around the existing tunnel to build the stations , while keeping the supply lines for the TBM intact?

If true then we can dig stations while also digging the tunnel
 
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Given the experience with the Crosstown and the Ontario line, I suspect you need to either dig your tunnel first and then excavate, or you dig out your whole station before the TBM gets there. Tunnel first seems to have been done on Eglinton and TBM just goes through the outer station walls that are poured before it gets there and the tunnel rings within the box get demolished at excavation. Excavate first is the choice made at several OL stations and as I understand the excavation will be substantially complete when the TBMs come through and they will therefore need to be moved through the station space.

Operating a TBM below an active excavation probably adds a measure of complexity to the process that isn't worth the risk.

It's also not a simple matter to change to excavating first as digging out the station before the TBM comes through will require building of a system to get it from one end of the station box to the other, something they won't have contemplated when the plan was for the tunnel to be built long before excavation. Likewise a system for the return of spoils to the launch site would have to travel through the station excavation.
 
Given the experience with the Crosstown and the Ontario line, I suspect you need to either dig your tunnel first and then excavate, or you dig out your whole station before the TBM gets there. Tunnel first seems to have been done on Eglinton and TBM just goes through the outer station walls that are poured before it gets there and the tunnel rings within the box get demolished at excavation. Excavate first is the choice made at several OL stations and as I understand the excavation will be substantially complete when the TBMs come through and they will therefore need to be moved through the station space.

Operating a TBM below an active excavation probably adds a measure of complexity to the process that isn't worth the risk.

It's also not a simple matter to change to excavating first as digging out the station before the TBM comes through will require building of a system to get it from one end of the station box to the other, something they won't have contemplated when the plan was for the tunnel to be built long before excavation. Likewise a system for the return of spoils to the launch site would have to travel through the station excavation.
Are you essentially saying that the only possibly option is tunnel first? Like there’s no option to remove the tunnel rings once the TBM has passed the station site like Scarborough centre or Lawrence east?
 
Are you essentially saying that the only possibly option is tunnel first? Like there’s no option to remove the tunnel rings once the TBM has passed the station site like Scarborough centre or Lawrence east?
I believe their only option is to tunnel first because it's likely too late to switch to excavating first and because I don't think you can excavate while you tunnel the same station.

I know that the plan for the Ontario line stations where they are excavating first is to push the TBM through using some other system. Therefore I'm making an assumption that it isn't possible for a TBM to transit through an excavation by using it's normal movement process, but that's a question for a tunneling engineer.
 
I believe their only option is to tunnel first because it's likely too late to switch to excavating first and because I don't think you can excavate while you tunnel the same station.

I know that the plan for the Ontario line stations where they are excavating first is to push the TBM through using some other system. Therefore I'm making an assumption that it isn't possible for a TBM to transit through an excavation by using it's normal movement process, but that's a question for a tunneling engineer.
Alright I pretty much understand it now, there probably won't be any station digging until the TBM has reached the final destination.

My original thought was that they could excavate the stations once the TBM had passed that particular station location, and try very hard not to touch the tunnel walls and disrupt the conveyor system.
But it sounds like that is technically very difficult, so it probably won't happen that way.
 

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