Broadway Subway - Millennium Line Extension to Arbutus (II) | U/C

[Xelebes]

This thread is a continuation of the previous thread. Please proceed.

[Jimbo604]

Originally Posted by Hooknose

Elsie launched a while back, does that mean it is going to pop soon.

anyone with an estimate?

Two months or so based on past drilling times? Perhaps week before Christmas "Granville Street Station" gift for us all?

[madog222]

-snip-

[madog222]

Originally Posted by Jimbo604

Two months or so based on past drilling times? Perhaps week before Christmas "Granville Street Station" gift for us all?

At ~16m per day, which is what they both achieved Main to Cambie, would be 6 weeks. Obviously Phyllis was much slower on this segment to Oak taking over 10 weeks at under 10m/day. If the delay was due to ground conditions Elsie could face a similar delay.
Elsie has now been tunneling from Cambie for 6 1/2 weeks so she could break through any day but I’m thinking it’s going to be another 1-3 weeks.

As for Phyllis getting to Granville, I see 4th week of January as the earliest possible arrival.

[Changing City]

Some of us anticipated that the Cambie to Oak section might go slower. In 1909 the Heather Creek flooded on Ninth Avenue (Broadway), so the ground is almost all fill as a result.


[City of Vancouver Archives]

[jollyburger]

Base for the tracks near Mt Pleasant station



https://twitter.com/broadwaysubway_/...221400/photo/1

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

Base for the tracks near Mt Pleasant station



https://twitter.com/broadwaysubway_/...221400/photo/1

Are those pipes/conduits permanent, or are they related to the construction?

Not sure of the scale here but it does look like the space between the base and the pipes isn't tall enough to fit a train!

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by manny_santos

Are those pipes/conduits permanent, or are they related to the construction?

Not sure of the scale here but it does look like the space between the base and the pipes isn't tall enough to fit a train!

Construction. Top left is the conveyor where the muck/tailings are removed. Fresh air duct and possibly air exhaust. The other pipes are liquids (for the foam?) and some communication/electrical lines for the TBM.

[Hooknose]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

Construction. Top left is the conveyor where the muck/tailings are removed. Fresh air duct and possibly air exhaust. The other pipes are liquids (for the foam?) and some communication/electrical lines for the TBM.

What interests me is that the conveyor for the spoils is all the way down to Emily Carr.

That means, when either TBM breaks through at Arbutus, the conveyor will be about 5 km long. And there is one for each side.

Wow, when you think about it. I would have thought you the easiest would simply be to bring the spoils back to the first open box and dispose from there.

You learn something everyday.

[Tvisforme]

Originally Posted by Hooknose

What interests me is that the conveyor for the spoils is all the way down to Emily Carr.

That means, when either TBM breaks through at Arbutus, the conveyor will be about 5 km long. And there is one for each side.

Wow, when you think about it. I would have thought you the easiest would simply be to bring the spoils back to the first open box and dispose from there.

You learn something everyday.

My guess would be that it is easy to get trucks in and out of the Emily Carr site, whereas dirt in the station boxes would have to be lifted out to street level and add to the congestion on Broadway.

[madog222]

Removing spoil at each station would require a huge amount of extra construction and property acquisition, drastically increasing constrution cost and time for no benefit.

[jollyburger]

They can extend those conveyor belt systems to almost 15km.

[Hooknose]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

They can extend those conveyor belt systems to almost 15km.

that is impressive. I used Google earth to measure from Boundary Road and Broadway (Lougheed) al the way to the entrance to UBC on 10th and that is only 14 km.

So what they are doing makes utmost sense.

[chowhou]

Don't underestimate the power of a good conveyor belt!

[Tvisforme]

Originally Posted by chowhou

Don't underestimate the power of a good conveyor belt!

Words to live by...

(Thanks for the cool photo/link!)

[Weland]

http://app.webtrackz.com/?q=email/vi...L-s8kQH6vcoEbw

Project update is that Elsie is about to arrive at Oak-VGH.

Phyllis will continue soon.

Perhaps the final leg will be from Oak-VGH directly to Cypress, without much pause at Granville because Granville to Cypress is only three blocks.

[madog222]

Originally Posted by Weland

http://app.webtrackz.com/?q=email/vi...L-s8kQH6vcoEbw

Project update is that Elsie is about to arrive at Oak-VGH.

Phyllis will continue soon.

Perhaps the final leg will be from Oak-VGH directly to Cypress, without much pause at Granville because Granville to Cypress is only three blocks.

It’s 4 blocks to Cypress, the same as all the other segments since Main.

Elsie arriving soon would mean tunnelling at a respectable 13-14m/day.

From the update: “ TBM Phyllis arrived at Oak-VGH on October 12 and is preparing to launch in the coming weeks.”

Coming weeks would end up being around a month spent in the station box, the same as at Main, Im not expecting some sudden sprint to the finish.

[Weland]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

Base for the tracks near Mt Pleasant station



https://twitter.com/broadwaysubway_/...221400/photo/1

** removed irrelevant comment

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by Weland

Great picture that shows that the **conveyer system** is a **conveyer tube** (not a **conveyer belt**) to take away the slurry of cuttings, drilling mud (if needed to make the slurry easy to pump), and cooling water.

I think it's a conveyor belt. You could see the belt in the open station boxes at Main and Cambie, moving the spoil back towards Emily Carr. As they were working on the station boxes, the belt was visible there. It would seem to be more trouble than it's worth to try to pump a mud slurry uphill from Cambie to Main, and then dewater it at Emily Carr. I don't think there's any sign of liquid in the videos of the machines breaking through into the stations.

[Alex Mackinnon]

Originally Posted by Weland

Great picture that shows that the **conveyer system** is a **conveyer tube** (not a **conveyer belt**) to take away the slurry of cuttings, drilling mud (if needed to make the slurry easy to pump), and cooling water.

Most likely there is a mud tank and equipment at the EmilyCarr entrance to dewater the slurry, and reuse the drilling mud and water. Tunnel waste needs to be not liquid for easy trucking.

Short article on dewatering:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc...62176221001103

YouTube about various dewatering equipment:
https://m.youtube.com/results?sp=mAE...+tunnel+slurry

Blurb from a few suppliers (amongst many) of dewatering equipment (dunno who is supplying the Millennium Broadway Project):
https://www.alfalaval.com/industries...rill-slurries/
https://www.sulzer.com/en/shared/app...g-in-tunneling
https://www.mclanahan.com/solutions/dewatering

.

I can't really say much here, but you're incorrect. You can see the conveyor in that photo. The RM transit TBM tour visit should answer most of your Q's. He does a pretty good job of explaining things.

Go have a look from Yukon St. if you want to see what the conveyor belt looks like. There's likely some good spots you can see mid-block near Oak St.