FINAL TUNNELBORING MACHINE BREAKTHROUGH FOR THE MRT PUTRAJAYA LINE

Kuala Lumpur, 17 July 2020:The  MRT Putrajaya Line (previously known as the MRT Sungai Buloh-Serdang-Putrajaya  Line) saw its final tunnel boring machine (TBM) breakthrough at the Ampang  Park MRT Station sitetoday, marking a major milestone for the project.

The TBM, codenamed TBM 774, was launched in September 2019 from Conlay MRT Station site and excavated a section of the MRT tunnel beneath Jalan Stonor, Persiaran KLCC, Jalan Binjai and Jalan Ampang  as well as the LRT Kelana Jaya Line tunnels to the Ampang Park MRT Station site, a distance  of 917 metres.

The breakthrough –where a TBM  completes  its excavation work and bores through the wall and breaks into astation  box or shaft –was witnessed by Datuk  Mohd Zarif Hashim, the newly appointed  Chief Executive Officer of Mass Rapid Transit Corporation Sdn Bhd (MRT Corp).

“We congratulate MMC Gamuda for the TBM breakthrough today. This is a major milestone for the project,” he said duringthe  event.

He added that today’s breakthrough also showed that the project was able to achieve good progress despite  the Covid-19 pandemic.

Also present at the breakthrough were MRT Corp’s Project Director MRT Putrajaya Line Dato’ Amiruddin Ma’aris, MMC Gamuda KVMRT(PDP SSP) Sdn Bhd Directors Dato’ Ir Paul Ha and Datuk Seri Che Khalib Mohd Noh as well as MMC Gamuda MRT Putrajaya Line Project Director Dato’ Wong Wai Ching.MMC Gamuda is the turnkey contractor  for the  construction  of the MRT Putrajaya Line.

With today’s TBM breakthrough,tunnel excavation  for the MRT Putrajaya Line has reached 98% completion. Less than 400m of tunnellingdistance is left and is expected  to be completed  next month.

This remaining sectionis being excavated by the last of the12 TBMs that  were used for the  project. The completion of this remaining section  however will not be as dramatic as today’s breakthrough because the TBM will be dismantled  inside the tunnel when it concludes its job by docking at the  retaining wall of the current Tun Razak Exchange  Station.

Amiruddin said today’s breakthrough was the result of everyone involved in the project  working together  effectively  and diligently to ensure that  the project is completed  on time and  within cost.

“Tunnelling works have been challenging as we had to excavate through three types of geological conditions,  namely karstic limestone, granite and the Kenny Hill Formation.The karstic limestone condition is among the most challenging  type of formation for tunnellers,” he said.

On the Covid-19 pandemic, Amiruddin said MRT Corp and its turnkey contractor placed  utmost importance  on the safety of workers.

“All necessary approvals from the authorities were obtained before  we allowed work to be resumed. All workers who work at our sites undergo the Covid-19 test and this has ensured that  our workers remain healthy and construction  work proceeding smoothly,” added Amiruddin.

The underground  section  of the  MRT Putrajaya Line is 13.5kmin length. To construct the twin tunnels for this section,  12 TBMs were used. Of the 12 TBMs, eight  were previously used for the MRT Kajang  Line (previously known as MRT Sungai Buloh-Kajang Line) and underwent  refurbishment in a plant  in Pusing, Perak-the first time ever that such work was carried out in Malaysia–before being re-deployed  for the MRT Putrajaya Line.The TBMs also underwent improvements and upgrading,including  being able to  be controlled  autonomously with the use of artificial intelligence  algorithms to optimize performance.

The second  line to be constructed  under the  Klang Valley MRT Project, the MRT Putrajaya Line will have 36 stations, of which nine are underground stations. The entire alignment is 56.2km running from Kwasa Damansara to  Putrajaya Sentral.The overall progress of the MRT Putrajaya Line is more than75%