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Giant tunnel section to be transported on Sai Gon River
A rehearsal to tow a concrete section to the Thu Thiem Tunnel building project in HCM City will take place today, with official installation on Monday.
All vessels will be banned from travelling on the Sai Gon River from 7am on Sunday to midnight on Monday, March 8.
The construction of the tunnel, which is part of the East-West Highway and Water Environment Project, is expected to be completed next year.
The tunnel project, which will link inner HCM City to District 2, consists of four tunnel concrete sections made at a casting station in neighbouring Dong Nai Province's Nhon Trach District.
Luong Minh Phuc, Director of the project's management unit, said the first section, which is 92.4m long, 33.3m wide, 9.1m high and weighs 25,000 tonnes, will be towed from the station to the construction site in District 1 tomorrow for installation next Monday.
With a segment of 22km of waterway running from Nhon Trach to District 1 on the Sai Gon River, four tugboats will tow the module, which will be temporarily covered, allowing it to float about 30cm over the water surface.
Vuong Hoang Thanh, Deputy Director of the project's management unit, said the contractor had dredged nine metres of the riverbed along the stretch that the section will travel.
The average speed of transport will be between 3.7 and 5.5km per hour, and the towing process, with departure at 7am, will take about six hours. Another three sections will be towed and installed in April, May and June.
In addition to four tugboats on duty, the project managers and the contractors have an alternative one, if needed. Two boats and 15 small motorboats will watch the process, Phuc said.
Installation will take about 10 to 13 hours, starting at 9am and ending around 11pm on Monday.
The site where the modules will be installed has been dredged to the depth of 12 to 13 metres, with an estimated volume of 450,000 cu. m of mud.
The contractor will pump water into the module with the two ends covered by steel to gradually lower it into the riverbed.
Global positioning systems will be used as a tool to position the module on its location.
After being located on the site, the contractor will release the water and pump concrete inside it to keep it from floating.
At the same time, a layer of sand will be pumped beneath the module and the contractor will cover its top with a 3-metre layer of sand.
Two positioning rods, 26m high, will be attached to the concrete section for workers to be able to find it during installation. The four sections of the tunnel will be connected in August.
vietnamnews
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