Warsaw metro tunnel crosses under Vistula
PR dla Zagranicy
Nick Hodge
12.08.2013 13:56
A tunnel boring machine (TBM) has completed the first tunnel under the River Vistula in Warsaw's emerging second metro line.
The new section of Warsaw's underground line 2. Photo: PAP/Tomasz Gzell
The TBM, which goes by the name of Krystyna (Christine), has bored through a 600-metre stretch that runs between 7 and 8 metres below the riverbed.
The tunnel connects a pair of new Warsaw landmarks, the Copernicus Science Centre on the left bank, and the National Stadium on the right.
A second tunnel linking the two stops, courtesy of another TBM, is scheduled to start burrowing beneath the Vistula next month.
“At the moment, the TBM is about 200 metres from the Vistula,” city spokesman Bartosz Milczaryk told the Polish Press Agency (PAP).
The central section of the new metro line is due to have seven stations, running east to west (complementing Warsaw's already existing line, which runs from north to south on the western bank of the Vistula).
It was originally envisaged that the new section would be finished by October this year. However, the deadline has now been put back until 30 September 2014.
The entire cost of the investment is 4.17 billion zloty (995 million euro). (nh)