Ethiopian GD-3 TBM equipment officially starts

Updated: 2013-08-15

On Aug 10, relevant responsible persons of Ethiopian Electric Power Company and CGGC pressed down simultaneously on the start button of the TBM equipment, the cutter head of the new-generation tunnel boring machine that CGGC possesses proprietary intellectual property right began to work and a giant belt carried a steady flow of earth outside the tunnel, marking the official start of the TBM equipment in the GD-3 Hydropower Station.

Ethiopian GD3 (GENALE MULTIPURPOSE) Hydropower Station has an installed capacity of 254,000 kilowatts. The diversion tunnel of the project has a diameter of 8.1 meters and a total length of 12,336 meters, of which a length of 10,399 meters was built by means of TBM construction method. The φ8.1 meters hard-rock tunnel boring machine (DSU TBM), which is used in the GD-3 project, integrates the flexibility of open TBM and safety of shield-type TBM, representing a new-generation hard-rock excavating equipment in the world.