Tunnelling under the Suez Canal in Port Said

Quelle/credit: Wayss & Freytag

Location of Port Said Tunnel

Quelle/credit: Wayss & Freytag

Segment factory, tunnel boring machine

Quelle/credit: Wayss & Freytag

Basic plan of the site installation yard over 2 000 000 m²

Quelle/credit: Wayss & Freytag

Geological longitudinal section of Port Said Tunnel

Quelle/credit: Wayss & Freytag

Buildings aids for the shield start-up, concrete casing pipe, shield cradle and rear stiffening structure

Quelle/credit: Wayss & Freytag

Multi-function service vehicle for supplying the TBMs

Quelle/credit: Wayss & Freytag

Concept of exiting into the target shaft

Quelle/credit: Wayss & Freytag

TBM entering the target shaft on the west side of the Suez Canal

Quelle/credit: Wayss & Freytag

Diagram of safe haven, diaphragm wall block/box intended as maintenance bay prior to undertunnelling the Suez Canal (on the left: longitudinal

section, on the right: horizontal section)

Quelle/credit: Wayss & Freytag

Checking tools in the safe haven

Quelle/credit: Wayss & Freytag

Transport shuttle for compressed air work

Quelle/credit: Wayss & Freytag

In future, the road tunnel beneath the Suez Canal to the south of the city of Port Said in northern Egypt will link the Lower Egyptian mainland with the Sinai Peninsula. The tunnel project is part of the Egyptian government’s plan for the economic development of the Suez Canal region presented in 2014. Towards this end, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s government is concentrating on international trade and building up the cities of Suez, Ismailia and Port Said. By constructing the road tunnel, the ongoing substantial delays resulting from having to cope with heavy-duty and passenger traffic on ferries are to be alleviated. This article deals with the construction of the two roughly 2.9 km long tunnel tubes with an external diameter of 12,60 m, in the proximity of Port Said under somewhat out of the ordinary circumstances.

Within the scope of the Masterplan dating from 2014, the projects in Ismailia and Port Said, which are located at the Suez Canal, were executed almost simultaneously. As a result, two road tunnels, each with two lanes plus a hard shoulder, were driven in Ismailia as two other, almost identical tunnels were being constructed in Port Said. Originally the tunnel boring machines (TBMs) were intended to drive a further tunnel alongside the two newly created ones. In the meantime, this scheme has been shelved.

All four drives (Ismailia and Port Said) were excavated by means of the hydro-shield method...