Herrenknecht AG Receives Bauma Innovation Award 2022

Herrenknecht AG has received the highly coveted Bauma Innovation Award 2022 in the category “Machine Technology” for the new development of continuous tunneling.

Up until now mechanised tunneling with shield machines in soft ground has always been a stop-and-go sequential process. The new continuous tunneling system, developed by the engineers at the Schwanau tunneling machine manufacturer, achieves a notable increase in efficiency during tunnel construction.

Particularly in the case of longer tunnel sections, continuously organised tunneling leads to measurable savings in construction time. At the heart of continuous tunneling is a powerful computer system and process-specific software programmes that can precisely calculate the necessary pressures in the thrust cylinders. It ensures that the machine operator can reliably control the tunnel boring machine along the specified alignment as before. With continuous tunneling, an increase in total tunneling performance of up to a factor of 1.6 can be achieved compared to the previous discontinuous method. The continuous advance method is being applied for the first time by Herrenknecht’s long-term innovation partner Bouygues Travaux Publics in the major High Speed 2 project (Chiltern tunnel, 2×16 km) – a new rail link between London and Birmingham in the U.K.

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