The Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) will bore a 2.2-kilometer-long tunnel on the S19 Rzeszów Południe-Babica expressway. At the moment, the process of assembling the individual components of the TBM is underway, which will then be assembled. At the same time, geotechnical work is being carried out on the south portal. These will enable the machine to drill into the rock mass and begin the tunneling process.

Transportation of the machine

Transporting such a huge machine was a huge undertaking and required careful analysis to choose the optimal route. We have delineated it together with a team of dozens of scientists from Rzeszow University of Technology and Silesian University of Technology.

The machine arrived in one of Poland's largest ports, Szczecin, by sea from Santander, Spain. The machine components were then reloaded onto barges and pontoons to reach Opole along the Oder River. The next stage was road transport from Opole to the construction site in Babica.

The entire transport with cargo weighed nearly 500 tons. In order to minimize the inconvenience of blocking traffic on the designated route, the TBM only moved at night. The transport itself was extremely spectacular, and its passage was watched by the whole of Poland. Hundreds of local residents followed live the tremendous precision shown by the transport team.

The route chosen was not the shortest, but it was the safest. We traveled on new roads, the load-bearing capacity of which allowed the safe passage of a transport of such heavy weight.

With the transport of the TBM from Spain to Poland, we have reached an important milestone in the construction of the tunnel that is part of the S19 expressway.

Watch the TBM transport summary video wiche  we prepared for you: