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TUNNEL DRILL. This Japan-made TBM, the first of six to be shipped to the country, will be used to excavate tunnels for the 17-station Metro Manila project. —PHOTO COURTESY OF DOTR
MANILA, Philippines – Transportation officials are one step closer to construction of the 17-station Metro Manila Project, as the first of six Japanese-made TBMs will be shipped to the country in January 2021.
Measuring 6.99 meters in diameter and 95 meters in length, the 700-ton TBMs will be used to excavate underground and lay the tunnels for the 34-kilometer project, which will span Barangay Ugong in the city of Valenzuela and the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. in the city of Pasay.
Six of the 25 total TBMs requested by the Philippines will be used for the partially operational section of the subway, which will run from Valenzuela to North Avenue in Quezon City.
The TBMs were manufactured by the Japanese company JIM Technology Corp. in Tsurumi prefecture, Japan.
“Each of these gigantic machines can lay up to 12 meters of tunnel segments per day and excavate up to 600 cubic meters of soil daily,” said Under Secretary for Rail Transportation Timothy John Batan.
Officials from JIM and Shimizu Corp. in Japan presented the TBMs in a virtual live demonstration from Tokyo, Japan, on Saturday.
Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade said it was an “early Christmas present” for Filipinos, who may have thought the subway project had been halted due to the pandemic.
“Now they are surprised to see that the first metro in Manila [project] it is not forgotten and, in fact, we continue to work and collaborate with our Japanese partners. [amid] the pandemic, ”Tugade said.
He added that “no COVID-19 can hinder or block us to make sure this dream comes true.”
In March 2018, the government signed a P51 billion loan agreement with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) to boost the project.
The total cost of the metro is estimated at P393 billion.
During the virtual visit, the Japanese Ambassador to the Philippines, Koji Haneda, and Eigo Azukizawa, Jica’s chief representative, expressed their optimism that “there is light at the end of the tunnel” in the upcoming construction of the railway system.
“While it may be incomparable with an actual physical inspection of TBM production on site, which, unfortunately, is quite difficult to do under the current circumstances, what we have witnessed today nonetheless demonstrates that the completion of the Project Metro Manila is gaining momentum. Azukizawa said.
The first metro in the country is expected to partially operate in 2022 and serve 370,000 passengers daily in its first year.
The Department of Transportation (DOTr) expects all stations to be fully operational by 2026, with a design capacity of 1.5 million passengers per day.
In September 1973, the then Japanese Overseas Technical Cooperation Agency (ACTO) conceived the first metro in Metro Manila in its “Study of Urban Transport in the Metropolitan Area of Manila”.
Batan noted that as early as the 1970s and 1980s, neighboring countries such as South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan were able to build their own subway systems.
“After almost half a century and six administrations of the 1973 ACTO study … now it is the Philippines’ turn to finally build our first metro, using for the first time not just one, but a fleet of 25 rail tunnel boring machines,” he said. he said the official.
In February, DOTr first revealed the major parts of a TBM, including the guard jack, cutter reduction gear motor, main bearings, and linkage jack.
The inauguration ceremony of the metro project took place in February 2019.
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