First Thu Thiem tunnel section towed to city
By Kinh Luan - The Saigon Times Daily
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| Tugboats tow the first section of Thu Thiem Tunnel on the Saigon River near Phu My Bridge in HCMC’s Nha Be District yesterday - Photo: Kinh Luan |
HCMC – The HCMC East-West Highway and Water Environment Project Management Board successfully towed Thu Thiem Tunnel’s first section through the Saigon River from the casting basin in Dong Nai Province’s Nhon Trach District to the construction site on Sunday.
Four tugboats from Thailand’s Sriacha Co., a spare French tugboat and 14 additional motorboats towed the section.
The piece was sealed with bulkheads at each end, then lowered into a trench on the riverbed and covered with backfilling material. This will protect the section and maintain its position until it is immersed this morning.
“Contractor Obayashi’s architects and workers will complete basic tasks tomorrow and begin to connect the element with the tunnel the next day,” said Luong Minh Phuc, the management board’s director, on Sunday.
Each unit takes about one month to install. The last unit is due to be attached in June.
The three remaining units - each measuring nine meters high, 33 meters wide and 92 meters long - will be towed to the city on April 5-6, May 4-5 and June 4-5, given suitable river flows.
Tsuno Motonori, chief representative of the Japan International Cooperation Agency, said the tunnel’s installation would be complete late this year. The third package, installing electric-mechanical equipment inside the tunnel, is scheduled to finish in 2011.
The 1.5-kilometer tunnel will link District 1 with District 2’s Thu Thiem peninsula, where a new urban center is being developed.