Bouygues Travaux Publics, Highways Department (HK SAR), and Aecom - Tuen Mun Chek Lap Kok Link

In August 2013, Dragages Hong Kong Ltd and Bouygues Travaux Publics were awarded the largest construction contract ever awarded from the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region: Design and Build of the Tuen Mun – Chek Lap Kok Link (TM-CLKL) Northern Connection Sub-sea Tunnel Section. This new highway provides an alternative access route to the Hong Kong International Airport, located on Chek Lap Kok Island, which, until now, was accessible only via the Tsing Ma Bridge. TM-CLKL connects the Northwest New territories (and the southern Chinese mega-city of Shenzhen, entrance gate to Mainland China) to Zhuhai and Macao via the new Hong Kong – Zhuhai – Macao Bridge. The artificial island of Hong Kong Port (HKP) which forms the southern landfall of the tunnel is the heart of this new cross-border route. The about 4.5km long sub-sea section of the dual 2-lane tunnel is made up of two tubes built with two slurry Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs) of 14m excavation diameter. At both ends, the North (630m) and South (670m) approach tunnels were built in freshly reclaimed land. Whilst the Hong Kong Port artificial island was constructed under a separate contract, the completion of the northern landfall reclamation, in a very short time-frame, was the first challenge faced by the Project team. For the sub-sea tunnel construction, numerous innovative solutions were implemented to overcome the challenging ground conditions and the hydrostatic pressure in excess of 5 bars at tunnel face. Two 14m diameter TBMs were used for the 4.5km long sub-sea drives, although the first TBM started its drive as the world’s largest diameter TBM (17.63m) over the initial 630m before being reconfigured as a 14m diameter TBM for the sub-sea section. For cutting tool replacement, a saturation diving operation and fully automatic robotic arms were developed to carry out approximately 2000 cutter changes on both TBM cutter heads. Another major challenge was the construction of 41 sub-sea cross passages between the main tunnels for which pipe jacking methodology with mini TBM was adapted for the project. Apart from TBM drives, innovative design solutions were developed for the construction of the shafts and Cut and Cover sections including a 500m-long, 43m-deep caterpillar-shaped cofferdam with 15 cells.

This award seeks to recognise excellence in delivery of a tunnelling project or tunnelling-related element of a project over the value of $500M that was completed between July 2019 and July 2020 Judges will be looking to reward the project that best meets or exceeds the design brief and/or client expectation but that also have sought to advance industry best practice and have worked in a truly collaborative way.

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