Selection of the most appropriate excavation method and equipment for the underground railway line between San Pedro de Alcantara and Estepona

Selection of the most appropriate excavation method and equipment for the underground railway line between San Pedro de Alcantara and Estepona
Paymacotas - Malaga (Spain) - 2009

I got a great opportunity to perform my final project during five months in a civil engineering Spanish company PaymaCotas (in a southern department in Malaga). Moreover my supervisor was independent tunneling consultant Nicola Della Valle. That period was concentrated by loads of new knowledge. The idea of the project was to choose the most appropriate method and equipment for the underground railway which was for that moment in a stage "Proyecto". Apart of studies of:

project' current information
geological content of the aria and surroundings
design of the prefabricated lining rings for both tunnels (D=10,6m and 8.6m)
classifications of the nowadays wide used excavation methods and equipment
cost
etc

There was an idea of large State-of-the-Art data-base creation. The numerous sources were applied to collect all the necessary figures for mentioned database. As a result the database included about 700 projects all over the world with main information about them (name, machinery' manufacturer, diameter of the tunnel, lining' data, main technical characteristics of machinery, geology and year of the construction). After all various tables, graphs and charts were obtained and essential numbers and figures were gathered to support the main idea of the project.

To be mentioned, all the the project' meetings/mailing/consulting were registered in minutes meetings.

There are some of the drawings/illustrations presented below.