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Hubertus Tunnel

The Hubertus Tunnel forms the last part-section of the Northern Randweg in Den Haag/NL. It is 1.6 km long making it the longest inner urban tunnel in the Netherlands. The tunnel consists of 2 ramp structures (Landscheidingsweg which is some 224 m long and Hubertusdüne which is roughly 122 m) and 2 two-lane, approx. 1,490 m tunnel tubes with 10.20 m external diameter. They were driven one after the other from northeast to southwest using the hydro-shield method. This makes the Hubertus Tunnel the first shield driven tunnel to be produced in an inner urban area in the Netherlands. The geology along the tunnel route dates back to the Holocene era. The Formations encountered along the route largely consist of silty fine sands with medium-dense beds of beach sands. The groundwater level is located at approx. +1.5 m NAP (New Amsterdam Level). At the deepest point of its route the Hubertus Tunnel has overburden of some 13.5 m. The greatest overburden amounts to 22 m and is located at the Hubertusdüne. The tunnel route has a maximum downward gradient of 5 % and a maximum incline of 4%. Its minimum radius amounts to roughly 540 m. Its deepest point is located at -18.0 m NAP and the maximum water pressure lies at around 2 bar. The ramp structures for the accesses were produced by conventional means, i.e. all reinforced concrete parts were produced in an excavation pit. The excavation pit for the starting shaft at the Landscheidingsweg was built from heavy sheeting walls-type AZ.-50. The two tunnel tubes were driven by a mixshield TBM with 10.51 m external diameter and lined with reinforced concrete segments. The TBM cutting wheel consisted of a 4-part cutting wheel centre and 8 cutting arms, enclosed by a cutting wheel rim. The cutting arms were fitted with a total of 96 cutters. The back-up system was altogether some 49 m long and consisted of the main components trailers 1 and 2, intermediate bridge and segment feeder. As the TBM had to be completely dismantled after finishing the first bore in the course of the driving operations and had to be entirely reassembled for the second one, the TBM possessed a modular design with easy to assemble major components. The tunnel was lined with segments, with the segmental rings formed from 7+ 1/2 segments. Left-hand and right-hand conic rings were applied. The installed segments are 40 cm thick, 2.0 m wide and were produced from B 55 concrete. In addition the tunnel lining was also provided with a shotcrete fire protection covering, which was installed on the tunnel inner shell. Five cross-passages at 250 m gaps between the two tunnel tubes were created to cater for the necessary safety in the tunnel. These cross-passages, which are all located below the groundwater level, were produced protected by ground freezing. The southern tunnel tube was driven from July to November 2006. Then the TBM was retrieved, completely dismantled, returned to the starting shaft within a night and reassembled to excavate the northern tube. The complete back-up system was pulled back through the tunnel after being uncoupled from the shield. The northern tube was driven from February till June 2007. The Hubertus Tunnel was officially opened on October 1st, 2008.

 

  • Country: Netherlands
  • Region: The Hague
  • Tunnel utilization: Traffic
  • Type of utilization: Road Tunnel
  • Client: Gemeente Den Haag, Netherlands
  • Consulting Engineer: TEC Tunnel Engineering Consults
  • Test Engineer/Construction Supervision: Gemeente Den Haag
  • Contractor: JV BAM Civiel, Netherlands/Wayss & Freytag Ingenieurbau AG, Benelux Branch/Van Hattum & Blankevoort, Netherlands
  • Main construction method: Trenchless
  • Type of excavation: Shield machine (SM)
  • No. of tubes: 2
  • Tunnel total length: 2,980 m
  • Cross-section: 86.8 m² (bored diameter)
  • Contract Volume: July 2004 till September 2008
  • Construction start/end: October 2008