The event was attended by Adrian-Ioan Vestea, the Minister of Development, Public Works and Administration, Ionut Savoiu, State Secretary at the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, Monica Maria Mihaileanu, Deputy General Director of the National Railway Company “CFR SA”, Apostolos Tzavellos, Technical Director International Projects Aktor SA, as well as other high officials, representatives of the consortium companies and of the manufacturer of TBMs (tunnel boring machines), the German company Herrenknecht.
Drilling works on the tunnels will pierce two massive hills in the area as part of the rehabilitation project of the Brasov-Simeria railway line, part of the Rhine-Danube Corridor, for traffic with a maximum speed of 160 km/h, Brasov-Sighisoara section, subsection 2 Apata-Cata. The project is co-financed by the European Union, and the contract was signed by the National Railway Company (CFR SA) with the consortium of Aktor SA – Alstom Transport SA – Arcada Company.
“We are building an engineering masterpiece for the railway between Brasov and Sighisoara. We drill the longest railway tunnels to exist in Romania through the mountain between Apața and Racos. They will be 24 km long in total. The singularity of the technical challenges due to the soil variable structure makes this project a premiere for Romania. It also highlights Aktor’s capability to implement complex and challenging construction projects, as well as our strong support on the country’s growth”, stated Alexandros Exarchou, Vice President of the Board of Directors and CEO of the Intrakat Group, which includes Aktor.
The first two TBMs, among the biggest in Europe, are named “Eleni” and “Varvara” respectively, in the spirit of mining traditions. Eleni is a symbolic name meaning “Sunbeam” and St. Varvara is the protector of miners.
Eleni is the first TBM machine started today, and it will drill one of the Ormeniș twin tunnels in the mountain, with a length of 6.9 km each, between Racoș and Ormeniș, the southern segment of the railway section that will pierce the hills in the area. A second pair of tunnels, called Homorod, with a length of 5.1 km each, will be drilled between Racoș and Homorod. The tunnels will be connected by galleries: 13 connecting galleries, with a total length of 601 linear meters for the Ormenis tunnel, respectively 10 connecting galleries, with a total length of 417 linear meters for the Homorod tunnel.
The Ormenis/Homorod underpasses will each consist of two railway tunnels with one railway line each. The distance between the two bored tunnels will be variable and is planned to be between 30m near the entrance areas and 70m near the high overburden area.
The four tunnels will have an inner diameter of 8.6 meters (an outer diameter of 9.4 meters, due to the concrete lining). They will be drilled with the help of four TBMs, built by the Herrenknecht company. A TBM can drill large-scale tunnels with an average of 10-15 meters per day, six days per week, and one day of maintenance.