Residents of King Fahd neighborhood celebrated the arrival of Thaqba TBM at first ‎Station on Riyadh Metro Blue Line

On March 12, 2016‎, with the participation of a group of residents of King Fahad Neighborhood, the High Commission for the Development of Arriyadh has celebrated Thaqba TBM arrival to the first station on Riyadh Metro Blue Line (Al-Olaya – Al-Batha Axis).

In its quest to promote involvement of the residents of Riyadh in their first of its kind project, the High Commission for the Development of Arriyadh invited a group of King Fahad neighborhood residents, the German ambassador, and a delegation from the US embassy to celebrate Thaqba TBM arrival to the first station of Riyadh Metro Blue Line after completing a 1.3-km tunnel.

The Blue Line is 38 kilometers long with four TBMs (Manifah, Thaqba, Samilah, and Thirbah) working on its four sections.

During the visit, the invitees watched the modern technologies and multiple functions of the giant TBM (Thaqba), which causes no vibration or noise to the surface while boring the tunnel and lining it with precast concrete segmental linings.

Thaqba is one of seven TBMs specially manufactured for the project to bore ‎35 kilometers of tunnels ‎along ‎the three metro lines (Orange, Green and Blue), and install precast concrete segmental linings as ‎they move ‎along these tunnels.‎ The TBMs length ranges from 90 to 120 meters, with each TBM weighing approximately 2,000 tons, ‎and ‎digging away about 50 truckloads of earth daily.