A pair of Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs), nicknamed Rexy and Renny, have completed excavation of two 6.3 km long tunnels required to build the Eglinton Crosstown West Extension light rail transit project.
The tunnelling process began in 2021, when West End Connectors Construction (a construction partnership between Aecon, Dragados Canada and Ghella Canada) began work on the launch shaft. The first parts of the TBMs arrived on site late that year.
Tunnelling started in April 2022, with Renny being the first TBM to begin work. Rexy followed in late July.
Starting at Renforth Drive in Mississauga, Ontario, the two 750-tonne, 131-metre-long machines worked eastward to Scarlett Road in Etobicoke.
Renny broke through the final wall in May, about three weeks after Rexy reached the finish line.
In late June, Renny’s 70-tonne cutterhead was removed from the extraction shaft marking an key milestone for the transportation project.
“Completing this important phase of tunnelling work will help build even more momentum behind the project as construction progresses across the entire line,” said Metrolinx President and CEO Phil Verster.
“This is a significant milestone for the Eglinton Crosstown West Extension because it means we are a big step closer to bringing rapid transit to more communities and reducing travel times for customers by up to 24 minutes.”
The two tunnel boring machines were manufactured in Germany by Herrenknecht, a pioneer in tunnel boring machines for transportation, mining and utilities.
Rexy and Renny are capable of operating up to 20 metres below ground and can dig up to 75 metres per week, equalling 500 cubic metres of earth moved per day. The TBMs operate 24/7, only stopping for scheduled maintenance.
You may also like:
- Eglinton Crosstown demonstrates the versatility of Merlo telehandlers
- Metrolinx to incorporate SoilFLO software to manage soil tracking
- Building a station below a station for the Crosstown LRT
For the Eglinton Crosstown West Extension, each 6.3-km-long tunnel has a 5.75-metre internal diameter. To complete the task, Rexy and Renny dug about 1.2 million tonnes of earth, which is 93 per cent of the excavation required for the underground portion of the line.
The TBMs also installed more than 52,000 pre-cast concrete segments required to construct 7,433 sturdy rings that support the tunnel walls.
Now that Rexy and Renny have completed the tunnelling, work continues at the extraction shaft to lay the foundations and form the structure of the future tunnel portal. Over the months to come, crews will complete work on the passageways that connect the tunnels.
The Eglinton Crosstown LRT is the largest public transit investment in the history of the Greater Toronto Area.
When complete, the Eglinton Crosstown West Extension will expand the LRT 9.2 km further west, adding seven stations for passengers to board the rapid transit system. The full LRT line will run from Renforth Drive in Mississauga to Kennedy Road in Scarborough.
Rexy and Renny and the fifth and sixth TBMs used in construction of the Crosstown. Previously, TBMs Don, Humber, Dennis and Lea completed tunnel construction that was required along the first 19-km of the line in 2016
