Vegas Tunnel Constructors
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VEGAS TUNNEL CONSTRUCTORS LAKE MEAD INTAKE NO. 3 THE LAKE MEAD INTAKE NO. 3 PROJECT BY VEGAS TUNNEL CONSTRUCTORS DEMONSTRATES THAT PROJECTS ONCE THOUGHT IMPOSSIBLE CAN BE ACCOMPLISHED WRITTEN BY KEVIN DOYLE, SENIOR EDITOR PRODUCED BY DANIEL VITALE
Vegas Tunnel Constructors Lake Mead Intake No. 3
Vegas Tunnel Constructors Lake Mead Intake No. 3
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HERE WAS west slope o level at Neva spillway req The steady decline the United States left endangered the existi and approximately tw County under the pur The Lake Mead Int – awarded to S.A. He doing business as Veg construction of an ac boring machine (TBM tunnel and an intake “This new intake t is a tap of the lake ab your bathtub full of w it’s full,” says Vice Pre
Concrete placement barge-Lake Mead12000 c.y. placed under 350-feet of water
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NO DENYING THE decade-long drought along the of the Rocky Mountains that had caused the water ada’s Lake Mead to drop as low as 140 feet below the quired remediation. over the years of the largest man-made reservoir in hundreds of acres of the lake above water level and ing water intake so crucial to the seven water districts wo million residents of desert communities in Clark rview of the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA). take No. 3 Project $447 million design/build contract ealy Co. and Impregilo S.p.A., an owner of S.A. Healy, gas Tunnel Constructors – included the design and ccess shaft, two connection stub tunnels, a tunnel M) launch chamber, a TBM starter tunnel, an intake e structure. tunnel is three miles under Lake Mead and then there bout three miles out. I like to say it’s like you’ve got water and now we are putting the drain into it while esident of Operations Jim McDonald.
Vegas Tunnel Constructors Lake Mead Intake No. 3 Vegas Tunnel Constructors’ dynamic solution stretches the boundaries of conventional wisdom within the tunnel building industry. The Lake Mead Intake No. 3 Project, targeted for June 2014 completion, will guard against potential inoperability of two existing intake tunnels while allowing SNWA to draw better quality water from the deeper elevation and location in the lake. “I guess the key element for me is the incredible technology we are bringing to bear on this. It is probably the most technically complex tunnel being built,” says McDonald. “The technology of tunneling has increased just like everything else with electronics
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Cutterhead of 23.5 foot Boring Machine
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and miniaturization. So I think that we are probably leading a trend. This is showing that projects and ideas that were once thought to be maybe impossible are actually possible.” “There are a lot of first-time operations occurring here that haven’t happened ever, I guess it’s safe to say,” adds Project Manager Jim Nickerson. GENERAL OPERATIONS
Tunnel
Vegas Tunnel Constructors has self-performed approximately 95 percent of the work on the project with the remainder subcontracted to specialty contractors. Tunnel workers were hired both locally and from
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throughout the Western States while operators of the hybrid TBM designed and supplied by Herrenknecht were trained at the company’s plant in Germany for six weeks. “Also, there obviously isn’t a lot of marine work that occurs in the desert in Nevada, so we had special requirements to find personnel such as a tugboat captain with a 200-ton license. A towing endorsement required us to search outside this area to bring people in from out of state,” says Nickerson. Peak employment during the project has been 140-plus hourly workers and approximately 50 professional staff. Normally, the project runs about 100 hourly workers. Tunnel excavation is expected to be done by October 2013. According to McDonald, work in the lake was completed in early March and the tunnel boring has started. The company has garnered numerous safety awards for the manner in which it has addressed the project’s unique hazards. Just like deepwater
Vegas Tunnel Constructors Lake Mead Intake No. 3 SUPPLIER STATS
Shotcrete Technologies, Inc. EST’d: 2001 Industry: Concrete & Materials Services: Shotcrete Robotic Arms, Pumps, Accelerators, Technical expertise and training. On-Going Projects: Lake Mead Outlet, Vegas Tunnel, Barrick Goldstrike, San Diego LRT, Caracas Subway etc. etc.
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divers, tunnel workers face decompression sickness as they work under conditions of up to 250 pounds per square inch. The company is partnering with a specialized diving consultant from France who used to work with the famed Jacques Cousteau. “The people are pressuriz two 40-hour classes where them. We do physical exam and suitable for this type of During the course of the number of colleges. “The ge specific interest from the ge
President: Kristian Loevlie Visit Website
THE TECHNOLOGY
The 1500-ton TBM by Herr
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Rear of TBM backup equipment at TBM startup
zed in air rather than water. We put these guys through we compress them and do a test of the pressure on ms and x-rays and make sure everyone is perfectly fit f work. It’s a dangerous activity,” says McDonald. project, VTC has developed associations with a eology here is quite complex, so it brings a lot of eology side,” adds Nickerson.
renknecht is perhaps the most complex of its kind ever
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built; engineered to withstand pressures under which no TBM has previously worked. “It’s very complicated and allows us to pressurize the face in front of the TBM so if water is running into the tunnel from the ground we can put air pressure onto the face of the machine and essentially stop the water from coming in, or even push it out,” says McDonald. “It bores a hole about twenty-three and one-half feet in diameter and erects a ring of pre-cast concrete liners inside of its own shield. This keeps all the workers safe as we dig the tunnel.” TBM operators carving out the rock face directly in front of them don’t have the luxury of road builders, who can rely on visual markers to determine if a mistake was made. A state-of-the-art survey system continually feeds information into the onboard computer, guiding machine operators around curves or keeping it straight as necessary. “It is very sophisticated. When we get to the end of the three-mile tunnel we anticipate being within
Vegas Tunnel Constructors Lake Mead Intake No. 3 SUPPLIER STATS
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less than an inch of where we intended to be,” says McDonald. “The computer also calculates exactly how to erect the pre-cast ring, which is actually tapered.” The project also involved lowering shaped charges from barges to blast a hole into the lake bottom 350 feet below the surface, excavation. The 1200-ton c and lowered into the hole w “This is all very complica knowledge this is the first t says McDonald. Once in place, the intake concrete, roughly 1,200 tru out into the lake on barges.
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w
d End of TBM Starter Tunnel Excavation
, yielding the equivalent of 43,000 cubic yards of concrete and steel intake structure was then floated out with a strand-jack system. ated too since it is being done without divers. To our time this type of intake structure has ever been done,�
e structure was encased in 12,000 cubic yards of uckloads, from cement mixers transported two miles .
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SUPPLIER STATS BMT Acquisition, LLC Employees: 150 Industry: Steel engineering, fabrication
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SUPPLIER STATS CONSUMERS PIPE & SUPPLY Employees: 40 Industry: Industrial Wholesaler Services: : Pipe, Valves, and Fittings Visit Website
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“We performed multi-beam and sonar survey during the whole course of the excavation. When we lowered the main component of the intake structure, a guiding frame was placed first, a big square the intake structure sits on with cigar buoys at each corner. The buoys held a cable attached to the guiding frame so they went all the way through the depth of the lake. Over a two and one-half week time, we surveyed many, many times to make sure this intake structure was going to be set on the right spot,� says Nickerson. The entire operation was executed by using an ROV, or mini-submarine, outfitted with lights, camera and pincer
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SUPPLIER STATS Austin Powder Co Industry: Manufacturing Services: Mining Construction
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Lake Mead Intake No 3 construction site-600-foot deep Access Shaft under gantry crane
manipulator device. Once the intake structure was in place at the lake bottom, the ROV removed the pins connecting the intake structure to the strand jacks. “The accuracy and level of the intake structure is amazing. You have a 1200-ton structure sitting on top of something that hasn’t been touched by man that is probably more level than your kitchen floor,” Nickerson points out.
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SUSTAINABILITY
The project is located within the Lake Mead National Recreational Area managed by the National Park Service. Vegas Tunnel Constructors’ efforts to enhance the aesthetics of the park and lake have been wellreceived by park officials. “Sustainability on this project is kind of different. All materials excavated are being used somehow. Typically, you would take the excavated material to a dump or a landfill. On this job the materials are being used to help build a viewshed berm to block the view of the water treatment plant,” says Nickerson. Completion of the project will provide Nevada with a more reliable source for the specific allotment of water it can take from the Colorado River. “Even if it wasn’t a drought condition here, we would still be getting better quality water that the client doesn’t have to pay as much for treatment,” Nickerson notes. “Most people in our tunneling fraternity are generally amazed when they see this project. And
Vegas Tunnel Constructors Lake Mead Intake No. 3
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Crew installing screw conveyor int
the general public almost never sees tunneling – it’s don through or ride the subway. I remember being a kid and when we went through the Rockies and drove through all feel right now with this project,” McDonald conclude
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to back of Tunnel Boring Machine
ne and you either drive d thought it was so cool the tunnels. That’s how we es.
STATISTICS
Name: Vegas Tunnel Constructors JV Country: USA Est: 2008 Industry: Construction Premiere service: Tunnel boring and construction VP Operations: Jim McDonald Website: www.vtcjv.com, www.sahealy.com/lakemead. html
Vegas Tunnel Constructors
244 Lakeshore Rd, Boulder City, NV 89005
702.893.2300 www.vtcjv.com
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