8km tunnel dewatering

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In a big powerplant project in Chile, 70km of tunnels were being drilled around the Andes. By design the tunnelling was separated into main tunnels and smaller supply tunnels. One of the latter ones was built with a total length of more than 8km for the purpose of providing access to the main tunnelling area. During the construction of this supply tunnel plenty of water had to be removed over a long distance.

Contractor: Tsurumi Europe Engineering Team
Tsurumi support: Engineering on site, training of local specialists as well as development of dewatering concepts.

The problem

The supply tunnel had been smaller in terms of dimension, hence space was very limited and would not allow for conventional dewatering by installation of several basins and pumping stations. Furthermore, ongoing traffic by trucks, diggers, excavators made the small available space even smaller.

The solution

The Tsurumi engineering team assessed the situation on site and proposed a solution of dry installed pumps in serial connection at different distances. Furthermore, the installation was fixed on the tunnel walls in order to save as much space as possible. Each installed pump managed to transport drainage water over a distance of 4 km.

Specifications LH

In the event of abrasive and corrosive utilization, stronger wear and tear will take place naturally in certain components. With regards to the above application wear and tear can take place mainly in impeller, agitator, suction plate, shaft sleeve, oil ring, mechanical seal, pump casing, strainer, motor casing and discharge coupling. Depending on the working conditions the lifetime of those parts might vary significantly and can be shorter than the legal warranty period.

In this regard, please pay attention to our general terms and conditions that we also send to you by mail on request.