Inauguration of the TBM for the Turin Median Collector on St. Barbara's Day

On St. Barbara's Day, the Herrenknecht ETP TBM was lowered into the launch shaft of the Turin Median Collector. Named Gaia, the TBM has a diameter of 4.08 meters and will excavate a 9.5 km tunnel. The project also includes an additional 5.2 km of tunnels to be excavated using conventional methods. Overall, the excavation will amount to approximately 270,000 cubic meters.

The project was created with the primary objective of avoiding overcharging Turin’s existing sewer network. The new collector represents a second backbone, parallel to the current one, now close to its maximum possible use. There is more: the work also promotes greater environmental sustainability. This is because it will also collect and store so-called “first rainfall waters”, which carry the largest number of pollutants such as hydrocarbons and mineral oils, with damaging effects on human health. The new 14-km-long underground tunnel will be constructed using the mechanical tunnelling technique for the main and service tunnels, with the remainder of the subterranean connections completed using conventional methods. This new system will have a positive influence on 50 municipalities north of the city and another 30 to the south. How? By reducing not only the concentration of pollutants in wastewater, together with phenomena of backflow across the entire surrounding territory.