Mladenovic: Two subway moles in Belgrade by September, third should be ordered soon

The director of the Public Utility Company Belgrade Metro and Train Andreja Mladenovic said that two TBMs (tunnel-boring machines), so-called “moles” for the subway, should leave for Serbia from China by ship in June, and that they were expected to arrive in September, while the third should be ordered during the current year.

Mladenovic told Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) that those machines had been made only for the City of Belgrade, and that factory tests were underway, after which they should be disassembled and sent to Belgrade.

– I hope that there will be no problems with the transport itself, these are certain routes that are common for transport from China. They should reach the port of Constanta in Romania, and then be transported along the Danube to Belgrade – he added.

According to him, the fact that the machine will arrive in September does not mean that it will start working then, because its assembly and preparation will follow.

The first phase of the first subway line, he said, will be 11 kilometers long and will involve digging from Makis, where the subway depot is located, to the Pancevo Bridge.

Mladenovic said that Belgrade would also receive a third TBM, which should be ordered in the current year, so that it could arrive the next year to do excavations on the second phase of the first subway line, from the Pancevo Bridge to Mirijevo.

He said that the city planned to use those machines for the second subway line from Bezanija to Mirijevo and the third from Bezanija to Kumodraz, which was in the design phase, and expressed hope that this would be the case.

The design of the third line, he said, began in January last year and will be completed in about two and a half years.

Mladenovic stated that the trains of these machines were about 100 meters long, that they weighed about 150 tons, and that the crew in one shift would consist of between 20 and 30 workers, adding that those would be workers of the main contractor Power China, but also of the Serbian subcontractor Millennium Team.

– The machine works non-stop, and it is only planned to stop where the stations are. The distance between the stations is about a kilometer, and the machine covers an average of 10 meters per day. It can be faster or slower at the beginning, but the contractor says that the average is about 10 meters. And it can be calculated that it needs about three months of work between stations – said Mladenovic.

At the stations, according to him, the machine is repacked and any servicing takes place, which lasts about a month, and then the machine continues to the next station.

JKP Beogradski metro i voz Beograd

Millennium Team d.o.o. Beograd

Power Construction Corporation of China Limited Ogranak Beograd

PUC Belgrade Metro and Train

Power China

Millennium Team

Andreja Mladenović

TBMs

tunnel boring machines

subway moles