Shieldhall Tunnel

Following our success on the Lee Tunnel project (waste- and stormwater collection in London), Scottish Water, which runs the public water-management network in that country, entrusted a consortium that included VINCI Construction Grands Projets with the design-build mandate for the Shieldhall Tunnel. The project consists in the construction of 2 shafts 20 metres deep and 15 metres in diameter, a cut-and-cover trench 250 metres long, and a tunnel 5 kilometres long (with an interior diameter of 4.7 metres).

BACKGROUND

The issue of collecting and treating storm- and wastewater in large urban centres is an increasingly pressing reality.
The city of Glasgow’s existing water-management networks were overwhelmed and deteriorating due to age. Scottish Water (the public of the water-management network) decided to launch a call for bids in summer 2013 for the Shieldhall project. The objective was to increase the city of Glasgow’s wastewater-storage capacity to prevent its discharge into the Clyde, Scotland’s second-longest river

TECHNICAL OVERVIEW

This public utility project is part of a major works program launched by Scottish Water, which aims to upgrade the water-collection and distribution system in Glasgow.
To that end, the Shieldhall project includes the construction a 5-kilometre gravity-driven storage tunnel to store stormwater and wastewater in Glasgow, thereby resolving the problem of overflows into the Clyde and helping to clean up the river, while reducing the risk of flooding. The project also calls for the construction of 2 shafts and upgrades to the existing network.
A slurry TBM is the technology used to create the tunnel (excavation diameter: 5.50 m and internal diameter: 4.70 m), one of the Company’s areas of expertise.
The tunnel runs through several former coal mines, thereby requiring preliminary soil-injection work. Yet another challenge is the fact that the TBM bores at shallow depths below 3 railway lines and one motorway (the M77).

“Communities across Glasgow will benefit for years to come from this latest extraordinary feat of engineering which lies hidden deep beneath the city”, Roseanna Cunningham, environment secretary

IMPACT

Shieldhall will be Scotland’s largest wastewater storage tunnel. This public utility is designed to improve the quality of water in Glasgow, reduce the risk of flooding, and reduce pollution in the Clyde River.
This project adds to our many achievements in underground works, including the Hallandsås railway tunnels in Sweden, tunnels in Chile’s El Teniente mine, work on the Hong Kong metro as well as the Cairo metro, where the latest section was delivered in May 2014 five months ahead of schedule.
It also adds to our roster of current underground works in the United Kingdom. Currently, VINCI Construction Grands Projets is carrying out one of three lots of the Tideway Project and 2 contracts as part of the Crossrail construction project (Whitechapel Station and tunnels below Liverpool Street and Whitechapel Stations).

Project participants

Client
Scottish Water

Project management
Scottish Water

Key figures

Implementation dates
September 2014 to 2018   

Concrete
26,150 m3

Steel
480 t

Excavations
147,000 m3

Testimonial

« Scottish Water is a client for which technical issues are important. I believe we were able to provide appropriate responses to the challenges our client faced, especially judging by the excellent technical grades we obtained. Our success on the Lee Tunnel certainly helped to sway Scottish Water. »

LIONEL RAVIX, SECTOR DIRECTOR, BRITISH ISLES

Find out more

www.scottishwater.co.uk

Vidéo Youtube : The Glasgow Shieldhall tunnel

Shieldhall Tunnel now operational as Scotland’s biggest sewer

Awards

“ICE Infrastructure Award 2018”

ice.org.uk/about-ice/near-you/uk/scotland/awards/saltire-awards

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