Construction of the Tuen Mun–Chek Lap Kok Link Sub-sea Tunnels in Hong Kong

Abstract

The entire Tuen Mun–Chek Lap Kok Link (TM-CLKL) was commissioned on 27 December 2020 and comprises a 9 km dual twolane carriageway between Tuen Mun and North Lantau, Hong Kong. The challenges for the construction of the TM-CLKL tunnels included sub-sea tunnelling up to 55 m below sea level in mixed ground geology that required replacement of tunnel boring machine (TBM) cutting tools at hyperbaric pressure up to 5.8 bars; replacement of worn TBM cutting tools in complicated ground conditions; construction of approach tunnels in newly reclaimed land subject to long-term consolidation; and construction of cross passages at 100-metre intervals between the two sub-sea tunnels with a risk of sea water ingress at 5.5 bars. This project has deployed sophisticated techniques to surmount the challenges encountered during construction of the five-kilometre-long sub-sea tunnels. These included the use of the world’s largest slurry-type Mixshield TBM, 17.63 m in diameter, for the construction of the northern approach tunnel, followed by two 14 m diameter slurry-type Mixshield TBMs for the construction of the sub-sea tunnels; use of saturation diving techniques for TBM cutterhead interventions up to 5.8 bars which was the first such works in Hong Kong and one of only a few uses of saturation diving in tunnelling worldwide; use of ground freezing techniques in complicated ground conditions for TBM interventions to change worn cutting tools at the TBM cutterhead; TBM tunnelling in newly reclaimed land at the northern landfall and the southern landfall; and the construction of cross passages by mini-TBM using pipe jacking methods between the two main tunnel tubes which was the first such works ever undertaken anywhere in the world. This paper introduces the successful implementation of these techniques for the satisfactory completion of the TM-CLKL sub-sea tunnels.