just fastest-growing cities the problem
is this severe traffic now there's an
ambitious solution
a new transit system that will criss
cross not only the city but the entire
region of greater Kuala Lumpur huge
machines will bore into Kuala Lumpur
stretchers bedrock to carve out almost
twenty kilometres of tunnel every day of
construction the engineers confront the
perils of mechanical failure fire and
collapse get it wrong and billions of
dollars of investment
and the streets of Kuala Lumpur and it's
pent-up economy will stay trapped in
Griffith
Kuala Lumpur is one of Asia's most
vibrant cities it's looking to compete
with the region's Asian tiger economies
it's magnificent skyline testifies to
its soaring ambition but its street
level it's a different story the city is
blighted by severe congestion that
threatens its future growth over 7
million people live and work in the
Kuala Lumpur region the Klang Valley
every day they head into town in 4
million cars as an alternative a light
rail transit system was built but over
time it has been overwhelmed and
connections are inadequate
now there's a solution a new mass rapid
transit system that will reduce the
pressure on traffic and unite far-flung
parts of the city for any modern
metropolis to be vibrant to be
competitive to be on par with some of
the leading cities in the world
you've got to have a modern public
transport system the Klang Valley mass
rapid transit system the kV MRT is Kuala
Lumpur bid for greatness three different
routes comprising more than 150
kilometers of brand-new line it will be
seamless travel around the Klang Valley
you know that is especially the areas of
high concentration population and the
first stage of the plan is the biggest
test of all this is the soon I below
Kijang line it will stretch 51
kilometers with 31 new stations and 1/5
of the new line will have to be
constructed underground to do this 10
giant tunnel boring machines or TBMs
will be brought to kuala lumpur and set
to work
these mighty engines do much more than
burrow through Rock astonishing though
that process is as the huge drill
crunches forward the back end constructs
the tough tunnel frame with
high-strength concrete in charge of this
massive operation is engineering veteran
Satpal Walker most cities now for
railway mass transit systems the tunnels
are built using TBMs because of safety
issues and and because of ground
conditions on the underground section of
the new MRT will be a perilous
undertaking for beneath Kuala Lumpur is
a formidable engineering challenge below
the city are two very different kinds of
rock and the TBMs will have to deal with
both the western area is known as Kenny
Hill and the eastern areas as the Kuala
Lumpur limestone imagine the difference
between a Dutch Edam and a Swiss cheese
riddled with holes dr. Ian Hawke is the
project geologist an expert on kuala
lumpur underground world I got this
Dutch Edam cheese here as you can see
this whole piece of cheese is fairly
homogeneous very tight and Kenny Hill
then is bedded they look something like
this
this is like the KL limestone alright
this is Swiss cheese as you can see
there are a lot of cavities and whites
inside the cheese this voice can be
transmitted all the way to the other
side of the cheese things can move in
from one hole to another hole and he may
come in vertically and go out laterally
the most formidable challenge lies
beneath the eastern areas of Kuala
Lumpur which rest on a huge slab of
lines
over millions of years torrents of
acidic rainwater have eaten away the
layers of rock to sculpt a hidden
landscape of pinnacles cavities
interconnected passageways and colossal
caves is a surface cast or limestone
peel you can say now imagine when we
underground and all these are covered
with soy it is totally a different
ballgame so when you tunnel to this kind
of material there are a lot of
unforeseen circumstances which would be
a nightmare for a family this is the
worst nightmare of all the drill head
hits weak cavities and the rock caves in
on the cutter head the solution is this
stuff slurring at the head of the drill
is a high pressure chamber that injects
a liquid called bentonite slurry into
the cavities before they can collapse
this ingenious system was used by the
engineers who built the smart tunnel in
Kuala Lumpur the world's first combined
storm and traffic tunnels but builders
learned some hard lessons about slurry
and away was a rookie engineer on this
project we had the best machines in the
world in the smart project but we still
do have some problems
we just couldn't control the slurry and
it easily escapes to the surface
creating simple but onion the
engineering team found to their cost was
that the slurry they injected into the
limestone cavities could escape into
surrounding rocks and cause havoc
bursting from the ground like a geyser
or creating sinkholes at the surface
that might suck in people cars or
buildings today unhedged the tunnel team
building Kuala Lumpur MRT system and
this time he had to find a solution to
the uncontrollable slurry problem
working with German company Harun
connect and the team of engineers have
come up with a revolutionary kind of
machine we put in joy all the ideas we
have brainstorming sessions we consult a
lot of experts we have to do a lot of
research because no machine has been
design like this before
from these brainstorming sessions was
born this mighty machine called the
variable density machine it's the
state-of-the-art tumbler
for the first time a TBM can control the
consistency of the slurry and take on
whatever kuala lumpur underground frozen
even the construction of this
revolutionary machine is on an epic
scale
components are brought from all over
Europe to be assembled inside the
massive factory in SWANA all in Germany
and other herring connected plants in
China one machine like this is fiddled
together you can say the machine is
fiddled together with a twist about
40,000 pieces one by one the design
starts with the screw by screw piece by
piece
and this will sport together with all
our 400 engineers they do with all this
works to come to this level what you can
see today it takes nine months to
manufacture the revolutionary TBL today
it's ready to be put through its paces
everything is running so we can check
every equipment including the cutter
head the hydraulics the safety features
this is a last chance for us to make
final modifications before we send it to
the site and put it in the ground as the
engineers work on the TBMs in Germany
work gets underway in Kuala Lumpur the
engineering company in charge of
tunneling mm see Gomorrah KVM our team
must complete the job in 24 months and
with minimum disruption to the city of
the operation is conceived on a military
scale and with military precision
the TBMs will be launched from four
different staging zones along the
planned route of the underground section
of the MRT at the western end of the
tunnel the elevated section of the MRT
begins its descent underground from the
surface but at the three other zones
shafts must be excavated so that the
different TBMs can be put to work
beneath the city eventually the
different sections of the 9.5 kilometer
tunnel must all link together since July
2011 work on kuala lumpur Snee MRT
starts here at the range site
it must be dug out to a depth of 30
meters before 40 BMS can be deployed the
huge staging zones will be blasted out
of the ground
time to meet our requirements so we are
working with frequent blasts more than
two or three blasts a day the blasting
must be carried out with rigorous
precision especially in a city as dense
as Kuala Lumpur dangerous you can see
we've been surrounded by high-rise
buildings now at the moment is using
about under 50 to 200 kg the solution is
to sequence each blast creating a
pressure wave that in theory won't
damage surrounding buildings
exclusive will be charged to the
detonators over here
one at a time and finally we have delays
this will segregate the plastic rather
than at one go engineers dig rows of
holes between three to six meters deep
then the explosive charge is inserted
inside with a detonator
these are connected to a central command
point but nothing is left to chance
giant barriers of steel plates truck
tires and concrete prevent debris flying
from the site the charger is set
the engineers have got the right formula
and the surrounding buildings are safe
the blasting continues at the Cochran
site for seven explosive
enough rock and soil to fill 50 Olympic
sized swimming pools is blown out of the
ground and finally the site is ready to
receive the first TBM its codename 774
at the beginning of 2013 the first new
model arrives in Kuala Lumpur the giant
machine is transported in parts to the
Cochran site on huge lorries
but that's the simple part now the 160
Tana monster must be lowered into the
excavated shaft so that they can start
chewing in to push back the whole
project completion at the site everyone
is holding their breath as the TBM
begins its descent underground
Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur is being
transformed into a huge building site a
new MRT system is under construction
close to 10 kilometers will be built
beneath the city and a revolutionary new
tunnel boring machine or TBM is brought
from Germany the first to be sent into
action weighs 160 tons and has to be
delicately lowered 30 metres to the
tunnel entrance
the man in charge of the tunnel
operation is only hallway
he won his Spurs building Kuala Lumpur
is famous smart tunnel
we cannot afford to damage it if the
extent of damage is huge and impact of
the project will be tremendous this is
literally the cutting edge the business
end of the huge machine the circular
cutter head weighs 70 tons with 37
tungsten carbide cutting discs which are
stiffer than steel and denser than
titanium the entire TBM is 135 metres
long almost double the length of a 747
jet airliner each TBM has 10
interconnected gantry's to support the
operation only 3/4 of the shaft has so
far been excavated so the monster
machine has to be assembled in sections
after the six country which will give us
the key components of hydraulics and
electrics so we can start to launch the
machine at the same time give sufficient
space for the shop escalation to go on
it takes just under three months for the
TBM to be assembled
the Prime Minister of Malaysia launches
the very first variable density
TBF it's actually a technological marvel
and it goes to show that you know in
partnership with the German company
Malaysians can offer a lot of our
technical guidance and advice this is
this is something that we can be really
proud of one day later in highway and
his mentor Gustav clavos arrived to
check on machines progress
Gus a veteran Hungarian conga line has
worked on some of the biggest tunnelling
projects in the world including the
channel tunnel linking Britain and
France and the smart tunnel here in
Kuala Lumpur
this tunnel warrior is the team's
project manager and is thrilled to be
working back in the city on the new
machine we are trying out something
totally new a lot of people at the
beginning said no it won't work but now
it is excavating they can hear the
phone's moving around in the pot so it's
a fantastic knowledge that's my favorite
much better than in the office it's not
just the machines that will be breaking
in the journey of TBMs must be served by
an army of workers day and night week
after week month after month new trust
me hey - hi this stuff is a new guy yeah
yes my first job was to go and count the
number of nails sent them their boats
and nuts in the stores and I went there
and literally counted them for a week
when I finished went to the store keeper
and he told me that oh we usually use a
scale
the MRT tunneling project will need
thousands of workers over the two-year
period of construction and NMC gamoo de
set up an academy to train the hundreds
of workers needed to finish the tunnel
on time
veteran or newcomer the team faces a
daily avalanche of problems and right
now the problem is pretty basic
the TBN is just not picking up speed
no very fun
at this pace of tunneling the project
will take four years longer than
expected and run millions of dollars
over budget
but veteran engineer Gus clutters hopes
that the giant machine will soon pick up
speed in the next few months it is just
for the break in the machine like a
horse which has never been ridden before
and I am convinced that we will make it
work
the team is under pressure to complete
the tunnelling work song time in the
tunnels the TBMs never stop mining it's
a 24-hour operation and three weeks
since mining began the giant machine has
at last picked up speed the TBM is like
a huge underground Factory
drilling building and spewing out waste
the heart of the entire operation is in
this tiny space what's happening no
cabin means the
the heart the heart the control center
the heart of the TV end
if you're building a skyscraper
visibility is not normally a problem but
underground it's a different story you
can't see through rock so to give the
TBMs
underground pies the machine is equipped
with arrays of sophisticated sensors
it's like when you are working in a
submarine you have to depend on
other than yourself you
inside the control cabin engineers can
workout with absolute precision the
real-time position of the TBF calculate
changes of direction and when to start
wining the tongue warm
these life is a net
these tunnel rings are made from seven
segments plus one key stone that holds
everything together the concrete wall
segments can withstand extreme pressure
13 metres underground
all day long concrete segments arrive at
the TBM each segment ways to point to
metric tons
giant hydraulic arms swing the segments
into place using the TBMs vacuum erector
which uses the power of suction rays and
position each second
precision is a sinter if any one of
these segments are wrongly positioned
the consequences will be satisfied
quiet colors
over time as graduates of the tunnel
training academy get more experience the
process builds up momentum in the first
week the teams manage to place just
three rings at a three-months in and the
rate is 5 times higher the campaign to
excavate Kuala Lumpur snoo MRT tunnels
is about to enter a more intense phase
by November 2013 for TBMs have been
successfully launched in the conquering
site but at another launch site near in
a row the engineers have run into
difficulties here two circular shafts
are being excavated - 30 and 45 metres
in depth
but as the shelves are blasted out of
the ground disaster strikes
maybe that wouldn't he be later Basu
name but without my cell right do
anything along in the heart of Kuala
Lumpur the new MRT project has hit a
snag a hole shaped snack mr. Jamal Udine
lives 50 meters from the launch site on
in a row where two chefs are being blown
out of the rock I now tell you man
because honey it was an r1 yeah the one
we want to move on Musa a little cat
with you won't believe us what happen to
the hole in the garden is frightening
enough but the condition of mr. Jamal's
home is even more alarming floors dip
and cracks ripple up walls and across
ceilings the family home is falling
apart near attack wouldn't he be later
masu name but a would have muscle then
do it Allah Allah that is where exactly
the middle Lewis Moore terrified mr.
Jamal calls the company in charge of the
MRT project when inspectors see the
condition of his home they make an
immediate decision to move the family
out engineers now need to explain what
has gone wrong and whether other homes
are at risk in limestone what happened
is that the solution features can be
connected laterally and vertically what
happened is we drew a shaft so this hits
a connection when there's a hole is like
a pipe color if you have a color
connecting from the shower to underneath
mister Jamal's house that forms a very
easy flow passage of water and bringing
the soil from underneath
include a shop and that results in
simples and it's not only mr. Jamal's
house that's in danger water is pouring
in from the walls in the deeper of the
2ni shafts
it's unstoppable and the situation is a
tough call for project director Satpal
iboga we couldn't stem it and the
decision was taken to backfill it for
safety and that decision then followed
on to other changes to the program
abandoning one of the two inner shafts
is a huge setback
now only one TBM can be launched from
here this means that a new strategy has
to be devised the first TBM to be
brought to malaysia 774 that has been
mining from the range site must now
make up the difference and tunnel more
than twice the distance that will put
the complex machine under severe strain
it's not only flooding that makes the
inai launch site such a headache for the
engineers it's a very tight fit compared
to the other launch sites tunnel
engineer Aslan Marzuki is in charge of
getting the huge TBM to the bottom of
the shaft but that means that our long
thing is gonna be the team will
blast out tunnels on both sides of the
shaft then the front section of the TBM
is inserted next three out of the ten
gantry's will be lowered one by one
followed by the giant screw the problem
is that the 18 metre screw segment is
wider than the width of the ship
behind me this is our biggest component
that's going to be lowered down it's a
most difficult one because this length
is actually bigger than the sap itself
the solution is simple but risky the
skirt segment of the TBM will have to be
lowered into the shaft it sounds simple
but that giant screw weighs a whopping
15 tonnes and any deviation from that
critical 36° would be catastrophic at
the bottom of the shaft the engineers
face another challenge the angle of
descent has to be lower
it's another fiddly maneuver with a lot
of complicated machinery at stake when
you lowered it down the final name bill
is 15 degrees down there you would still
have to do the same exercise again but
has to be a slow process after two hours
the screw conveyor is finally in place
it takes three months of hard slog to
put the TVM together but at last it can
begin burrowing into the limestone this
underworld is packed with hidden dangers
like Swiss cheese
the rock is riddled with cavities that
could wreck the multi-million dollar
boring machine
you're dangling this way and you have a
kid directly underneath your cutter
alright and it's big enough that you
cannot develop a face support and the
thing just dips inside and that's in
this situation then we are stupid it
will take us months to recover or to
bring that TBN cutter face into
operations again so as the huge drill
edges forward at 14 meters a day and
army of Engineers is busy scouting the
perils that lie ahead they drill
hundreds of bore holes into the layers
of rock once a cavity is detected
concrete is poured into the hole to
shore it out it's a process called
grouting if we do encounter such a thing
w do a lot of compaction grouting to
fill up this white like you go to a
dentist to fill up your cavity to ensure
that when we are paddling through the
TBM can go through safely but some
cavities can be less than a meter wide
these are much harder to fill but still
pose a threat there's no way we can pick
it up we are unable to treat all these
features along out on our alignment so
what we then need we need a machine that
can cater for all these very little
challenges enter the new breed of tunnel
boring machines behind the drill a
sealed high-pressure chamber is pumped
full of liquid called bentonite slurry
unlike previous models the new TV ads
can control the density of this thick
Braylon changing the consistency from
the thin watery liquid to a thicker P
like substance
the thicker slurry is used to fill these
hidden cavities and its density prevents
it escaping through the porous rock to
the surface the machine it is able to
operate the different modes at the flip
of a button or switches so by doing that
the situations we have major or loss of
slurry into here we can then switch to a
thicker density alright it's kind of a
little pace that chokes up this one and
then we can mine through very easily the
revolutionary new tunneling system so
proves to be a success
but there is a problem that all tunnel
engineers fear at the back of their
minds fire
for engineers excavating kuala lumpur
new MRT system the most terrifying
scenario is a fire in the top
a blaze can suck oxygen from the air in
seconds
workers can suffocate with terrifying
speed and the tunnel itself works like
an oven insulating the environment and
ramping up temperatures to deadly levels
fellow workers must be ready to react at
any moment and training exercises are
made as real as possible
Christopher Fenton head of safety health
and environment for the underground is
training the company's emergency rescue
team tunnel was a very dangerous during
construction fire is the last thing we
want and we need to be able to respond
to it very quickly if it did happen
he has brought in two fire experts from
the Los Angeles Fire Department to help
with the doubt or they're so bad that we
have to exit the men and women gear up
okay Tunnel fires can reach temperatures
above 800 degrees Celsius and in a
tunnel there's nowhere to run
all firefighters dread a moment they
call flashover it's when a blaze turns
into an inferno and the flashover means
get out now
the exercise proves too challenging for
some
a stream Li hot like being in a torture
chamber but it was good maybe good
experience newest oculus mine
it was it's very hard to describe but
you have to you have to be able to keep
calm Christmas Eve
2013 and the MRT engineers have caused
to celebrate one section of the tunnel
where the MRT line dives under ground at
Samantha to the museum negara station
has been completed
it's the project's first breakthrough
and at any moment the TVM drill head
will emerge from this tunnel
it's an anxious wait for tunnel manager
chin Rima
we jump off a cliff something
after drilling for six months the TBN
punches through right on top
that's great finally I put my machine
came in I believe more than 24 hours but
the machines don't get a holiday as soon
as the TBM completes its breakthrough it
is hauled into position to begin work on
the tunnel that will link museum negara
to the next station the TBM is now
burrowing beneath the historical heart
of Kuala Lumpur the museum negara is a
repository of the nation's history and
culture its facade is lined with
precious mosaics
further along the path of the excavation
is the old railway station an icon of
the past that stood the test of time but
can it withstand the mighty TBM as they
thread their way nearby
we were stuck with having to cross under
some sensitive structures and the ground
settlement
affect the existence if there's too much
ground settlement but buildings could
collapse for the old building actually
we have to pay much more exact head
because we do know how good is the Satya
you know how good is this building
foundation so we have to pay extract
devotion that a team of surveyors now
equipped these venerable buildings with
highly sensitive sensors that monitor
every vibration as the TBM approaches
take heed all these team surveyors
nervously carry out hourly tests to
monitor the old buildings below this
video unique when you get to monitor the
effects and the impact of our DBM drive
on the structures above on the surface
ago it's a nail-biting five months of
constant monitoring as the TBMs
negotiate this historic region and at
last the TBMs inch past the iconic
buildings are safe
the most powerful man in the world is
coming to kuala lumpur all eyes are on
malaysian but less than 400 meters from
barack obama's hotel TBM 774 has come to
a standstill
we have problem
lady
and right above the stalled TBM ominous
signs ripple across the road less than a
kilometer through the presidential
residence while the people of Kuala
Lumpur get used to living and working in
a massive worksite where giant boring
machines gnaw away at the city's bedrock
to build a new MRT the President of the
United States will be descending on
Malaysia in three days time but all is
not well with TBM 774 located less than
400 meters from Obama's planned
accommodation the TVM gets a bad case of
indigestion and is unable to process the
waste from the cutterhead
it is come to a halt directly above the
TBM a team is tasked with monitoring the
road surfaces to look for any signs of
trouble
called the bull gang it is led by
Michael pool we have a team of people
patrol in 24 hours we had to check on
the surface this morning I walk by I saw
some settlement he's just a small
expression I can see the hole it's quite
deep at the surface the cracks don't
seem to pose much of a threat but like
icebergs most of the danger is hidden
down there is a void big enough to fit
in an electric car we have an
unscheduled stop
there to lower all the slurry that means
a face support is affected and that
causes a depression or sinkhole in front
of the car a face an emergency response
team reacts immediately the road is
closed then
the hole is quickly filled with five
cement trucks of concrete and frantic
repair works continue inside TBM 774
across town there is reason to celebrate
the fifth breakthrough of the project
will take place today it's a landmark
moment it means that 50% of the tunnel
has been completed
well every breakthrough is is like a
landing on a plane right once you're
there you feel great because you know
being brought home that to be empty the
brick - I thought it was very exciting
now we finish everything it's very very
good very sometime with progress as well
the quality of the tunnel linings that
we have in the precast concrete inside
is one of the best one we would
Assateague we would not in the blackness
where I'm good time which is the price
for the whole the cool this is like
raise it but the celebrations are
short-lived as TBM 774 finally starts
mining again President Obama arrives in
Kuala Lumpur but to the horror of the
team another collapse occurs just meters
away from the earlier sinkhole as the
president is at the official state
dinner
this new sinkhole is an even bigger
problem than the previous one ground
movement has broken water pipes in the
hole is filled with live power cables
President Obama is a living nearby we
definitely would not wanted to cut off
water and power to where mr. Obama is is
living obviously so we're trying to get
this done in
because I'm possible
racing against time the bull gang takes
five hours to repair water pipes and
fill the hole
as they work into the night President
Obama and his entourage are blissfully
unaware of the battle that is being
fought less than four hundred meters
from their hotel TBM 774 is now
approaching the zone where the
underground geology changes from the
karstic limestone to the Kenny Hill
formation Swiss cheese to Edom we are
going through a very distinct change in
ground conditions in normal cases you
will need to use two different type of
machines and you will need to have
another long shot to do this you will
take money but the new variable density
T VMs can be retooled underground it's a
matter of changing the way waste is
extracted instead of extracting through
pipes it needs to be removed with the
system of conveyor belts right to the
end of the gantries onto these so-called
muck cars
the conversion takes one week to
complete but it's a much smoother
process than the older system but a much
bigger hurdle awaits the TBM 774 an
underground tangle of steel wires that
could bring the TDM to a standstill 30
metres beneath Kuala Lumpur is nightlife
hotspot bukit bintang engineers
excavating the underground section of
the city's new MRT encounter an
unexpected obstacle contractors of a
shopping mall are joining the street
have left steel wires known as ground
anchors in place and these are banging
the path of the TBM put into the ground
as temporary supports for the basements
they could hold up work for months is
very difficult
find them from the surface and you
cannot remove them from the basement
anymore
the permanent war are built
all covered since the steel wires cannot
be extracted a decision is made to push
on through with the TBM but there is a
continuous risk but the drill head may
become entangled and damaged in the
wires it is the task of engineer Hugh
wangkong to monitor the tunnel ahead
in the morning
the team now has to enter the space
around the cutterhead at the front of
the TBM
there's little space to maneuver and
temperatures are close to 40 degrees
Celsius to overcome this tangle first
the team washes away Earth from the
cover exposing the snarl of steel wires
caught in the cutter head these must be
cut away with an oxy-acetylene torch
it's a laborious process
every team they hit the ground anchors
the TBM hearts as the wires are trimmed
away
it takes two weeks to mine through this
web but it could have been worse if we
had it all the drowning because that we
expected would have delayed the project
by about three to four months and we
were able to go down and cut these ropes
so that they weren't stopping the cutter
head from turning and we carried on
it's the final breakthrough after 23
months of excavation from tomorrow the
TBM will fall silent the honor goes to
tibi m77 for this was the first TBM to
be launched into the limestone labyrinth
under Kuala Lumpur
it is burrowed its way through almost 5
torturous kilometers of rock and soil
now it must make the final breakthrough
it's a thrilling day for the engineers
inside the giant machine we have about
400 mmm
I think that you all so that basically
the barrier between us and open it
exciting
any moment now maybe the next hour
actually the first team that we shot of
two years 20 kilometres apart
great day for me and for the whole team
Angela this is completion of her actual
channel mining which is probably the
highest risk from the project smaller
over 50 simple
just weeks ago mm see the muder won the
technical innovation of the Year award
for the variable density TVN in United
these are the most versatile machines
existent in the moment this is the
future
the last breakthrough is a landmark
moment now the race is on to complete
the stations and get the MRT run only
then can Kuala Lumpur clogged up traffic
arteries become truly open for business
you're basically going to live in the
modern metropolis metropolis or the 21st
century this is the new world that
people of greater Kuala Lumpur can look
forward to a city seamlessly integrated
by over ground and underground MRT lines
linking together the city's heart and
its far-flung suburbs where today's
gridlock is a distant