Megadrill to Build Power Highway Below Stockholm’s Landmarks

(Bloomberg) -- A drill longer than the city’s tallest skyscraper has been constructed just outside Stockholm to build a tunnel for new power cables needed to meet soaring demand. Elektra, a 240-meter (787 feet) long specially built boring machine weighing more than 1,000 tons, will pierce through the city’s rock of granite and gneiss. Drilling the tunnel rather than the more common method of blasting will create less vibration. It will run below two of the city’s universities, the exclusive Ostermalm neighborhood and the Skeppsholmen island that houses a museum of modern art.The city of about 1 million people is urgently in need of more power capacity. The population is growing by about 40,000 every year. New residential areas are boosting electricity demand, while industrial customers including new server halls, are also increasing consumption. “We’re using more and more power and the power system have to handle new kinds of production and fast changes in the use of electricity,” said Rolf Axen, project manager for the tunnel at grid operator Svenska Kraftnat. “This is one of 50 projects for electrical distribution that is important to sustain the development of the Stockholm region.”The tunnel will be 13.4 kilometers long and will run about 50 to 100 meters below the surface. It will dip underground in Danderyd, one of the city’s most affluent areas, and surface at Hammarby Sjostad, south of the trendy Sodermalm island. The high-voltage cables will connect to already existing sub stations that will help spread the power locally.Elektra will drill about 100 meters per week on average and work is due to start on Feb. 1 and continue for four years. The tunnel itself will be 5 meters in diameter. The parts for the drill arrived in November on about 30 trucks from German manufacturer Herrenknecht AG and has been assembled on site. Elektra will use grippers to advance through the 5-diameter tunnel and will be powered by a long electricity cable. The whole project will be ready by 2027, costing about 3 billion Kronor ($310 million).To contact the author of this story: Lars Paulsson in London at [email protected] contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew Reierson at [email protected] more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P. Read More...

(Bloomberg) — A drill longer than the city’s tallest skyscraper has been constructed just outside Stockholm to build a tunnel for new power cables needed to meet soaring demand.

Elektra, a 240-meter (787 feet) long specially built boring machine weighing more than 1,000 tons, will pierce through the city’s rock of granite and gneiss. Drilling the tunnel rather than the more common method of blasting will create less vibration. It will run below two of the city’s universities, the exclusive Ostermalm neighborhood and the Skeppsholmen island that houses a museum of modern art.

The city of about 1 million people is urgently in need of more power capacity. The population is growing by about 40,000 every year. New residential areas are boosting electricity demand, while industrial customers including new server halls, are also increasing consumption.

“We’re using more and more power and the power system have to handle new kinds of production and fast changes in the use of electricity,” said Rolf Axen, project manager for the tunnel at grid operator Svenska Kraftnat. “This is one of 50 projects for electrical distribution that is important to sustain the development of the Stockholm region.”

The tunnel will be 13.4 kilometers long and will run about 50 to 100 meters below the surface. It will dip underground in Danderyd, one of the city’s most affluent areas, and surface at Hammarby Sjostad, south of the trendy Sodermalm island. The high-voltage cables will connect to already existing sub stations that will help spread the power locally.

Elektra will drill about 100 meters per week on average and work is due to start on Feb. 1 and continue for four years. The tunnel itself will be 5 meters in diameter.

The parts for the drill arrived in November on about 30 trucks from German manufacturer Herrenknecht AG and has been assembled on site. Elektra will use grippers to advance through the 5-diameter tunnel and will be powered by a long electricity cable.

The whole project will be ready by 2027, costing about 3 billion Kronor ($310 million).

To contact the author of this story: Lars Paulsson in London at [email protected]

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew Reierson at [email protected]

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