Broadway Subway tunnel boring machines named "Elsie" and "Phyllis"

Early October 2022: assembly process for Broadway Subway tunnel boring machines, Elsie and Phyllis. (Government of BC)

The first of two giant machines that essentially work as mechanized moles is now fully assembled for its burrowing journey to come for the Broadway Subway.

The provincial government announced today they are now ready to launch the tunnel boring machine (TBM) for the subway’s eastbound tunnel from the excavation pit at the site of Great Northern Way-Emily Carr Station.

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“This is an exciting milestone for a critical infrastructure project that will transform the way people travel and live in and around the Broadway corridor,” said Rob Fleming, BC minister of transportation and infrastructure, in a statement.

“The Broadway Subway will provide affordable and efficient transit connections throughout the Lower Mainland, and it’s also going to create new opportunities for affordable housing, community amenities and commercial services along the route.”

skytrain broadway subway tunnel boring machine october 3 2022

Early October 2022: assembly process for Broadway Subway tunnel boring machines, Elsie and Phyllis. (Government of BC)

Elsie, the name of the TBM for the eastbound direction tunnel, will begin excavating imminently.

The second TBM, named Phyllis, will complete the westbound direction tunnel. Work on assembling Phyllis has begun, and she will be launched separately later this winter.

Both machines are named after two influential, decorated British Columbians who were leaders in engineering and mountaineering.

Elizabeth (Elsie) MacGill was the first female aeronautical engineer and professional aircraft designer in the world, and she is known for contributing many innovations in aircraft design, including the skis and de-icing for the first successful winterization of a high-speed aircraft.

Phyllis Munday founded both the Girl Guides in BC and the first St. John Ambulance Brigade in North Vancouver. She was known for her volunteerism, including achievements in local mountaineering.

Early October 2022: assembly process for Broadway Subway tunnel boring machines, Elsie and Phyllis. (Government of BC)

Each machine has a diameter of six metres and a length of 150 metres. From the Great Northern Way-Emily Carr Station pit, the machines will travel westward and create 5 km of twin tunnels at a pace of about 18 metres per day. As well, each machine will be manned by eight to 12 staff around the clock.

If all goes as planned, it will take about one year for each machine to reach the intersection of Cypress Street and West Broadway — the site of a track switch just east of the future Arbutus Station.

The machines will pass through the excavated pits of five subway stations directly below Broadway — at Main Street (Mount Pleasant Station), Cambie Street (Broadway-City Hall Station), Laurel Street (VGH-Oak Station), Granville Street (South Granville Station), and Arbutus Street (Arbutus Station).

About 200,000 cubic metres of excavated soil and rock will be transported to the pit by a conveyor system. The concrete rings that will line the tunnel were manufactured in Nanaimo, and have been transported to the pit.

Early October 2022: assembly process for Broadway Subway tunnel boring machines, Elsie and Phyllis. (Government of BC)

Just to the east of the pit through the False Creek Flats, the pillars that will support a 700-metre-long elevated concrete guideway between the existing VCC-Clark Station — the current western terminus of SkyTrain Millennium Line — have begun to take form. The elevated guideway will transition into a tunnel just north of the Emily Carr University of Art & Design campus, before entering the namesake station below ground.

When it opens in late 2025, the seamless Millennium Line Broadway Extension will reduce public transit travel times between Commercial-Broadway Station and the new terminus of Arbutus Station to just 12 minutes. Between Lafarge Lake-Douglas Station in Coquitlam and Arbutus Station on a one-train ride with no need to transfer, it will take about 47 minutes.

“The Broadway Subway will be a game changer for commuters on one of the busiest corridors in Metro Vancouver,” said Kevin Quinn, CEO of TransLink.

“This major milestone brings us one step closer to opening a vital zero-emission rapid transit connection that will move approximately 150,000 people per day, reduce congestion and lower greenhouse gas emissions.”

Early October 2022: assembly process for Broadway Subway tunnel boring machines, Elsie and Phyllis. (Government of BC)

The entire project carries a cost of $2.83 billion, with $1.73 billion going towards the private contractor consortium led by Spanish engineering giant Acciona and Italian tunneller Ghella.

Ghella selected German tunnel boring machine equipment manufacturer Herrenknecht as its supplier for this project.

The tunnel boring process for the Broadway Extension is different from the Canada Line, which used a single TBM for both of its tunnels by returning the machine back to its starting point for its second run, while the Evergreen Extension used a single large TBM with a width of 10 metres (33 feet) to build a single tunnel that contained the tracks for both directions.

However, the subway is not the region’s first tunnel boring project since the completion of the Evergreen Extension. Metro Vancouver Regional District’s various water supply projects have used smaller TBMs to complete major piping lengths.

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