Hitachi Zosen to Build 12-m TBM for Japan’s Sasson Tunnel

By TBM Staff August 14, 2019

Hitachi Zosen Corp. has recently received an order from an Obayashi-led JV for an earth pressure balance shield tunneling machine with a bore of 12.09 m for use constructing the Sasson Tunnel for the Hokkaido Shinkansen high-speed rail.

This machine will bore approximately 1,400 m of the 8,412 m total distance that Obayashi JV will bore using the shield tunneling method, from the starting bore to the Otaru side of the Sasson Tunnel for the Hokkaido Shinkansen, currently being constructed. This machine is the second-largest earth pressure balance shield tunneling machine Hitachi Zosen has built for domestic use, following the machine used for the Shinagawa to Oi tunnel on the Central Circular Metropolitan Expressway in Tokyo completed in 2009 (Φ13.6 m).

Hitachi Zosen has delivered more than 1,300 shield tunneling machines both domestically and internationally since the business was founded in 1967. The company also has a rich track record in manufacturing large shield tunneling machines with bores of 10 m or more, such as the Φ17.45 m earth pressure balance shield tunneling machine, one of the world’s largest, delivered to the United States for the SR 99 tunnel in Seattle.

In the Japanese government’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Action Plan 2019, Regional Revitalization Using SDGs as a Driving Force to Create Robust, Environmentally-Friendly, Attractive Towns is positioned as one of the areas to promote. Hitachi Zosen will continue to actively contribute to the SDGs as a company involved in developing social infrastructure, such as shield tunneling machines, bridges, hydraulic gates, and offshore structures.

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