Japan launches world's largest tunnel drilling machine

Hitachi Zosen on December 25 officially launched the world's largest tunnel drilling machine weighing 7,000 tons with a diameter of 17,45 meters and a total length of 110 meters at its construction site in West District, Sakai City, Osaka.

This is a drilling rig built by the company with an investment of 6 billion yen from the Washington State Department of Transportation in October 2011 and by December 2012, the work of this huge machine has been completed. socks

This tunneling machine is fitted with cutting heads and is cylindrical in the horizontal direction. In March 2013, the giant drilling machine will leave Sakai, Osaka, to Seattle, in western Washington.

Since June 2013, the Washington Department of Transportation plans to begin construction of a 2,856-meter-long tunnel for one and a half years to replace Seattle's overhead elevated highway system.

Hitachi Zosen is Japan's leading boring machine manufacturer and has supplied over 1,200 boring machines in both domestic and overseas.

Sakai Site Manager, Yamada Resshi, said: "With the real challenge of this order, we want to create a solid foundation for our drilling business."