ABSTRACT
Currently in the south-east of the Dutch capital The Hague the Rotterdamsebaan road project is being tackled at a cost of some 272 million euros, almost ten years after the Hubertus Tunnel was opened. The section to be built runs from the Ypenburg interchange to the Central Ring, passing through the communities of Leidschendam-Voorburg, Rijswijk and The Hague. After a four-and-a-half-year period of construction the roughly 3.8 km long road link is due to be opened in July 2020. Apart from two ramp structures and a 650 m long tunnel built by cut-and-cover, passing beneath the A4 motorway, an exit and the connecting arc from the A4 and A13, there are also two urban tunnel tubes, called the “Victory Boogie Woogie Tunnels”, to be constructed by TBM, each 1.65 km long. The tunnels with an internal diameter of 10.15 m will have a fire-resistant segmental lining. Between the two tunnels six cross-passages will have to be constructed using ground freezing method. The tunnel alignment is characterised by low overburden in the beginning and the end of the tunnels and a rather small clearance between the two tunnels. The tunnels underpass several residential buildings as wells as a harbour area. Due to the geological formation, predominantly comprising of sand, but also interstratified by silty clay and peat, a slurry TBM is used to construct the tunnels. Several innovative concepts to reduce energy-consumption are used in the project as for example tunnel vehicles with electrical drives.
