Liebherrs dig deep in Hong Kong

More than 10 Liebherr HS 885 duty cycle crawler cranes are working on the construction of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link (XRL), an underground railway line running through Hong Kong.

The West Kowloon Terminus (WKT) Station North and the Southern approach tunnel on the Hong Kong section of the XRL is part of a joint venture contract between Leighton and Gammon.

The WKT, on the mainland China side of the harbour, will be the only Hong Kong station on the XRL. The main tunnel is 26 km long and will link to a main station complete with 15 stations, where daily traffic of around 99,000 passengers is expected.

The main contractor for the Hong Kong section of the line is MTR Corporation. The contractor is using the HS 885 duty cycle crawler cranes to remove spoil from the tunnel excavation. About 1.7 million cubic metres of earth is expected to be removed from the tunnels, a company spokesperson said.

Attachments on the crawlers include grabs, drag buckets, diaphragm wall grabs and pipe laying ancillaries, a spokesperson added.

Completion of the terminus is scheduled for 2015.