Trade Journals for the Concrete Industry

Work on the Liefkenshoek rail link, an ambitious project commissioned to LocoBouw by Infrabel (Belgian rail infrastructure manager), began at the end of 2008. The goal was to construct a rail link between Antwerp’s left and right banks, to be used purely for goods traffic. To this end, two parallel tunnels were bored using the so-called mix shield method. When boring a tunnel under a waterway, this shield has to meet additional requirements to ensure the ground is stabilized in order to avoid blow out or inundation, whereby water and silt could penetrate into the tunnel. A 2 m thick reinforcement slab therefore had to be mounted on top of the shield. This part of the work was entrusted to the combined expertise of Bekaert and THV Holder.