On Sunday, December 5, 2010, GTS has organized a visit to the Thessaloniki Metro projects. The Thessaloniki Metro projects are of particular interest due to the specificities of the construction of the stations and the excavation of the tunnels with TBM.

Site Visit Program
09:50: Meeting at the AMETRO offices (26th October 40, at the entrance to the city), parking of cars, boarding a bus and departure for the construction site of the New Railway Station. Presentation of the TBM shaft and platform, guided tour of the project site. Transfer to Euclid station, presentation of the project and the station, guided tour of the project site. Return to the Attiko Metro offices and presentation of the entire project by the Engineer.
13:15: End of presentations – transfer to a tavern.
15:30: Departure from the tavern, privately.

We remind you that the transfer to Thessaloniki will be made privately. For those who will go to Thessaloniki from Saturday, an agreement has been made with the KINISSI PALACE hotel, Egnatia 41 & Syngrou 17, 54630, Thessaloniki, tel. 2310 508081 (www.kinissipalace.gr). Those who wish to stay there should book a room immediately, mentioning the Tunnel Committee. There are of course other economical options in the center (e.g. El Greco etc.).

 

PRESENTATION OF THE VISIT

The visit began from the under-construction Euclid Station, where it coincided with the event of the Thessaloniki Metro Directorate that had been organized with the cooperation of all the bodies involved, in honor of Saint Barbara, patroness of underground works. The event was attended by the Deputy Minister of Infrastructure, Transport & Networks, Mr. Yiannis Magriotis, Mr. Georgios Konstantinidis, Director of the Thessaloniki projects of Attiko Metro, Mr. Michalis Simas, representative of the Contractor, Mr. Tasos Konaklidis, President of the TEE of Central Macedonia. This event also had extensive coverage by the Thessaloniki media: http://metro-thessalonikis.blogspot.com/2010/12/blog-post_9887.html

In the first part, greetings were given by Messrs. Konstantinidis, Simas, Konaklidis and Dounias, representing Attiko Metro, the Contractor, TEE and the GTS, respectively. The Deputy Minister, Mr. Magriotis gave a short speech about the project, its problems and how they were addressed, and he especially praised the work and role of EESYE. Then, extremely interesting technical presentations were made by representatives of the designer and the manufacturer, and we visited the station under construction. Then, we visited the New Railway Station under construction, which is a key construction site for the construction of the tunnel. We went down to the tunnel opening level and took a short ride inside the tunnel with the service train. The Thessaloniki Metro project is extremely interesting and we hope to be given the opportunity to visit it again. Among its special features are the large extent of the archaeological excavations, mainly due to the large total thickness of the zones of archaeological interest (of the order of 12m), the great depth of the stations which were constructed mainly with perimeter bearing diaphragms using the hydromilling method, the two Earth Pressure Balancing (EPB) TBMs and the extensive Geostructural monitoring system. The TBMs have so far managed to pass through causing very small movements on the ground surface.