Salini Impregilo: Team Outwits Deadly Risks on Copenhagen Metro Expansion

Contractors credit a balancing act between their preparedness to deal with anticipated hurdles and quick wits to tackle unexpected emergencies with helping them to wrap up tunneling operations earlier this year for Copenhagen’s third metro line. When confronted by potentially deadly environmental hazards, including benzene and carbon monoxide, designers retooled their tunnel-boring machines to protect workers and keep the project on track.

Contractors credit a balancing act between their preparedness to deal with anticipated hurdles and quick wits to tackle unexpected emergencies with helping them to wrap up tunneling operations earlier this year for Copenhagen’s third metro line. When confronted by potentially deadly environmental hazards, including benzene and carbon monoxide, designers retooled their tunnel-boring machines to protect workers and keep the project on track.

In addition, crews safely threaded the TBMs through extremely tight corridors beneath the foundations of historic buildings and above existing metro lines. Meanwhile, workers fanned out across the dense Scandinavian city to construct 17 subterranean stations, several crossovers and launch-and-retrieval structures, sometimes nestled right up against fragile old churches and other landmarks.