The world's biggest tunnel projects are being executed in mountainous regions by means of Tunnel Boring Machines (TBM). Providing adequate drainage is an essential factor in making these tunnels safe and extending their service life. With bored tunnels, especially with the New Austrian method, geosynthetic drainage and protection layers are a permanent feature. They are applied directly to the unfinished spray concrete coating of the rock face to drain off water and provide protection to the tunnel liners. One product requirement in this particular application is that it must be capable of following the irregularities of the tunnel walls.

Colbond's years of experience with Enkamat and Enkadrain as drainage and protection layers in tunneling, and the specific experience in using polymer materials, resulted in the development of special product types and an official approval given in Switzerland for the NEAT (German “Neue Eisenbahn – Alpen – Transversale”) projects currently under construction in the Lötschberg base tunnel and Gotthard base tunnel. A new product version, based on the drainage mats designed for these NEAT projects, is currently being used in the Ütliberg tunnel/Zurich bypass. The total NEAT project will be using several million square meters of Enkadrain over the next years.

Information on the NEAT tunnel project is available at http://www.alptransit.ch/pages/e/.



Brochure
For extensive information on Enkadrain in tunneling, please view our application brochure.

Brochure Drained Tunnel Sealing with Enkadrain:
English
German
French
Italian

Case study
Please follow the link below to view a case study on Enkadrain in tunneling.
Enkadrain - Bored Tunnel, Giswil, Switzlerland.pdf

Article in Geosynthetics News
Tunneling was the main topic in Volume 7, no. 13 of Geosynthetics News. Please follow the link to this issue to view it as a .pdf file (file size approx. 3.4 MB). Following the link "back issues", you will see a list of all issues of Geosynthetics News to date.

Volume 7, No. 13 (.pdf file, file size approx. 3.4 MB)

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