Post by Herrenknecht AG

Bangkok, Thailand is where our Asia journey began in 1996. Herrenknecht Asia Thailand was founded to support the construction of Bangkok’s sewer system with state-of-the-art pipe-jacking equipment in the 1990s. Between 1992 and 2000, 100km of pipe jacking was carried out in the Thai capital to lay the foundation for a sustainable water infrastructure. More than 30 sets of Herrenknecht equipment—ranging from the AVN400 to the AVN1500—completed runs between 80 and 200m in length at depths of up to 15m (pic 1). At the same time, around 7.6km of pipe jacking was carried out for electricity supply (pic 2). In the early 2000’s, the 7th Bangkok Water Supply Improvement was realized using an EPB3776 machine (4.31m in diameter), adding 3.3km to the existing water network. The next milestone followed from 2011 to 2015 with the Fourth LNG Transmission Line Project—a major pipeline project in which the Direct Pipe and Pipe Express methods made their Asian debut (pipeline diameter 42’’, max. drive length 708m, pic 3). The confined space conditions were particularly challenging: large sections of the route run beneath densely populated areas as well as along a heavily trafficked highway and parallel high-voltage power lines. A total of 45 waterways and 189 roads were crossed—a project that demonstrated the technological capabilities of our tunnelling technology. Work continues steadily underground in Thailand today: together with our partners, we are advancing key infrastructure projects such as the Metropolitan Water Authority’s Water Transfer Tunnel Plan 9 and delivered a total of 6 TBMs with diameters up to 4.8m since 2022. These machines handled tunnelling lengths of up to 4.1km as well as tight curve radii under demanding urban conditions. Till 2020, more than 23km were added to the electricity network using Herrenknecht equipment. Initiated in 2022 new energy connections are being created thanks to Direct Pipe solutions (36’’)—such as for the South Bangkok Power Plant Transmission Line with tunnelling lengths of up to 1,000m (pic 4). Another reason to celebrate: Bangkok Metro Purple Line EPB machines, 6.54m in diameter, achieved final breakthrough on May 20th. A milestone for our team and customers (pic 5). To our customers: thank you for trusting us with your most challenging projects. So what‘s next? More projects. More innovation. Same people – writing the next chapter together. Here’s to the next 30 years – with you. #pioneeringundergroundtogether