As part of the Expansion Project, Trans Mountain has finished drilling on the 2.6-kilometre underground tunnel connecting Burnaby Terminal and Westridge Marine Terminal.

Here are some exciting components of the Burnaby Mountain Tunnel:

  • Drilling took 225 mining days with 20 hours of mining per day
  • Approximately 225,000 hours were worked during drilling
  • 2,610 metres were drilled with 1,715 concrete rings installed
  • 40,000 bank cubic metre of rock and earth was removed – enough to fill up 16 Olympic-sized swimming pools

The tunnel is approximately 130 metres below the surface and required no cleared right-of-way or surface disruption along its route.

The tunnel boring machine was manufactured specifically for Trans Mountain by Herrenknecht in Germany.

Now that drill completion is done, Trans Mountain will begin pipe installation through the tunnel for the three 30-inch delivery pipelines to load vessels at Westridge Marine Terminal.

Learn more here.