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boring machine reaches the Fernández de Córdoba
metro station in Panama
The tunnel-boring machine, baptised with
the name “Carolina” by Ricardo Martinelli,
President of Panama, arrived at the Fernán-
dez de Córdoba subway station after dri-
lling 1,068 metres from the Trinchera Norte
at Simon Bolívar Street (Transístmica) and
after installing 663 pre-cast rings at a depth
of 25-30 metres.
Last August, the secretary of Panama’s
metro system, Roberto Roy, accompanied
by representatives of Odebrecht and FCC,
members of the Line I consortium, witnes-
sed the arrival of the tunnel-boring machine
at the station. During this event, the secre-
tary of the metro took advantage of the op-
portunity to congratulate the nearly 3,000
workers who are involved in the construc-
tion of this major project.
The tunnel-boring machine, Carolina, will
now have to drill about 3 km and to do this,
will have to travel 842.5 km until reaching
Vía Argentina, the next underground station
and, from there, to the Iglesia del Carmen
station after which it will be brought up to
the surface.
After completing its work at this station, the
platform will be ready to become the base
for the Line I subway system, a sign of the
country’s progress and modernity.
As in the case of the tunnel-boring machine
Marta, Carolina operates 24 hours a day,
seven days a week, with workers from 129
different countries of whom 80% are Pana-
manian.
Work on the Fernández de Córdoba
subway station, which started to be built in
May 2011 and will be providing services to
a large part of the city’s population, is 65%
completed.
When the Panama Metro starts operation, it
is expected to benefit more than one million
people by enabling them to go to and from
various destinations faster and more safely.
The “Carolina” tunnel