- •Part I: Shaft Sinking and Drifting
- •1.1. Remember the following words.
- •1.6. Translate paragraph 5 and 6 from the text above in writing using a dictionary.
- •1.7. Answer the following questions.
- •1.8. Match the terms and their definitions.
- •1.9. Give a short summary of the text using the following phrases:
- •1.10. Reproduce the dialogue.
- •2.2. Find in the text given below English equivalents to the Russian phrases.
- •2.3. Find pairs of antonyms.
- •2.4. Read and choose the proper title to the text given below.
- •2.10 Read and choose the proper title to the text given below.
- •2.11 Complete the sentences with some suitable parts.
- •2.12 Match the terms and their definitions.
- •2.13 Read and memorize the words.
- •2.15. Analyze and translate the derivatives.
- •2.16. Read and choose the proper title to the text given below.
- •2.17. Translate into English.
- •2.18. Translate in writing 1 and 2 from the text given above.
- •3.1. Read and memorize the words.
- •Explosives. Historical Note
- •3.7. Answer the questions to the text.
- •3.8. Read and memorize the words.
- •3.9. Read the text “Commercial Explosives” and answer the following questions.
- •Commercial Explosives
- •3.10. Translate in writing the text given below. If necessary use a dictionary. Storing and Handling Explosives
- •3.11. Reproduce the dialogue.
- •Part II: Tunneling
- •1.1. Read and try to memorize the words.
- •1.2. Read and recognize the following international words.
- •1.3. Read and translate the following word combinations.
- •1.4. Read the text “Tunnel Basic” and answer the following questions.
- •Tunnel Basic
- •1.5 Look at Figure II and try to speak about forces interacting to produce equilibrium on a tunnel.
- •1.6 Look through the text once again, find sentences with the Infinitive and translate them.
- •1.7. Read the text “Major Types of Tunnels” and find the answers to the following questions.
- •Major Types of Tunnels
- •1.8. Look through the text once again and complete the table. Discuss the results you have obtained with your group-mates. Types of tunnels
- •1.9. Match English and Russian phrases. Write down your answers.
- •From the history of tunneling
- •Milestones in the history of tunneling
- •1.14. Summarize the text given above using expressions (page 67).
- •1.15. Study the text “Tools and Techniques” and complete the table.
- •Tools and Techniques
- •1.16. Are the following statements false or true? Write down your answers.
- •1.17. Match the words in a with their synonyms in b. Write down your answers.
- •Holland Tunnel
- •Inside a Holland Tunnel ventilation tower Underground Canal
- •Thames Tunnel
- •2.1. Read and try to memorize the words and word-combinations.
- •2.2. Read and translate the following word combinations.
- •2.3. Study the text “Tunnel Planning”. Try to understand as much information as you can. Tunnel Planning
- •2.4. Change the form of the word so that it could be filled in the blank space in the sentence.
- •2.5. Write a short summary of the text you have read using the following as a plan.
- •2.6. Discuss with your group-mates the process of a tunnel planning. The following phrases will help you.
- •2.7. Before reading the text “Types of Tunnels and Construction Methods” study the table and say what construction methods are used in each of the three environments. Make use of the Model.
- •Drilling and blasting (d&b) method
- •Natm New Austrian Tunneling Method (natm)
- •2.13. Translate the following text in written form with a dictionary. Try to manage within 15 minutes. Tunnel Boring Machine (tbm) method
- •2.14. Match the words in a with their synonyms in b. Write down the answers.
- •2.15. Match the words in a with their antonyms in b. Write down the answers.
- •2.16. Click here to watch the video how tbm works in hard rock:
- •What is trenchless technology?
- •2.18. Skim the text once again and fill in the table. Discuss the results you have obtained with your group-mates.
- •2.19. Click here to watch the video about how trenchless piper replacement technology works.
- •2.20. Translate the following text in written form with a dictionary. Try to manage within 15 minutes. Shallow-buried Tunnel or Soft Soil Tunnel
- •2.21. Read and summarize the text “Underwater Tunnel” using expressions (page 67). Underwater Tunnel
- •Immersed-tube method
- •2.22. Look through the text once again and find sentences with Participle I and Participle II. Translate these sentences.
- •2.23. Look at the picture, think and organize the procedure of underwater tunnel construction in order.
- •3.1. Read and try to memorize the words.
- •3.2. Read and translate the following word combinations.
- •3.3. Read the text “Tunnel Construction along the Road Adler – Krasnaya Polyana” and complite the table under it. Tunnel Construction along the Road Adler – Krasnaya Polyana
- •Tunnels Construction
- •3D model of the Tunnel system1
- •Severomuysky Tunnel
- •3.8. Match the words in a with their synonyms in b. Write down the answers.
- •3.9. Read the text “Gotthard Base Tunnel” and give its summary using expressions (page 67). Gotthard Base Tunnel (gbt)
- •3.9. Read the text “Miracle under the Alps” and write down the most interesting facts for you. Discuss the results you have obtained with your group-mates. Miracle under the Alps
- •3.9. Click here to watch photos from the construction site of the gbt.
- •3.10. Click here to watch video about the gbt. Speak about your impression about this project.
- •4.1. Read and try to memorize the words.
- •4.2. Read and translate the following word combinations.
- •4.3. Translate the text “The future of tunnels” in written form with a dictionary. Try to manage within 25 minutes. The future of tunnels
- •Tunnel planned between Russia and usa
- •4.8. Look at the picture and render suggested information from Russian into English.
- •4.9. Click here to watch the video about tbMs which will be able to construct a tunnel under the Bering Strait:
3.9. Read the text “Miracle under the Alps” and write down the most interesting facts for you. Discuss the results you have obtained with your group-mates. Miracle under the Alps
The Gotthard Base Tunnel will be the most important element of the new flat rail link through the Alps. It is ineresting to know that in total, an estimated 24 million tonnes of rock have been excavated – the equivalent of five times the volume of the Great Pyramid of Giza.
Technically, it is an absolutely unique project. The Swiss have set the bar so high that no one will easily be able to clear it.
But the project has not been without problems. Early during the drilling operation, for example, on March 31, 1996, drilling experts, assistants and a geologist were carrying out geologic tests. They struck a layer known as the Piora Mulde. Suddenly, a huge quantity of water and sand shot out of the drill shaft with unimaginable force. It is a miracle that none of the workers present were injured.
The Piora Mulde is a narrow, vertical band in the heart of the Alps made up of dolomite – a white, often crystalline mineral, sediment which settled on the bottom of a sea 230 million years ago. Mixed with water, the substance becomes unpredictable – and presented a difficult challenge for the tunnel engineers to overcome.
The Piora Mulde was just one of some 90 geological problem zones that had to be overcome during the drilling of the 57-kilometer-long tunnel. Workers removed fully 23 million tons of rock in the drilling of the tunnel – actually a pair of tunnels, each 10 meters in diameter. Indeed, if we take all the tunnels, including the cross tunnels, to be added together, they would extend for 153 kilometers. Up to 2,600 people worked on the project deep under the earth’s surface, battling with the dust, noise, humidity (влажность) and temperatures of 30 degrees Celsius.
In the drilling of the tunnels, workers relied on eight gigantic, 3,000-ton tunnel drilling machines simultaneously. An 800-meter-long shaft was drilled vertically into the mountain, for example, so that workers could begin working in the middle of the tunnel.
But in zones where the rock was particularly brittle (ломкий), workers were forced to use more traditional methods, such as explosives. Workers were ultimately successful in stabilizing the unstable. But at the spot (место) where one of the emergency stops (аварийная остановка) was to be built, the Faido site, engineers discovered another area of instability. The large cavern (большая пещера) that was to house the subterranean emergency station had to be built elsewhere, and is now 300 meters further to the south.
Another problem arose in the same segment when, in July 2005, a tunnel boring machine (TBM), known as Gobi II, got stuck when it unexpectedly encountered a section of unstable, soft rock. The tunnel promptly collapsed in front of the TBM’s cutting head – and there is no such thing as reverse with a tunnel boring machine. Experts on the project found themselves with the unexpected task of trying to calculate the extent of the section of less stable rock, as well as having to rescue the TBM by digging it out of the place where it had got stuck – a process that would take several months.
In the same segment, one of the drilling machines got stuck and was virtually buried by debris falling from the tunnel roof. Time was lost as workers had to grind up and remove the stone that had filled the tunnel – the roof was then stabilized using steel and concrete. Similar incidents occurred in several other parts of the tunnel. At one point, one of the drilling machines was unusable for a full six months – while just 40 meters away in the parallel tunnel, workers encountered no trouble at all.
Indeed, in the end the Piora Mulde zone proved unproblematic. The real tunnel was drilled a few hundred meters below where the test tunnel had been flooded – through a stable area of marble. The marble was the best material that workers encountered in drilling the Gotthard Base Tunnel.