Nepal\u2019s mountainous terrain has historically been a challenge to tunnel through. That very terrain also holds great promise for hydropower \u2013 a resource that the country is now beginning to tap into. Launched in October 2022, a 6.4 m Double Shield TBM is making Nepal\u2019s hydropower plans into a reality as it bores the 13.1 km headrace tunnel for the Sunkoshi Marin Diversion Multipurpose Project (SMDMP). The tunnel is connected to a 28.6 MW surface powerhouse on the Marin River.<\/p>\n
The SMDMP is the machine’s second tunnel: on its 12.2km first tunnel (the Bheri Babai Diversion Multipurpose Project\/BBDMP), the TBM finished nearly one year early and achieved 1,202 m advance in one month. It was the first instance of TBM use in the country.<\/p>\n
In this paper, we examine the successes and lessons learned in Nepal\u2019s mountainous conditions during excavation of both the SMDMP and BBDMP.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nepal\u2019s mountainous terrain, in particular the Himalaya, have historically been a challenge to tunnel through. That very terrain also holds great promise for hydropower \u2013 a resource that the country is now beginning to tap into.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18031,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-white-papers"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n