MineARC Business Development Manager Nic Stone recently inspected seven MineARC TunnelSAFE Refuge Chambers during a visit to the MMC Gamuda workshops, located in Ipoh, central Malaysia.
MMC Gamuda is a joint venture between two Malaysia’s highly skilled construction and engineering companies – MMC Corporation Berhad and Gamuda Berhad. The companies have been awarded for their combined efforts on several projects in Kuala Lumpur, such as the Klang Valley Mass Rapid Transit underground tunnel and the SMART dual-purpose tunnel.
During his visit, Nic was responsible for ensuring the seven refuge chambers installed on world-renowned Herrenknecht Tunnel Boring Machines were in emergency-ready condition, ready for their deployment in the next stage of Kuala Lumpur’s Mass Rapid Transport Underground development.
This next phase of the MRT project comprises a 52.2-kilometre train line connecting Putrajaya residents to Sungai Buloh. The train line is expected to serve 529,000 passengers a day, boasting an impressive 35 stations between two destinations!
The refuge chambers have been kept in excellent condition since completing the first stage of the project two years prior. As a result, the units only required minor work to bring them back to optimal standard and ready to provide personnel with a safe place of refuge should it be required.
MineARC TunnelSAFE Refuge Chambers are highly customisable to suit any project and can be built to comply with British Standard (BS 6164:2011) Code of Practice for Health and Safety in Tunnelling in the Construction Industry. They can also comply with the ITA’s “Guidelines for the Provision of Refuge Chambers Under Construction” and the European Standard (EN 16191:2014)Safety Requirements for Tunnelling Machinery.