A Breakthrough for Dar and the Greater Beirut Water Supply Project

On Friday, December 6, 2019 and with all project partners in attendance, Dar celebrated the breakthrough of the last TBM tunnel within the “Greater Beirut Water Supply Project.”

The event marked the successful and safe completion of the boring of the third tunnel, despite all the challenges faced. The tunnel had crossed hard geological conditions, encountered a cavern, and passed under a congested residential area at a relatively shallow depth along the final stretch of the alignment at Khaldeh. Notwithstanding, the hard work and dedication of the project’s team led to the completion of this daunting task and to the safe delivery of this milestone.

The completed tunnel runs around 9 km from Damour to Khaldeh and was bored using a gripper-type tunnel boring machine. With tunnel boring completed, the works will proceed on installing the final lining inside the tunnels and on laying the pipelines. The final system – which is composed of 24-km-long tunnels (with a final diameter of 2.8 m) and 16-km-long pipelines – will convey water from the existing hydroelectric power system tunnel at Joun to Beirut’s water infrastructure, in order to boost the city’s water supply.

We are proud to have been involved in this massive achievement, where Dar has undertaken the design review and supervision of the project.