TECHNICAL | SOFT GROUND - BTS LECTURE
CHEK LAP KOK TUEN MUN -
The complex and innovative construction works for the Tuen Mun-Chek Lap Kok (TMCLK) subsea road tunnel in Hong Kong was the focus of a joint BTS/MinSouth evening lecture in February 2024, held at the ICE in London, and online. The presentation was given by Antoine Schwob, a major projects leader with Bouygues Travaux Publics. Also included in discussion was follow-on applications of the technologies on Trunk Road T2 project, also in Hong Kong
INTRODUCTION The February 2024 evening meeting of BTS/MinSouth heard a lecture on the tunnelling challenges and innovations on the Tuen Mun-Chek Lap Kok (TMCLK), in Hong Kong, and how these were taken forward to other projects, such as Trunk Road T2 project, also in Hong Kong. The speaker was Antoine Schwob who has worked for Bouygues Travaux Publics (Bouygues TP), or its subsidiary Dragages Hong Kong, since 2005. He started his career as was a Design Engineer in the design head office of Bouygues on various projects, such as the new Tyne crossing, was then a design manager on various transport projects internationally, including the Chernobyl new safe confinement project. He then relocated to Hong Kong where he was the Technical Director for TMCLK project and then the Deputy Project Director on the Trunk Road T2 project. He is currently based in the UK and working as Project Director for the Bouygues TP - Murphy JV for the Lower Thames Crossing - Tunnels and Approaches project. The lecture focused on TMCLK - its challenges and
innovations for the soft ground tunnelling tasks - and lessons to benefit future major projects, such as Trunk Road T2 and also the Lower Thames Crossing.
On TMCLK, the presentation has several parts,
discussing the: ● Northern Landfall, with TBM tunnelling and a new type of ‘Caterpillar-shaped’ cofferdam;
● Subsea Tunnel, considering TBM intervention strategies and cross passage construction with an industrialised approach; and,
● Southern Landfall, to add structures while overcoming complicated ground conditions, and using a much longer ‘Caterpillar-shaped’ cofferdam.
TMCLK - DESCRIPTION TMCLK created a new road link to Hong Kong’s International Airport, at Chek Lap Kok. There was only one road to link before, which risked traffic issues. The project was also part of a trans-borders road, linking Hong Kong to Macao and to China. The client was the Government of Hong Kong
(Government of HKSAR) and, through the Highways Dept, it awarded a Design and Build contract of HK$18.2 billion (£1.9 billion, at time of lecture, early 2024) to a JV (49:51) of Bouygues TP and Dragages Hong Kong, a subsidiary of the Bouygues Group. Contractual commencement was late 2013 and
substantial completion was achieved in June 2020. The client’s supervisor on the project was Aecom. The main construction tasks on TMCLK involved
a twin-tube subsea tunnel and major reclamation works at each end, creating the Northern and Southern landfalls, respectively. Each reclamation zone had its own construction challenges, involving shafts and cofferdams at the ends, and Cut & Cover portions. The subsea tunnels were bored by slurry TBMs. At almost 5km long, the subsea section required
almost 9.9km of mechanised tunnelling, at depths of around 60m. The parallel tubes are connected by a relatively large number of cross passages, spaced at 100m intervals - 57No in total, 46No of which were constructed by tunnelling method. The Cut & Cover and ramp sections, at each end, were each almost 940m long in total. The JV contractor undertook the North Reclamation
Above: Tuen Mun – Chek Lap Kok Link Location Map IMAGES COURTESY OF BOUYGUES 10 | November 2025
works (1km-long by 100m-wide), from where the TBMs would be launched to bore the subsea tunnel. It would
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