Hatch wins Tunnelling Association of Canada awards for Mount Royal project
March 2, 2023
By CCE
The work is part of Montreal's REM public transit initiative.
Photo by Bertin Caron-Boulé, courtesy TAC.
Consulting engineering firm Hatch has won the Tunnelling Association of Canada’s (TAC’s) Project of the Year (Up to $100 million) Award for its double-arch replacement and rehabilitation of Montreal’s Mount Royal Tunnel.
The southernmost 540 m of the existing 5-km long tunnel—which runs beneath Montreal, connecting the island to the northern suburbs—needed to be replaced due to deterioration, caused by the infiltration of chloride-heavy groundwater. Meanwhile, an additional 290 m of the tunnel required rehabilitation.
The project is part of the Réseau express métropolitain (REM), a major public transit initiative that includes a new automated, electric light metro network, comprising 26 stations connected by 67 km of track. Hatch was responsible for design and was part of a joint venture (JV) that oversaw implementation.
The firm also won TAC’s Photo of the Year Award for an image of the tunnel’s future McGill station, taken by Hatch engineer Bertin Caron-Boulé. The photo (above) features the contractor crew installing shotcrete as part of an advance within the second sequence of the ‘sequential demolition method’ used for the Mount Royal Tunnel replacement. This method created a new tunnel inside the existing one, ensuring the latter could remain operational throughout construction.
