Kawasaki Receives TBM Order from South Korea

Sep. 25, 2006

 Tokyo, September 25, 2006 — Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. announced today that it has received an order for a tunnel boring machine (TBM) from Dong-A Geological Engineering Co., Ltd. for the KEPCO (Korea Electric Power Corp.) power cable tunnel project in Seoul. This is the third order from the company, after orders for the Seoul Subway Line No. 9 project in 2003 and Incheon Airport High-Speed Railway project in 2005.

 The TBM will be used to construct the 2.4 km KEPCO/Geoyo-Karak cable tunnel in Jamsil, Seoul, scheduled to be complete in December 2009. By combining shield tunneling technology for soft ground and high water pressure with tunnel boring technology for hard rock and gravel layers, Kawasaki’s TBM is able to excavate a wide range of soil and rock compositions.

 Kawasaki has provided over 1,300 shield machines and TBMs to customers in Japan and other parts of the world, including six TBMs to Korea. In 2003 and 2004, it received orders for eight shield machines for subway construction work in Singapore. This latest order for Korea can thus be seen as the result of Kawasaki’s superior technology and experience in the field.