His twin sister Adéla is close behind him.

Half a kilometre in three months

TBM Tonda bores half a kilometre in three months. Now the machine has to progress through the station. At the other end it will again bite into the rock and head towards Veleslavín, where it should arrive by early December.

It’s going well

The tried and tested technique of cutting metro tunnels using TBMs has paid off. So far it is going so well that the builders are ahead of schedule. This was revealed by the Director of Metrostav building company Pavel Pilát. The metro should begin operation in the year 2014.

From Veleslavín towards Červený Vrch

At the beginning of next year the machines will be heading for Červený Vrch where a metro station is already being built, so nothing will stand in the way of the machines and they will fluently continue in the direction of Dejvice.

Motol will be the terminus

Another large building site is at the location of Motol station, which is being dug from the surface. Here a 200 metre twin-track tunnel will serve as the metro terminus. This is where the metro trains will turn back onto the line. At Motol it will be possible to go straight from the metro to the hospital via an underpass.

The end of the line for now

Motol station is the last station for the time being, but this is basically a temporary situation as, in the next phase, the metro will go on to Prague airport via Bílá Hora. Therefore, a ventilation system for the metro will also be installed at Motol.

Tunneling will be completed at the end of 2012

Both TBMs will finish their work at the end of 2012 or early 2013. Then the technical systems, rails and equipment for the tunnels and stations will be installed.

So far financed only by the city

The construction of this section of metro is to cost 19 to 20 billion CZK. The city wants to obtain a grant of 8 billion CZK from EU funds. “Unfortunately, we are one of very few European cities which doesn’t receive any money from the State for such an important building project,” said Mayor Bohuslav Svoboda. The extension of line A will measure about 6 kilometres, which will bring its overall length to 17 kilometres.