Athens Metro Line 3 extension drilling to be completed by the end of the year

TBM “Ippodamos” set off for the second phase of its underground journey towards Piraeus  roughly 3 weeks ago. Officials from “Attiko Metro” SA told Ypodomes.com that 80 out of 120 m. of the problematic calcareous subsoil at Maniatika Station have been already dug, after which the excavation procedures are expected to become significantly smoother.

The goal set by the company is for the TBM to have opened another 1,100 meters of tunnel till August, thus reaching Piraeus and, immediately after that, to embark for the last bit of its journey and another 1,030 meters to Dimotiko Theatro Station (future terminal of Line 3) and Diligianni Trench for its resurfacing and disassembly, that ideally would be completed by the end of the year, concluding tunneling works of 7.6 km in total.

If everything goes as planned tunneling works will be completed in 2018 allowing the new stations to operate by 2020. It is reminded that the construction of the first 3 stations is at a very advanced stage by now, which means that they could be released to operation even sooner, even in the first semester of 2019.

Depending on the project progress of the technically challenging Piraeus Station, the set of the last 3 stations could be fully functional in 2021, finally bringing Metro right at the heart of the commercial and administrative triangle of the centre. This combined with the soon to be released Tram Line, is expected to transform Piraeus drastically for the better. The project is co-funded by the EU, as it is included in NSRF 2014-2020.