Tunnel Supports

Beam bending of tunnel supports at Yucca Mountain, Nye County, NV

  • Hard-way beams with 100% inspection to satisfy rigid specifications for this nuclear application
  • When boring tunnel through hard rock, no beams were required. When soft, loose soil was encountered, beams were rushed to the tunnel

Beam bending of two-piece horseshoe tunnel supports with mounting plates

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Beam bending for tube tunnel at the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL

  • 52 tons of W12x58# beams bent the hard way to form a series of half ellipses.
  • The radii are approximately 34ft, 24ft, and--an extremely tight--12ft radius.
  • The steel fabricator praised the AESS beam bending for being distortion free and for having a profile tolerance of less than 3/8in.
  • Steel fabricator: "The product that we got from Chicago Metal Rolled was almost perfect: they’ve always done a great job for us."
  • The resulting tube muffles the train noise as the "El" passes over the student center designed by Rem Koolhaas.
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