The Tunnelings system will greatly improve the ability to inspect and monitor the 400 kilometers of underground subway networks beneath the English capital.

Tunnelings is a tunnel inspection system from Euroconsult. This made in Spain technology will now be used on London’s Underground system, also known as the Tube, in order to improve monitoring of its 400 kilometers of underground networks that run beneath England’s capital.
Until now, inspections of subway tunnels could only be performed when a system wasn’t being used to carry passengers. This leaves only about three hours a day for the work, which is performed by inspectors on foot making visual observations using hand-held lights. These inspectors can only cover about five kilometers every hour.

Spanish engineering now provides a system that can inspect 40 kilometers per hour, at a precision level of one millimeter thanks to the creation of a three dimensional map of the tunnel. This is carried out using a moving vehicle with six mounted laser cameras; these cameras generate a three dimensional map that can spot cracks, damage and humidity. This is a much better method than traditional systems, especially considering that the system also inspects the tracks. Tunnelings has been tested on Tokyo’s subway system.

This technology was created at the behest of Spain’s Administrator of Railway Infrastructures, Adif It will cut the amount of time required to inspect London’s entire Underground network, which has stretches that are up to 150 years old, from 80 days to only 10. Euroconsult adds that the system not only increases the speed of the process, but also adapts to the types of materials that were used to build the infrastructure being inspected.