Four large diameter soft eyes have been installed in the diaphragm wall cages of the new Singapore MRT Marine Terrace Station during August 2017.
Soft-Eyes are made of GFRP rebar, which is used to substitute the steel reinforcement in the D-Walls of construction shafts. When the Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) breaks through the D-Walls, it easily cuts the GFRP bars, saving time on project schedule and money on equipment usage.
Dextra has been the pioneer of this application since its first use in the Bangkok metro project in 1998 and has extensive experience for in-house design and manufacturing of Soft-Eyes.
The D-Walls installed on Terrace Station also feature Bartec® rebar couplers, a common application which allows for the horizontal re-connection of the station slabs.
Left: Part of the Soft Eye with overlap between steel & GFRP
Right: Bartec couplers in the D-Wall will be used for slab reconnection.
Left: Raising the Soft Eye in position
Right: Vertical position. Circular shape of the TMB breakthrough target is visible in light color.