InternalTunnel patroness Andreßen visits AMELI
State Secretary Andreßen makes sure all is well for the team of tunnel boring machine AMELI.
The certificate the tunnel patroness and “patron of the tunnel builders” received at her traditional assumption of office perkily states: “The tunnel patroness assumes the duty to refresh the tunnel boring team at any time and to assure herself at least every six months of the progress of the work and the welfare of the team.”
Schleswig-Holstein’s state secretary for science Cordelia Andreßen takes her mandate seriously. Equipped with cake, coffee, and packets of sweets in her backpack, she paid a visit to the ten-person building team inside the tunnel boring machine AMELI on 21 February. After the coffee break in the control centre, the state secretary was shown through the machine. She even insisted on edging her way up front to the place behind the cutterhead where the concrete elements are put together to form the rings of the tunnel wall.
The tunnel boring machine AMELI started on 11 January from the building pit of the experiment hall in Schenefeld to construct the tunnels of the “fan” beneath the future research campus of the European XFEL. In the meantime, it has already completed nearly half of its first tunnel section.
