Surveying  gyroscope  GYROMAT 3000  in use

On October 15, 2010, the last few inches of rock in the Gotthard Base Tunnel were  broached. Thus the breakthrough for this rail tunnel, the world’s longest at 57  kilometers, was celebrated. Engineers from DMT, the technology services provider  based in Essen, Germany, experienced at first hand the completion of the passage  for the eastern tube. Their assignment had been to support exact surveying of the  tubes far beneath the Swiss High Alps. Ever since 2004 DMT has used the GYROMAT  3000 high-precision surveying gyroscope at regular intervals to verify measurements  in various sections of the tunnel. 

 "With rock overburdens up to 2500 meters thick, the Gotthard Base Tunnel is the  deepest rail tunnel to be built to date, anywhere in the world," explained the DMT  project manager, Volker Schultheiss. That is why maintaining the correct location,  course and altitude while drifting the tunnel was imperative, making high-precision surveying an absolute necessity. "The tolerances specified for the breakthrough point were 25 centimeters in the lateral direction and 12.5 centimeters in altitude. Ultimately, the actual deviations in the tunnel were only 8 centimeters in the horizontal and 1 centimeter in the vertical direction," explained Schultheiss, showing obvious pleasure about the excellent results. 

 

Background 

The surveying gyroscope was originally developed for high-accuracy surveying of underground galleries in mining operations. This explosion-proof device achieves deviation of no more than 3 centimeters per kilometer. At its heart is a high-speed gyroscope mounted so as to isolate it from outside forces. Due to the interaction of gyroscope spin, gravity and the earth’s rotation the gyroscope maintains orientation to the north. The GYROMAT 3000 represents a further refinement of this instrument. This is a fully automatic gyroscopic surveying system, able to specify true north at precision achieved nowhere else (1.5 centimeters per kilometer). The GYROMAT has been employed in a number of tunneling projects beyond pure mining operations. Among them was the drilling of the Eurotunnel underneath the English Channel, between France and the UK. 

 

 

 

 

Contact and further information

• DMT GmbH & Co. KG 
• Exploration & Geosurvey Division 
• Volker Schultheiss 
• Tel.: +49 201 172-1970 
• Fax: +49 201 172-1971 
• E-Mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
• www.gyromat.de 

 

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