To improve the well-being of our people, enhance productivity and further strengthen site safety, the Group continues to invest heavily in Research and Development in the field of automation. In the last three years, Bouygues Travaux Publics (parent company of Dragages Hong Kong) has worked collaboratively with Dragages Hong Kong to develop a specific semi-automatic drilling robot, ROBY 850, to install anchors for E&M brackets and architectural cladding in tunnels. Through the adoption of ROBY 850, colleagues are no longer required to perform the repetitive task of setting-out, drilling and installing anchors. This greatly enhances the health and safety of our people while also maximising work efficiency.

ROBY 850 was named “SAFETY INITIATIVE OF THE YEAR” at the 2018 ITA Tunnelling Awards, held on 7 November 2018 in Chuzhou, China. The ITA Tunnelling Award is a global competition which aims to recognise and reward the world’s most ground-breaking innovations.

This revolutionary robot was FIRST used in Hong Kong’s Liantang HYW Boundary Control Point Project, which principally involves the design and construction of Hong Kong’s LONGEST twin-tube road tunnel – two tubes of 4.8km each.

TECHNICAL FIRSTS adopted in the Liantang HYW Boundary Control Point Project

• ROBY 850 – 30,000 holes drilled by this semi-automatic drilling robot to allow installation of brackets and cladding
• TELEMACH – automated TBM disc cutter replacement
• MOBYDIC – TBM disc cutter monitoring system
• 180-degree TBM U-turn operation in the mid-ventilation junction cavern
• Hong Kong’s LARGEST Earth Pressure Balanced (EPB) Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM)