On Tuesday 19 February 2008 Strukton Afzinktechnieken successfully immersed the first section of a tunnel which will be part of the Busan-Geoje Fixed Link in South Korea. It will be the first immersed tunnel of that country.

Together with two suspended bridges, the tunnel will connect Busan, the second capital of South Korea, to the Geoje peninsula so as to provide a solution to the mobility problem in the densely populated country. Within three years 18 tunnel sections, each 180 metres long, will be immersed.

Within this project Strukton Railinfra provides IT support (system management and software programming) to Geocon’s positioning efforts. Strukton-owned Geocon is a positioning expert specialising in immersed tunnel projects.

During the immersion process the exact position of the tunnel section is determined by way of sensors and software. The first four sections will be guided by the usual sensors (total stations) and the existing software.

Because of the depth and the length of the tunnel the existing system cannot be used beyond the fourth section. That is the reason why, parallel to the immersion of the first four tunnel sections, a new software system is being developed to be used from the fifth section on in combination with new sensors (tautwire, distance sensors and gyroscopes). During the immersion of the first four sections the old and the new system will run alongside each other in order to verify the accuracy of the new system.