The drill operators at Kárahnjúkar were given two days off on christmas day and the day after, and that of course affects the progress figures for this week. All in all, some 215 metres were drilled in this second to last week of the year.

Last Monday, on the 19th of december, TBM 3 was started up in the headrace tunnel. It has been out of commission since the 8th of July or some six months. All three TBMs are now operating at the same time and that hasn´t occurred since the first week of May, or some eight months ago, the reason being that TBM 2 encountered some very bad rock conditions and was out of operations for months as has been reported here on the site.

A little over 25.000 square metres of the concrete coat at the main dam are complete, or some 27% of the complete project. In spite of the cold weather, the workers managed to continue the work in week 49.

“This is a good place and it is great to be able to assist my fellow countrymen who are working here. I expected it to be much colder and that the weather would be worse, but it´s been fine!” says Xie Hai Yan, a Chinese nurse at the Karahnjukar health care facility. Xie, and her colleage, Dr. Hong came to Iceland from China by invitation from the Icelandic ministry of health to get to know the Icelandix health system.

It is estimated that TBM 3 will again be drilling tunnels before Christmas, making all TBM´s fully operational at the same time. The re-assembling of the giant drill is well on its way but the machine was shut down in July, towed out of the tunnel, taken apart and then put together again in order for it to be turned around and made to drill in the opposite direction.

Workers from icelandic contractor Arnarfell have completed blasting and digging a 120 metre long headrace ditch at the Jökulsá river diversion in Fljótsdalur valley.

The first component of the steel lining at one of the two penstocks was lowered down earlier this week down on top of a bend that had already been cemented in at the lower end of this 400 metre long vertical tunnel.

A landmark was reached in this project last Monday when the first component in the penstock, a steel pipe weighing some 45 tonnes was lowered down the 400 metre long penstock, with the accompanying equipmnent, the weight reached 50 tonnes. This is quite probably the greatest weight ever to be lowered this far down here in Iceland.

TBM 1 made uncharacteristacally littkle progress last week when it ran into bad rock conditions on it´s way.

World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has published a report evaluating developments since the World Commission on Dams issued its report on dams, their benefits and impacts, in the year 2000.  

TBM 1 has been making exceptional progress these past days. Last Monday, on the seventh of November, it drilled a total of 83.2 metres and all in all it drilled 292 metres last week, which is a record.

TBM 2 is making it´s mark again after many months of delays due to faults in the rock. The machine went through the slab of concrete that had emerged in front of it and is noe drilling through solid rock.

TBM 2 is finally through the slab of concrete at the third and final fault of a 40 metre long stretch where it has been stuck more or less for the last six months. Preparations are being made to start drilling in the actual rock and it has been decided to take safety measures in the future and drill 25 metre long test holes to inspect the conditions beforehand. If the tests will reveal bad conditions the roch will be “glued” together with concrete before the TBM will start drilling.

Impregilo workers have managed to get TBM 2 through the wide and long faults that have been troubling for some time now. Currently at a depth of 170 metres, the drill is finally free after being more or less stuck for six months, or since last May.

Workers from the German company DSD StahlbauGmbH are preparing to start again steel lining the penstock, a pair of 400 metre long vertical shafts that the water from Hálslón reservoir flow down into the turbines in the powerhouse cavern.

Three out of the total six spiral cases have been installed and work continues on installing the remaining three inside the powerhouse cavern. Preparations are under way for the instalment of the transformers, scheduled for installation early next year.

Winter has made it´s mark in the area north of Vatnajökull Glaciers in the past weeks and snow and frosty conditions have arrived sooner than usual, for the past few years, since the project began. Harald B. Alfreðsson, an official at the site, said that the recent weather was similar to the weather around last new years.

TBM 1 made great progress last week and drilled 243 metres, which is among the longest distances achieved in one week since the project drilling the headrace tunnels was started. TBM 2 remains stuck due to faults in the rock, but it is hoped that things will start to move again by late October.

Snowfall has caused some delays for the projects at the site that are sensitive to cold and snow. However, the conditions are predicted to improve and things sgould start to move at greater speeds again.

German contractor DSD Stahlbau GmbH has offically terminated it´s deal with Icelandic contractor Slippstöðin.

Workers from icelandic contractor Arnarfell are making good progress at the Ufsarveita tynnel and intake. Some 60 metrs of tunnels were added last week and work continued on removing rocks created by blasts in the intake ditch. The material will be used in the road that will lead to the proposed Kelduárveita diversion.

A total of10.650 square metres of the concrete coat of the main dam are completed, or a third of the amount that is to be finished by the end of the year. 

Workers from Slippstöðin, an Icelandic contractor from Akureyri started the month by installing the first steel tube unit in one of the two penstocks inside Valþjófstaðarfjall mountain. Previously, the instalment of the first unit of the other penstock had been installed.

The record for the most amount of filling material being put into the main dam was broken last week. A total of 147.000 square metres were added to the structure which puts the total amount already in place at 67%.

Work at Desjarárstífla dam has been progressing this summer and in a short time, workers from Suðurverk hf. will resume work from last Winter and continue moving filling material to Sauðarárstífla dam.

The vibratory rollers seen in the picture are operated by Chinese women workers who are known for their precision and good work which is best shown by the fact that all tests on the fill have shown good results.

Workers from Icelandic contractor Arnarfell have started on structures for the Jökulsá river diversion. On the dam site, tunnels and ditches are being built on the eastern side of the river and the river will move through there when the dam itself is being built.

Work is in good progress at the main dam site where the filling material is being put in place. The structure has changed drastically for the last few weeks and a big part of the dam is already at 580 metres above sea level.

Workers have completed cement work on the first of the six turbines to be housed in the powerhouse cavern.

TBM 1 has been showing good progress recently and last week it drilled a total of 208 metres, a figure far above the projected average.

On Monday night, police had to take action against a group of demonstrators who had chained themselves to heavy machinery inside the work area and committed acts of vandalism as well. The vandalism will be reported to the police.

Water levels in the river Jökla have been subsiding for the past 24 hours but the levels are still high and the consistently high temperatures recently should add to the level.

Icelandic contractor Arnarfell ehf. had the lowest bid for the excavating and tunneling of the botnrás at Ufsarstífla dam, a total of 96 million ISK or 59% of the cost estimate. This part of the project is marked as KAR-22A.

A total of 4.5 million cubic metres of filling material has gone into the construction of the Kárahnjúkar main dam and the work is more than half done.

 A total of 4200 guests have been to Végarður in Fljótsdalur valley to receive information on the Kárahnjúkar power project. Each day some 150 – 300 people show up each day and by the 12th of July compared to the same time last year the number of guests was up by a thousand.

An employee of Impregilo was injured early this morning at the Kárahnjúkar project site when he was hit by a transport train inside the headrace tunnel close by Adit 1.

Workers from Impregilo have finished the concrete lining of the headrace tunnel next to the intake at Hálslón reservoir. The first kilometre of the headrace tunnel from the intake was constructed using the traditional method of blasting and digging and will be lined with concrete using a giant steel form.

A little over a kilometre remains for TBM 3 before it reaches the Hálslón reservoir but instead of finishing the distance, it has been decided that it will be turned around and start drilling in the opposite direction. The machine has, since the start of the project in the spring of 2004 drilled some eight kilometres of tunnels.

Kárahnjúkastífla, the main dam at the Hálslón reservoir is taking shape day by day. Last week, about 87 000 cubic metres of filling material were added to the dam, which is the largest of its kind in Europe,  and now a little more than half of the total amount of material in the dam is in place.