“Athena,” one of the two tunnel-boring machines constructing Athens Metro Line 4, emerged on Thursday, February 12, at the Evangelismos shaft, located at the intersection of Vasileos Konstantinou and Michalakopoulou streets.
What sets this state-of-the-art machine apart is that its role extends far beyond simply excavating the tunnel. The 100-meter-long TBM—an engineering landmark not only for the tunnel itself but also for Greece’s broader technical expertise—will, upon completing its mission, be dismantled, brought to the surface, and stored according to the manufacturer’s instructions, ready to embark on a new project in the future.
Operating around the clock in shifts, “Athena” and the AVAX team have already installed 3,393 concrete segments, tracing a path through Goudi, Zografou, Ilissia, the University Campus, and Kaisariani. To date, the machine has removed more than 400,000 cubic meters of soil.
The project aims to connect some of Athens’ most densely populated neighborhoods—Galatsi, Kypseli, Exarchia, and Kolonaki—with the city center and major hospitals, enhancing urban mobility and access to essential services.
This breakthrough—the first of two TBMs working on Greece’s largest public infrastructure project—marks the symbolic “breakthrough” of the shaft wall, a milestone in tunneling terminology. The 300 workers from the AVAX-Ghella-Alstom consortium, together with staff from “Elliniko Metro,” continue their intensive efforts, now entering the final stretch of this landmark project.
