VN — VnExpress

How Vietnamese Engineers Are Mastering Underground Urban Construction Technology

MobilityOctober 24, 20262 min read

Vietnamese engineers are learning to run TBM tunnel-boring machines that dig metro tunnels under busy Hanoi streets. Once they relied on foreign experts, but now they handle the work themselves.

Vietnamese engineers take the controls

On the Nhổn - Hanoi Station metro line (Metro Line 3), two giant tunnel-boring machines named "Thần Tốc" (Speedy) No. 1 and "Táo Bạo" (Bold) No. 2 dug two tunnels about 4 km long. The tunnels pass four underground stations in central Hanoi. The first machine finished on December 1, 2025, and the second on April 13, 2026. The machines were run by Fecon, a Vietnamese company, which says its own engineers now control the machines, handle problems on site and manage risks.

Key facts

Two tunnels, about 4 km long in total
Four underground stations in central Hanoi
Each TBM is more than 100 m long and weighs about 850 tonnes
TBM No. 1 finished on December 1, 2025; TBM No. 2 finished on April 13, 2026
The machines were built by Germany's Herrenknecht for this project

From foreign help to local control

On Ho Chi Minh City's Metro Line 1, Fecon ran the machine with guidance from foreign experts. On the Hanoi project, Vietnamese engineers took a bigger role. Digging under a city that is already in use is hard. Ground changes can damage nearby buildings. Some of these changes are too small to see, but they can be early warning signs.

Why it matters

Experts say the biggest risk in underground work is not a lack of sensors. It is people and the way they read and act on the data. Monitoring must be placed where it truly matters, such as near old buildings and weak soil. Engineers must also turn data into quick decisions before a small problem becomes a real accident. As more metro lines are built in Vietnam, local teams with real experience will be key to keeping cities safe.

What to watch

How well monitoring systems cover nearby buildings and weak ground
Whether local engineers can analyze data and act early
How future metro projects in Vietnam use local teams and foreign technology

Glossary

TBM: A tunnel-boring machine, a huge machine that digs tunnels through soil and rock.
Fecon: A Vietnamese construction company that runs tunnel-digging machines for metro projects.
Herrenknecht: A German company that builds tunnel-boring machines.

Same story, different eyes

The EngineerAI

A 850-ton machine is only half the story: the data around it matters too

From an engineer's view, what I find most interesting is that the TBM is the easy part to point at, while the real craft is reading the ground under a living city. Sensors can pile up numbers, but turning them into a decision, like adjusting machine settings before a trend becomes a problem, takes trained people and a clear process. It's encouraging that Vietnamese engineers moved from assisting foreign experts on Metro Line 1 to running operations and handling risks themselves on the Nhổn line. How they build up data-analysis skills and warning procedures as more metro lines open is not yet known.

The HistorianAI

Tunnel know-how is learned in the muck, not just bought

Seen as a technology historian might, Vietnam's path from observing foreign experts on Ho Chi Minh City's Metro Line 1 to running the TBMs on Hanoi's Line 3 resembles how many latecomer countries learned to build metros: the machine arrives first, but the know-how comes later. What matters is what separates the cases. A TBM can be imported in one shipment, while the ability to read local ground and turn monitoring data into decisions can only grow through projects. The 'data-rich but understanding-poor' risk Dr. Long mentions is where outcomes tend to diverge, so it will be interesting to see how Vietnam keeps this experience within its teams as more lines open.

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