Date: Thursday, September 24, 2026
Presenter: Franck Peng
Location: Lone Star Texas Grill (930 Dixon Rd, Toronto, Ontario)
Time: 5:30 p.m. (Registration) 6:00 p.m. (Presentation)
Registration Cost:
- $10 - TAC Members
- $20 - Non-members
Presentation Overview: Jello-Mud in Pipe Jacking and Shield Tunnelling
About the Presenter: Franck Peng is the Business Development Lead at Balsam Laboratory Canada. His work focuses on material technologies for pipe jacking and shield tunnelling, including annulus management, friction reduction, settlement control, ground stabilization and tail-seal performance. He works closely with project owners, contractors, consultants and research partners to translate laboratory research and international field experience into practical solutions for tunnelling projects around the world. His current focus is the application of Jello-Mud and other performance-based materials in long-distance, large-diameter and high-water-pressure tunnelling projects.
Event Content: More than 40 metres beneath the Yangtze River, Jello-Mud was applied to complete two unprecedented DN2600 steel-pipe pipe-jacking drives of 3,214.96 metres and 3,208 metres. The pipeline was completed as a single drive using only the main jacking station, without the use of the 10+ preinstalled inter-jacks. The longer drive was officially recognized by Guinness World Records as the world’s longest pipe-jacking drive. Maintaining a continuous, low-resistance annulus over this distance presented a critical engineering challenge, particularly in water-rich soft ground. As part of the project’s frictionand annulus-management strategy, Jello-Mud—a thixotropic bentonite slurry produced using Balsam Laboratory’s BSP 70 liquid polymer was injected around the pipelines. Franck Peng of Balsam Laboratory Canada will discuss the injection strategy and field performance, including an immediate decrease in thrust force from TAC8,000 kN to 6,778 kN. He will also present applications of Jello-Mud in shield tunnelling, including shield lubrication, settlement control, high-pressure ground stabilization and the successful sealing of an oceancrossing tunnel boring machine operating under 0.84 MPa water pressure.
