The first of the five tunnel boring machines has arrived in Sydney to extend city’s new metro line deep under the city centre, with tunnelling works scheduled to start before the end of the year.
Each Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) is arriving at the Marrickville launch site in 8 shipping containers and 23 other separate pieces so big they don’t fit into a container. These pieces include a 100 tonne cutter head and a 128 tonne section of the round steel tunnelling chamber, each delivered on truck trailers with 68 wheels.
The 1,100 tonne TBM will be assembled and tested before it is launched later this year. It will tunnel to the new Waterloo Station, then continue under the Sydney CBD via new metro station sites at Central, Pitt Street, Martin Place and on to Barangaroo Station.
“The arrival of these giant machines is a key milestone in the Sydney Metro project. The sheer size of each tunnel boring machine is hard to comprehend – at around 150 metres long it’s the equivalent length of two Airbus A380 jets nose to tail,” New South Wales Minister for Transport, Andrew Constance, said.
Two TBMs will dig 6.2 km from Chatswood to the edge of Sydney Harbour. Two will travel 8.1 km from Marrickville to Barangaroo. The fifth TBM has been specially designed to deliver twin one kilometre long tunnels under Sydney Harbour.
Each machine is expected to tunnel an average 120 metres a week.
This is the first time in Australian history that five TBMs have worked on a transport infrastructure project, delivering new 15.5 km twin metro railway tunnels from Chatswood to Sydenham, including under Sydney Harbour. New stations will be delivered at Crows Nest, Victoria Cross, Barangaroo, Martin Place, Pitt Street and Waterloo along with new underground platforms at Central Station.
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