Webuild has announced the delivery of two tunnel boring machines (TBMs) at the Suburban Rail Loop (SRL) East development site in Burwood.
Assembly of the TBMs has now begun, with tunnelling set to commence later this year as the machines travel from Burwood towards the Glen Waverley station box.
The two TBMs are the first of four set to be delivered to the SRL East site
© Clough Group
Measuring in at roughly at a length 103 metres with a cutterhead 7.25 metres in diameter, the two TBMs are the first of four, with the next two set to follow and launch from the Burwood site toward the Box Hill station box.
In total, the machines are expected to excavate more than 10 kilometres of rock during their journeys, and have been named TBM Hacia and TBM Alice by students from local primary schools across Melbourne’s east and southeast.
TBM Hacia has been named after Hacia Atherton, a founder of Empowered Women in Trades, an alliance that seeks to create a more inclusive future for women in construction, whilst TBM Alice was named after Melbourne music producer and musician Alice Ivy, who has been nominated for numerous ARIA awards.
The Suburban Rail Loop (SRL) East package is being delivered by Terra Verde Joint Venture, and was commissioned by Suburban Rail Loop Authority. The contract includes the excavation of two parallel tunnels for nearly 10 kilometres between the future stations of Box Hill and Glen Waverley; the creation of 39 cross passages between them; two station boxes; two tunnel boring machine launch sites; and one intervention and ventilation shaft.