The Sydney Metro West project has reached a new milestone with the completion of carving work on the twin tunnels from Westmead to Hunter Street in Sydney’s Central Business District (CBD).
Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) Jessie smashed through solid rock into the future Hunter Street Station following a 34-month-long programme of round-the-clock excavation work.
TBM Jessie’s arrival at Hunter Street station marks the completion of excavation work for the project
© Sydney Metro
The milestone also marks the completion of Sydney Metro’s main tunnelling programme, which, in total, has seen the construction of 128-kilometres of new metro tunnel across four different projects (Sydney Metro North West, City, Western Sydney Airport and West), with 19 TBMs having excavated 14.7 million tonnes of earth.
Within the Sydney Metro West project, over 22,900 people and six tunnel boring machines worked to deliver Australia’s longest rail tunnels at 24 kilometres long.
The arrival of TBM Jessie follows TBM Ruby’s breakthrough at Hunter Street at the end of last year last year. Both machines spent 21 months building the 2.3-kilometre tunnels from The Bays, via Pyrmont and below Darling Harbour, to reach their final destination at Hunter Street.
With tunnelling now complete, the project’s focus will soon shift to the fit out of tunnels, including the laying of tracks, which will begin by the end of the year. Teams at Hunter Street will now be tasked with the disassembly of each TBM, subsequently bringing each machine up to the surface in 16 large pieces from 27-metres below ground.