By Lynda Myer
With the features of 90m length, 15.6m diameter, and almost 4,000 tones weight, two Herrenknecht TBMs have been ordered for Melbourne’s North East Link road tunnels.
The two machines, which will be among the largest in the Southern Hemisphere, are going to excavate the 6.5km three-lane tunnels for the freeway network and will tunnel beneath the Yarra River and up to 40m underground.
The launching location of TBMs in 2024 is the 200m-long box where working process has currently started on. While the launch site will eventually be the northern tunnel portal, site preparation is undergoing, and digging and piling are due to start later this year.
The North East Link is Victoria’s largest road project and the biggest investment in Melbourne’s northeast. In October last year Spark consortium, comprising Webuild, GS Engineering and Construction, CPB Contractors, China Construction Oceania, Ventia, Capella Capital, John Laing Investments, DIF, and Pacific Partnerships, was awarded the contract to build operate and maintain the tunnels and key interchanges.
