By Lynda Myer
By excavating the West Gate Tunnel Project’s outbound tunnel, the 1 km mark of TBM Bella’s 4km drive has been completed, while at the moment the second TBM, Vida, is past 20% of her 2.8 km journey digging the West Gate’s inbound tunnel.
Operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, both TBMs are hard at work. The determined time period for completion of TBM Vida’s journey is almost a year, whereas TBM Bella will tunnel for 18 months.
The TBMs commenced their journey at the northern portal in Yarraville and are stretching south-west towards the southern portals along the West Gate Freeway.
Constructing, fitting out and launching the tunnels and portals for use, will take just under 4 years.
Being considered as a vital alternative to the West Gate Bridge, the TBMs current activity is, constructing the new twin tunnels between the Maribyrnong River and the West Gate Freeway. Providing quicker and safer journeys as well as removing more than 9000 trucks from streets in the inner west per day, will be the advantages of this project.
Below you can see some of the pictures that were taken of the West Gate Tunnel project’s breakthrough achieved by TBM Bella.
Please visit here for tunneligworld reference and check this website to read more about this project/
