By lyndamyer
TBMs Catherine and Marlene that are building the northern tunnels for the Sydney Metro, Western Sydney Airport project, completing 50% of their journeys following broke through at the Claremont Meadows services facility shaft, have reached the halfway mark. The comissioning site of thease machines was the Orchard Hills Station site in July and August 2023 respectively.
The TBMs, which are intending to dig the twin 4.3km tunnels to the new St Marys Metro Station site, have an average advance of 120m per week, whereas the amount of removed spoil by them is 600,000 tonnes so far, and installed 17,820 precast concrete segments as they tunnelled under the M4 motorway to the 21m-deep services shaft.
The TBMs are due to traverse the 16m-diameter services shaft now, before being relaunched to complete their journey. They are expected to reach St Marys in the middle of this year.
Additionally, building process of the two 5.5km southern tunnels from Airport Business Park to the Aerotropolis is up to another two TBMs, Eileen and Peggy. While the scheduled date for arrival of these TBMs at the Aerotropolis is late this year, they both are about 3km into their journeys.
In December 2021, the tunneling contract was granted to CPB Contractors and Ghella Joint Venture.
As the transport spine for Greater Western Sydney, the 23km-long Sydney Metro – Western Sydney Airport will be operational when the new international airport opens for passenger services. The journey between St Marys Metro Station and Aerotropolis Station will take around 20 minutes.
