By lyndamyer
Once two TBMs entered at the Burwood North Metro Station site, further advancement has been marked on Sydney Metro West project.
Digging a combined 1.2 million tons of spoil and installing almost 44,100 tunneling segments, TBMs Beatrice and Daphne have each built 6.26km of tunnel.
In order to constructing a section of the alignment between The Bays and Sydney Olympic Park, via future station sites at Five Dock, Burwood North and North Strathfield, the hard rock TBMs, which are 7m diameter double-shield, have passed more than halfway of their 11km journey.
Considering that these TBMs are due to traverse to the western end of the cavern and will be relaunched to excavate the 1.8km to the next stop at Metro’s North Strathfield station site, this process will take just over two weeks. The 29m-deep Burwood North station box cavern is 25m wide and 194m long.
The scheduled date for completing journey to Sydney Olympic Park by these machines is the second half of this year.
The 165m-long TBMs are using refurbished cutterheads, front shields and gripper shields from TBMs used on the Sydney Metro City & Southwest project.
Following that the TBMs arrived at Five Dock Station site minutes apart to achieve the first double TBM breakthrough in the southern hemisphere, they made tunneling history in December last year.
Being inaugurated in 2032, the 24km Sydney Metro West will double rail capacity between Greater Parramatta and the Sydney CBD, linking new communities to rail services and supporting housing supply.
According to transport minister Jo Haylen: “Australia’s biggest public transport project is making fast progress. Daphne and Beatrice can almost see the finish line, they’re just under 5km away from their final destination, Sydney Olympic Park. These breakthroughs mean we are a step closer to delivering this once-in-a-century infrastructure investment in our city that will be a catalyst for housing growth across Sydney.”
