By rosebell
Advance on Sydney’s Western Harbour Tunnel has reached over 1km.
While the geology of path on Western Harbour Tunnel Stage 2, is sandstone from Cammeray, roadheaders are working on them and now their daily breakingthrough is 1,000 tonnes of rock on the north and southbound mainline tunnels.
The number of present roadheaders underneath the Warringah Freeway is five now and they are advancing at 20-25m a week, including one that has started tunneling from Ridge Street North Sydney to complete the future Falcon Street off ramp.
As the first new road crossing of Sydney harbour in more than 30 years, the Western Harbour Tunnel with 6.5km is slated to inaugurate to traffic in 2028.
Destination of the tunnels that currently being dug beneath the Warringah Freeway will be Waverton, where TBMs will then tunnel under the harbour to Birchgrove and link with the Rozelle Interchange.
Considering that the Western Harbour Tunnel is going to reduce pressure on the Anzac Bridge and Sydney Harbour Bridge, assisting traffic flow in the inner-west following the opening of the Rozelle Interchange, this connection will be a key moment for the Sydney road network.
The project’s twin, three-lane tunnels are expected to reduce traffic on the Western Distributor by 35%, the Harbour Tunnel by 20% and the Harbour Bridge by 17%.
While thanking the 3,300 workers on the project, New South Wales premier Chris Minns claimed that 7,000 jobs were expected to be created before the new crossing opened in 2028.
