By rosebell
As part of the Sydney Metro West project in Sydney, Australia, the Pyrmont Metro Station is under excavation.
Currently, two roadheaders with 117 tonnes weight are working at the eastern end of the site,whereas a third roadheader set to arrive later this month and advancing the tunneling work that forms an important part of Sydney’s expanding metro network is up to these machines.
Already over 90m of the Pyrmont Station cavern has been dug by the roadheaders and once completed, the cavern is due to be 170m long, 24m wide, and 18m high.
As the scheduled date for completion of this cavern is early 2025, it will allow arrival of tunnel boring machines (TBMs) Jessie and Ruby. Connecting The Bays to Hunter Street in Sydney’s Central Business District,construction of the 2.3km tunnels will be up to these TBMs.
The quantity of total removed material from the site by roadheaders are expected to be 151,000 tonnes, and 25,000 tonnes already excavated. All clean material from the excavation is being repurposed for other projects across Sydney, ensuring efficient use of the removed earth and rock.
In order to serving as pedestrian access points, two shafts are also being dug alongside the main excavation, wheras these shafts are being excavated with rock hammers.
While the eastern shaft will extend to a depth of 40m, the western one will reach 33m, and they are due to link to the station cavern and provide access to the station.
As a key link on the Sydney Metro West route, the Pyrmont Metro Station will offer a two-minute journey between Pyrmont and Hunter Street and a 13-minute ride to Sydney Olympic Park.
The responsibility of managing excavation of the Pyrmont tunnels is up to the John Holland CPB Contractors Ghella Joint Venture (JCG JV), Sydney Metro’s delivery partner. The aim of construction these tunnels as a part of Sydney Metro West’s is to handle 20,500 passengers per hour into Sydney’s Central Business District during the morning peak by 2036.
The date of commencing Sydney Metro West project is 2020 and the scheduled date for its completion is 2030. Once finished, Sydney will feature a network comprising four metro lines, 46 stations, and 113km of new rail.
