By rosebell
While the responsibility of operating TBM Betty was up to the Laing O’Rourke/Gamuda Australia consortium, it has broken into a cavern beneath the future Westmead Station to complete her drive on the new 24km-long metro line and tunneling has been completed on the first tunnel at western end of the Sydney Metro West line, whereas this breakthrough marks completion of 93% of major tunneling on the project.
Construction of the tunnel from Sydney Olympic Park, via the future Parramatta Station by TBM Betty was done during 24 months and the machine dug 790,000 tonnes of earth and lined the tunnel with 30,000 concrete segments.
As the first to finish her tunnel at both ends of the line, this machine named after Olympic sprint champion Betty Cuthbert. For completing a 30-month tunneling program by six TBMs, currently 3.5km of tunneling remain.
Three TBMs are bulding the remaining sections. TBM Dorothy is 1059m from her final breakthrough at Westmead, where she is due to arrive in the coming weeks. At the opposite end of the alignment, TBMs Ruby and Jessie are making their way under Sydney Harbour to reach the Hunter Street terminus in the Sydney CBD by the end of the year.
The plan for dismantling TBM Betty and lifting it out of the station box will be done during the next seven weeks.
A crew of up to 150 workers at a time have spent three years constructing the 500m underground structures at Westmead.
The deepest station on the Metro West line, at up to 39m below ground, a crossover cavern for future trains to switch tracks if required, a station cavern, as well as turnback tunnels to allow trains to turnaround to head back towards the Sydney CBD, are the contents of Westmead site.
Doubling rail capacity between Greater Parramatta and the Sydney CBD, Sydney Metro West is scheduled to open in 2032.
