By rosebell
The TBMs Gillian and Zelda have excavated almost 60% of the 6.5km-long, three-lane twin tunnels on Melbourne’s North East Link tunnel and so passed the halfway mark, as Federal minister Catherine King and Victorian minister Gabrielle Williams announced.
Boring over than 3km each and installing more than 25,000 pre-case concrete tunnel segments, the date of commencing drive by TBMs in Watsonia was 2024.
The future Manningham interchange will be the finish station for these machine’s journey in the comming year, whereas the have 15.6m diameter and are 90m long.
As Victoria’s longest twin road tunnels, the tunnels are expected to take 15,000 trucks off local roads every day.
In order to preparing the Manningham interchange for the arrival of the TBMs, significant work is undergoing in this place and the first permanent section of the new Bulleen Road interchange is now open on the Eastern Freeway.
Currently the number of people who are working across the North East Link project is more than 8,000.
King said: “The TBMs’ progress showed we are getting on with building the missing link in Melbourne’s motorway network, which will transform the way people move across the north-east.”
According to Williams: “The North East Link would slash travel times and make the suburbs more connected, while also removing trucks from local roads.”
