{"id":20408,"date":"2026-09-08T05:50:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T05:50:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/?p=20408"},"modified":"2026-09-08T05:50:19","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T05:50:19","slug":"tunnelling-starts-on-suburban-rail-loop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/?p=20408","title":{"rendered":"Tunnelling starts on Suburban Rail Loop"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Tunnelling has commenced on Melbourne\u2019s Suburban Rail Loop.<\/p>\n<p>TBM Alice is now tunnelling from Burwood towards Glen Waverley on the northern section of what will be Melbourne\u2019s first orbital train line. A second machine, Hacia, is in the ground ready to start excavating the second of the twin tunnels in coming weeks.<\/p>\n<p>They are the first of four CREG-manufactured EPBMs that Terra Verde, comprising Webuild, GS Engineering and Construction, and Bouygues Construction Australia, will deploy to the construct the northern section of twin tunnels.<\/p>\n<p>In a Victorian first, the TBMs are being launched using an \u2018umbilical method\u2019 because of the confined space on the site. The front part of the TBM will start tunnelling while the rest of the machine is gradually built behind it.<\/p>\n<p>At the Clarinda launch site, TBM Aayushi is being assembled to tunnel towards Glen Waverley this year. More TBMs will launch next year from Burwood towards Box Hill, and from Heatherton to Cheltenham.<\/p>\n<p>On this southern section the Suburban Connect consortium of CPB Contractors, Ghella, and Acciona will launch four Herrenknecht 7.24m-diameter TBMs. They can be converted to EPBMs to suit ground conditions along the alignment.<\/p>\n<p>The SRL will connect every major train line from Cheltenham to the west, via the north, and improve mobility in Melbourne\u2019s middle suburbs.<\/p>\n<p>Major construction is under way at all six station sites at Cheltenham, Clayton, Monash, Glen Waverley, Burwood and Box Hill.<\/p>\n<p>The new line is scheduled to open in 2035.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tunnelling has commenced on Melbourne\u2019s Suburban Rail Loop. TBM Alice is now tunnelling from Burwood towards Glen Waverley on the northern section of what will be Melbourne\u2019s first orbital train line. A second machine, Hacia, is in the ground ready to start excavating the second of the twin tunnels in coming weeks. They are the first of four CREG-manufactured EPBMs that Terra Verde, comprising Webuild, GS Engineering and Construction, and Bouygues Construction Australia, will deploy to the construct the northern section of twin tunnels. In a Victorian first, the TBMs are being launched using an \u2018umbilical method\u2019 because of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":20409,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[5509,5511,5510,1811,5508,1441],"class_list":["post-20408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-burwood","tag-creg-manufactured-epbms","tag-glen-waverley","tag-melbournes-suburban-rail-loop","tag-tbm-alice","tag-twin-tunnels","post--single"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Tunnelling Starts on Melbourne\u2019s Suburban Rail Loop<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Tunnelling has started on Melbourne\u2019s Suburban Rail Loop, with TBM Alice beginning excavation from Burwood towards Glen Waverley.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/?p=20408\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tunnelling Starts on Melbourne\u2019s Suburban Rail Loop\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Tunnelling has started on Melbourne\u2019s Suburban Rail Loop, with TBM Alice beginning excavation from Burwood towards Glen Waverley.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/?p=20408\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Tunnelingworld\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-09-08T05:50:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"rosebell\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"rosebell\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tunnelingworld.com\\\/?p=20408#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tunnelingworld.com\\\/?p=20408\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"rosebell\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tunnelingworld.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/4d2f4182b445645aa0b79f3f43560eba\"},\"headline\":\"Tunnelling starts on Suburban Rail Loop\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-09-08T05:50:19+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tunnelingworld.com\\\/?p=20408\"},\"wordCount\":251,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tunnelingworld.com\\\/?p=20408#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tunnelingworld.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/Image-1-1.avif\",\"keywords\":[\"Burwood\",\"CREG-manufactured EPBMs\",\"Glen Waverley\",\"Melbourne\u2019s Suburban Rail Loop\",\"TBM Alice\",\"Twin Tunnels\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Events\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tunnelingworld.com\\\/?p=20408\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tunnelingworld.com\\\/?p=20408\",\"name\":\"Tunnelling Starts on Melbourne\u2019s Suburban Rail Loop\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tunnelingworld.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tunnelingworld.com\\\/?p=20408#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tunnelingworld.com\\\/?p=20408#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tunnelingworld.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/Image-1-1.avif\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-09-08T05:50:19+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tunnelingworld.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/4d2f4182b445645aa0b79f3f43560eba\"},\"description\":\"Tunnelling has started on Melbourne\u2019s Suburban Rail Loop, with TBM Alice beginning excavation from Burwood towards Glen Waverley.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tunnelingworld.com\\\/?p=20408#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/tunnelingworld.com\\\/?p=20408\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tunnelingworld.com\\\/?p=20408#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tunnelingworld.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/Image-1-1.avif\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tunnelingworld.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/Image-1-1.avif\",\"width\":577,\"height\":433,\"caption\":\"Suburban Rail Loop\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tunnelingworld.com\\\/?p=20408#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tunnelingworld.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Tunnelling starts on Suburban Rail Loop\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tunnelingworld.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tunnelingworld.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"Tunnelingworld\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tunnelingworld.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tunnelingworld.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/4d2f4182b445645aa0b79f3f43560eba\",\"name\":\"rosebell\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/40b92c3f35ab56dec639479a669ce3f5158c2ac3b5cf54852fc3df01779a0812?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/40b92c3f35ab56dec639479a669ce3f5158c2ac3b5cf54852fc3df01779a0812?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/40b92c3f35ab56dec639479a669ce3f5158c2ac3b5cf54852fc3df01779a0812?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"rosebell\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tunnelingworld.com\\\/?author=5\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Tunnelling Starts on Melbourne\u2019s Suburban Rail Loop","description":"Tunnelling has started on Melbourne\u2019s Suburban Rail Loop, with TBM Alice beginning excavation from Burwood towards Glen Waverley.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/?p=20408","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Tunnelling Starts on Melbourne\u2019s Suburban Rail Loop","og_description":"Tunnelling has started on Melbourne\u2019s Suburban Rail Loop, with TBM Alice beginning excavation from Burwood towards Glen Waverley.","og_url":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/?p=20408","og_site_name":"Tunnelingworld","article_published_time":"2026-09-08T05:50:19+00:00","author":"rosebell","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"rosebell","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/?p=20408#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/?p=20408"},"author":{"name":"rosebell","@id":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/#\/schema\/person\/4d2f4182b445645aa0b79f3f43560eba"},"headline":"Tunnelling starts on Suburban Rail Loop","datePublished":"2026-09-08T05:50:19+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/?p=20408"},"wordCount":251,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/?p=20408#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Image-1-1.avif","keywords":["Burwood","CREG-manufactured EPBMs","Glen Waverley","Melbourne\u2019s Suburban Rail Loop","TBM Alice","Twin Tunnels"],"articleSection":["Events"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/?p=20408","url":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/?p=20408","name":"Tunnelling Starts on Melbourne\u2019s Suburban Rail Loop","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/?p=20408#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/?p=20408#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Image-1-1.avif","datePublished":"2026-09-08T05:50:19+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/#\/schema\/person\/4d2f4182b445645aa0b79f3f43560eba"},"description":"Tunnelling has started on Melbourne\u2019s Suburban Rail Loop, with TBM Alice beginning excavation from Burwood towards Glen Waverley.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/?p=20408#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/?p=20408"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/?p=20408#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Image-1-1.avif","contentUrl":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Image-1-1.avif","width":577,"height":433,"caption":"Suburban Rail Loop"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/?p=20408#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Tunnelling starts on Suburban Rail Loop"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/","name":"Tunnelingworld","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/#\/schema\/person\/4d2f4182b445645aa0b79f3f43560eba","name":"rosebell","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/40b92c3f35ab56dec639479a669ce3f5158c2ac3b5cf54852fc3df01779a0812?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/40b92c3f35ab56dec639479a669ce3f5158c2ac3b5cf54852fc3df01779a0812?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/40b92c3f35ab56dec639479a669ce3f5158c2ac3b5cf54852fc3df01779a0812?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"rosebell"},"url":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/?author=5"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20408"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20410,"href":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20408\/revisions\/20410"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}