By Ashley Karen
The first breakthrough has been accomplished on the Sydney Metro – Western Sydney Airport project.
TBM Eileen reached the Airport Terminal metro station site after constructing 1.26km of a fully lined tunnel. It celebrated the completion of the first leg of the 5.5km journey towards the Aerotropolis.
Since venturing at Airport Business Park in April, the Eileen machine has excavated at an average speed of 120m per week and bored roughly 112,000 tons of rock.
It took almost five months to excavate about 293,000 tons of rock to construct the 25m-deep Airport Terminal Station box to schedule the tunnel boring machine’s arrival.
The tunnel boring machine will now travel the station box before being relaunched to the tunnel beneath the future Western Sydney International Airport. It is predicted to reach the Aerotropolis metro station site by 2024.
Ghella Joint Venture and CPB Contractors are utilizing four tunnel boring machines will construct the twin metro tunnels for the Sydney Metro – Western Sydney Airport line, with three TBMs already in the ground.
Once Western Sydney International Airport opens for passenger services, the 23km rail line will be operational.
Further information is available here.
