Press release - The first service tunnel to connect the 24-km Metro West line to a new stabling and maintenance facility at Clyde has been completed, ticking off another significant milestone for the mega project.
A specialised roadheader tunnelling machine called Rhonda broke through a wall of rock to complete the 700-m-long service tunnel after 12 months of excavation.
Trains will use the tunnel when departing the service facility that will be at the core of the new Metro West network and incorporate its operational and maintenance functions, including the operations control centre and infrastructure to maintain the new fleet of metro trains.
The roadheader was named Rhonda by Teddy Smith, 4, who won a colouring-in competition run by delivery partners Gamuda Laing O’Rourke Consortium. Teddy chose the name Rhonda in honour of his grandmother.
Roadheader Rhonda is working alongside roadheaders Charlotte and Ivory to build the service tunnels and junction caverns. So far, the machines have excavated a combined 200,000 t of material from deep below Sydney’s west.
In the coming months, work will continue to build the second service tunnel and line the walls with 3,600 concrete segments, weighting 6 t each, manufactured in Metro West’s purpose-built precast facility in Eastern Creek and lifted into place by a specialised Lining Erecting Machine (LEM), an innovation which is a first for a Metro project. The machine works like a robot arm, picking up the concrete segments and placing them in position with a vacuum plate.
Sydney Metro West is expected to be complete by 2032. When it opens, these fast and reliable metro services will double rail capacity between Greater Parramatta and the Sydney CBD.
TBMs Beatrice and Daphne relaunched from the Five Dock Metro Station site to Burwood North
TBMs Beatrice and Daphne have relaunched from the Five Dock Metro Station site as Metro West heads into its biggest year of tunnelling to date.
The TBMs are on the way to Burwood North about 2 km away, after spending 10 weeks traversing the 200-m-long station cavern at Five Dock.
During the traverse, the mega machines underwent maintenance, including the replacement of gear boxes and cutter discs, to ensure safe operations during the next leg in the journey.
The 1,300-t machines are tunnelling an average 200 m a week to build a 11-km section of the new metro tunnels from The Bays to Sydney Olympic Park.
Over the next 12 months, a significant program of work will see the twin tunnels for the 24-km Metro West line between Westmead and Hunter Street in the Sydney CBD progress.
TBMs Beatrice and Daphne are expected to arrive at Sydney Olympic Park by the end of the year, while autonomous TBMs Betty and Dorothy will make significant progress to build the tunnels between Sydney Olympic Park and Westmead.
A further two TBMs to construct the metro tunnels below Darling Harbour towards the CBD will arrive at The Bays in the coming months, ahead of commencing tunnelling mid-year.
For further information on the project click here and au/11 for tunnelbuilder archive and visit https://www.sydneymetro.info . 11/24.
