The 165 m long TBMs Else and Merle, both weighting 1350-t, are excavating the Cross River Rail’s twin tunnels from the launch site at Woolloongabba north towards Albert Street beneath Brisbane. The tunnels will be lined with a total of 4,157 rings, made up of 25,000 concrete segments, which will be 27 cm thick and 1.7 m long, produced in the Wagners Precast facility at Wacol.
On the 18/05/21 the two TBMs travelling north from Woolloongabba have so far driven 1275 m for Else and 834 m for Merle installing 650 rings and 400 rings. Meanwhile the two 115-t roadheaders, excavating the tunnels in the opposite direction from Woolloongabba towards Boggo Road, have travelled 212 m and 228 m.
Each TBM has been equipped with trackers and sensors which feed technical information to the project team in real time.
Stay up to date with how far the two TBMs have tunnelled as they travel north from Woolloongabba and the two roadheaders which are progressing south towards Boggo Road, click here for the Cross River TBM Tracker.
The TBMs are scheduled to reach the Northern Tunnel Portal at Normanby before the end of 2021, after traversing through the underground station caverns currently being excavated at Albert Street and Roma Street.
Meanwhile at the Northern Tunnel Portal work is ongoing as follows:-
- relocation of the sewer main in Victoria Park scheduled for completion on May.
- earthworks to establish an area to decommission the two TBMs and prepare the site for gantry crane installation.
- installing piles to support the portal structure.
- excavating and progressively installing ground support anchors, vertical drainage and shotcrete.
- constructing the concrete capping beam to connect the bored piles and form the upper boundary of the Northern Tunnel Portal.
- Loading and removing excavated material with trucks.
Click here and au/37 for the tunnelbuilder archive. For further information on the project please visit https://crossriverrail.qld.gov. 20/21.
