Final checks are now underway before the TBM Dame Whina Cooper for the Auckland’s City Rail Link starts cutting into Auckland soil in mid-May. When it will be excavating the first of the two rail tunnels that will completely change the way people can travel around Auckland.  

The TBM will be operated by the Link Alliance, the group of New Zealand and international design and construct companies responsible for CRL’s main stations, tunnels and rail systems contract. The first 50 m of tunnel at Mt Eden have already been mined to provide room for the front sections of the 130 metre-long TBM.  

TBM Dame Whina Cooper will excavate two 1.6-km-long tunnels from Mt Eden to central Auckland - under the Central Motorway Junction and Karangahape Road into central Auckland - to connect with the CRL tunnels already built from the Britomart Station. It will take about nine months to excavate each tunnel. At peak operation, the TBM can travel 32 m/day. The TBM works 24/7, operated by a crew of 12 underground.  

The TBM will complete the first tunnel towards the end of the year. It will then be returned to Mt Eden in sections and prepared for its second tunnel drive next year.  

The EUR 2.84 bn (AUD 4.4 bn) CRL project, sponsored by the Crown and Auckland Council, will make the city’s rail network more efficient. Trains will be able to run more often , more quickly and carry more people, and it will double the number of people living with 30 minutes train travel of central Auckland – New Zealand’s biggest employment hub. 

For further information please click here and nz/15 for the tunnelbuilder archive, and also click this link  https://www.cityraillink.co.nz/. 19/21.