On the 9th of May 2019 the TBM Grace broke through at Redcliffe Station (click here for the video), after tunnelling 4.6km and building more than 2700 rings since starting her underground journey from Forrestfield in mid-2017. A crew of 15 guided TBM Grace into the 12m-deep underground station over a period of 24 hours. This is the last time the TBM will surface before reaching its final stop at Bayswater Junction. The project's second machine is about 500 m behind the first. It is expected to break into Redcliffe in June. The two TBMs will then begin the final leg of their journey. They will tunnel to a depth of 22m under the Swan River before surfacing at the Bayswater dive structure.
Progress on emergency exit points
Given the length of the project's twin tunnels, additional infrastructure is required between the stations to allow safe egress to the ground level in the event of an emergency, and access to the tunnels for maintenance. As such, 3 emergency egress shafts (EES), 12 tunnel-to-tunnel cross passages and 3 tunnel-to-egress shaft cross passages will be constructed along the alignment.
With all three EES now excavated, work is underway on the cross passage between Airport West EES and Tunnel One. Work has also commenced on Cross Passage RAC, with the breakout of the tunnel segment in Tunnel One complete. Excavation to connect Tunnel One to Tunnel Two will now begin, with the works expected to take approximately six weeks. Click here for more on the Cross passage construction. Click here and au/34 for the tunnelbuilder archive. Also visit https://www.forrestfieldairportlink.wa.gov.au/. 19/19.
