Tunnelling has started this week, with Joan now digging from the North Melbourne Station site towards Kensington as part of the Melbourne Metro Tunnel Project.

TBM Joan is the first to break ground, with Meg to follow shortly, while two others – Alice and Millie will be launched in 2020 from the future Anzac Station in the Domain Precinct towards South Yarra.

During tunnelling, the TBMs will pipe the excavated soil (slurry) back to a site in North Melbourne, whilst also lining the tunnel with curved concrete segments. Joan and Meg will arrive at Kensington in early 2020 before being transported back to site in North Melbourne where they will start excavating towards Parkville before tunnelling towards the CBD. The TBMs, 7.28m in diameter and  120m long, will install 56,000 segments of lining for the Metro Tunnel. TBMs will also be boring  10m/day through a variety of ground conditions, from hard rock to sand. Click here for a video, here and au/32 for the tunnelbuilder archive. For further information on the project please visit  https://metrotunnel.vic.gov.au/. 39/19.