The first of two massive TBMs - 90 m long, 15.6 m high, and 4000 t weight - has begun digging the 6.5 km twin road tunnels between Watsonia and Bulleen that will take 15,000 trucks off local roads and save drivers up to 35 minutes. 

The North East Link TBMs have been named Zelda and Gillian after 2 ground breaking local women. 

The late West Heidelberg resident Zelda D’Aprano AO (1928-2018) was a renowned activist, notably chaining herself to a building when an equal pay case was dismissed in 1969 and establishing the Women’s Action Committee. She was a key player in a long campaign by many remarkable women working toward closing the gender pay gap. 

Dr Gillian Opie is a neonatal paediatrician at the Mercy Hospital for Women in Heidelberg. Dr Opie founded Australia’s first breast milk bank more than 10 years ago, providing sick and premature babies in Melbourne’s neonatal intensive care units (NICU) with safe, screened and pasteurised milk. 

TBM Zelda and TBM Gillian will dig approximately 10 m per day and up to 45 m underground, building the tunnels that will pass traffic under instead of through local suburbs. 

As they excavate the tunnels, the TBMs will install tunnel walls made of approximately 44,000 individual concrete segments that have been made locally in Benalla. 

Tunnelling will continue into 2026, with the tunnels opening to traffic in 2028.

For further information click here and au/36  for tunnelbuilder archive. Visit https://bigbuild.vic.gov.au/. 34/24.