Sydney Metro West has resumed tunnelling works with the relaunch of tunnel boring machines (TBMs) Beatrice and Daphne at the Five Dock Metro Station site, continuing their journey toward Sydney Olympic Park.
The TBMs continue to build the new metro tunnels, with their next stop 2km away at the future Burwood North Metro Station site.
The relaunch of TBM Beatrice and Daphne is a major milestone in a significant program of work that will see the 24km metro line between Westmead and Hunter Street in Sydney’s CBD start to take shape over the next 12 months, further progressing the Sydney Metro West project that will also help drive housing supply.
The 1,300t machines will tunnel an average of 200m a week to complete the second leg in their journey and are expected to break through at Burwood North in April.
In December 2023, the TBMs made tunnelling history when they arrived at Five Dock station site minutes apart to achieve the first double TBM breakthrough in the southern hemisphere.
Upon arrival at Five Dock, the TBMs have undergone necessary maintenance to ensure they continue safe operations for the next leg of their journeys.
Now that TBMs Beatrice and Daphne have departed Five Dock, work will continue to prepare the 200m-long, by 22m-wide and up to 30m-deep excavated cavern for station construction.
Autonomous TBMs Betty and Dorothy are making significant progress in building the tunnels between Sydney Olympic Park and Westmead and are more than 1.3km and 930m into their journey, respectively.
A further two TBMs to construct the metro tunnels below Sydney Harbour will arrive at The Bays in the coming months ahead of commencing tunnelling in mid-2024.
Sydney Metro West is expected to be complete by 2032. When it opens, these fast and reliable metro services will double rail capacity between Greater Parramatta and the Sydney CBD.
This forms part of the New South Wales Government’s commitment to building more housing in the right places, where people want to live – to improve affordability, reduce building and infrastructure costs and create thriving communities.
This includes a proposal, which was brought to the New South Wales Government by the Australian Turf Club, centring around the potential to build more than 25,000 new homes on the Rosehill Racecourse site. This would allow the government to explore the feasibility of a new Metro West Station at Rosehill.
New South Wales Minister for Transport, Jo Haylen, said that Sydney Metro West has kicked off a huge year in tunnelling and over the next 12 months this transformational project will really take shape.
“These mighty machines are really doing the heavy lifting as we move closer towards our goal of delivering even more public transport connections for the people in Sydney’s west,” Ms Halyen said.
“This once in a generation investment into transport infrastructure will also act as a catalyst for the delivery of much-needed housing.
“As Sydney grows, fully-accessible and reliable rail services are crucial to keep our city moving.
“By the end of the year, six enormous tunnel boring machines will be crushing through rock to deliver 24km of brand new metro tunnels beneath Sydney.”
