The TBMs continue to build the new metro tunnels towards Sydney Olympic Park, with their next stop two kilometres 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 24-kilometre 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 1,300-tonne machines will tunnel an average of 200 metres 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 200-metre-long, by 22-metre-wide and up to 30-metre-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 1.3 kilometres and 930 metres 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 mid-year.
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 reaffirms the NSW 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 NSW 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.
Find out more about the Sydney Metro West project
Transport Minister Jo Haylen said:
“Sydney Metro West has kicked off a huge year in tunnelling and over the next 12 months we will really see this transformational project 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.
“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 24 kilometres of brand new metro tunnels beneath Sydney.”
Tunnel boring machine (TBM) fast facts:
- Beatrice and Daphne have departed Five Dock to continue the 11-kilometre tunnel digging journey.
- Beatrice and Daphne are expected to arrive at Burwood North in April.
- Beatrice and Daphne will each move up to 200 metres per week.
- 15 workers will operate each TBM in rotating shifts.
- Each TBM is 165 metres long, weighs 1,300 tonnes and has 34 rock-cutting disks in its 7m diameter cutterhead.
- The TBMs move around the clock, with tunnelling approved to occur 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
- Their departure comes two months after Beatrice and Daphne achieved a historic double breakthrough at Five Dock within minutes of each other on 30 November 2023.
