TBM ‘Eileen’ has broken through at the Airport Terminal metro station site, marking the first tunnel breakthrough on the $1.8bn city-shaping Sydney Metro – Western Sydney Airport project.
Since launching at Airport Business Park in April 2023, Herrenknecht TBM Eileen has worked around the clock to excavate around 112,000 tonnes of rock. The 1,066-tonne mega machine has tunnelled at an average speed of 120m per week to build 1.26km of fully lined tunnel, which completes the first leg of its 5.5km journey towards the Aerotropolis.
It took about five months to dig out about 293,000 tonnes of rock to build the 25m deep Airport Terminal Station box to prepare for TBM Eileen’s arrival. The machine will now traverse the station box before being relaunched to tunnel under the future Western Sydney International Airport, with the TBM expected to arrive at the Aerotropolis metro station site in 2024.
The tunnelling contract was awarded in December 2021 to CPB Contractors and Ghella Joint Venture to build the new twin metro rail tunnels. A total of four TBMs will build the twin metro tunnels for the Sydney Metro – Western Sydney Airport line, with three TBMs already in the ground.
The Sydney Metro – Western Sydney Airport line will be operational when Western Sydney International Airport opens for passenger services. The tunnelling contract is due to complete in 2024.
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