The first of two 6m diameter Herrenknecht TBMs building Vancouver’s Broadway Subway has made its final breakthrough in its journey at Cypress Street, reaching the shaft of Arbutus Station on Wednesday, March 20, 2024 representing the completion of the boring process for SkyTrain Millennium Line’s Broadway Extension’s westbound tunnel.
Phyllis began boring her last segment between stations on February 2nd, 2024, when she resumed her dig from the Granville Street wall of South Granville Station. It took her 50 days to travel the four city block segment from Granville Street to Cypress Street.
Elsie, the other TBM, responsible for building the eastbound tunnel, is also now closing in to break through into Cypress Street. Elsie resumed her journey from South Granville Street on March 5th, 2024. If she is able to bore at a similar pace as Phyllis, she could reach Cypress Street by the end of April 2024. When Elsie makes her final breakthrough later this spring, this will represent the conclusion of the Broadway Subway’s tunnel boring process by Ghella, which partnered with Acciona Infrastructure Canada to build the project. From Cypress Street, both TBMs will be disassembled and extracted.
Upon opening, Broadway-City Hall Station will become one of the region’s busiest SkyTrain stations, as it will be transformed into a seamless interchange hub between the Millennium Line and Canada Line. The $2.8bn, 5.7km-long extension of the Millennium Line will add six subway stations to the SkyTrain network. A length of 5km is underground, but there is also a 700m ling elevated segment between the existing VCC-Clark Station and the tunnel portal just before Great Northern Way-Emily Carr Station.
The Broadway Subway Project is funded and delivered by the Government of B.C., with contributions from the Government of Canada and the City of Vancouver:
- Government of Canada: $896.9M
- Government of British Columbia: $1.83bn
- City of Vancouver: $99.8M (in-kind contribution)
The new line is scheduled to open in 2026.
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