The two 15.6m diameter Herrenknecht TBMs building Victoria’s longest road tunnels are back in action, relaunching from Lower Plenty Road to continue their journey towards Bulleen as part of Australia’s North East Link project.
TBM Gillian and TBM Zelda both broke through at Lower Plenty Road earlier this year having bored 1.6km to reach the interchange site box, and have now been serviced, moved through the box, and relaunched to continue digging the remaining stretch of the 6.5km tunnels to Bulleen.
Construction will continue at the Lower Plenty Road site as crews build the entry and exit ramps which will provide access to the tunnels, before building the new Borlase Reserve parklands that will return green space to the community, including space equivalent to five MCGs of parklands along Banyule Creek.
Meanwhile, the teams are working at Bulleen on completing works to realign Bulleen Road onto its permanent alignment, expected to be complete later this year. Major upgrades along the Eastern Freeway and the M80 Ring Road are continuing, with the foundation structures being built to connect the freeways to the tunnels.
The machines are being driven by the Spark Consortium, which was awarded the contract to deliver the North East Link Tunnels towards the end of 2021. The consortium comprises WeBuild, CPB Contractors, GS Engineering and Construction, China Construction Oceania, Ventia, Capella Capital, John Laing, DIF and Pacific Partnerships.
North East Link is the biggest ever investment in Melbourne’s north east – changing the way people move around Melbourne.
This massive program of works is being carefully planned so the projects can open in 2028 – bringing all the pieces of North East Link together.
Herrenknecht
Pioneering Underground Technologies - Herrenknecht AG is the technology and market leader in mechanized tunnelling. As the only company worldwide, Herrenknecht delivers cutting-edge tunnel boring machines for all ground conditions and in all diameters - ranging from 0.10 to 19 meters.
More Information | info@herrenknecht.com | +49 7824 3020
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