Sydney Metro West’s huge year of tunnelling kicks off

Tunnel boring machines Beatrice and Daphne have relaunched from the Five Dock Metro Station site as Metro West heads into its biggest year of tunnelling to date.

The TBMs are on the way to Burwood North about two kilometres away, after spending 10 weeks traversing the 200-metre-long station cavern at Five Dock.

During the traverse, the mega machines underwent maintenance, including the replacement of gear boxes and cutter discs, to ensure safe operations during the next leg in the journey.

The 1,300-tonne machines are tunnelling an average 200 metres a week to build a 11-kilometre section of the new metro tunnels from The Bays to Sydney Olympic Park.

Over the next 12 months, a significant program of work will see the twin tunnels for the 24-kilometre Metro West line between Westmead and Hunter Street in the Sydney CBD progress.

TBMs Beatrice and Daphne are expected to arrive at Sydney Olympic Park by the end of the year, while autonomous TBMs Betty and Dorothy will make significant progress to build the tunnels between Sydney Olympic Park and Westmead.

A further two TBMs to construct the metro tunnels below Darling Harbour towards the CBD will arrive at The Bays in the coming months, ahead of commencing tunnelling mid-year.

Visit sydneymetro.info for all the latest project news.