News Tunnelling under Sydney CBD complete for the second phase of Sydney Metro
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Tunnelling under Sydney CBD complete for the second phase of Sydney Metro

Tunnelling under Sydney CBD complete for the second phase of Sydney Metro
Tunnelling under Sydney CBD complete for the second phase of Sydney Metro
Alastair Taylor
 |  Jan 22,2020
 |  2 min read

Four of the five Tunnel Boring Machines working on the second phase of Sydney Metro have completed their runs with TBM Mum Shirl breaking through the southern wall of the Barangaroo station pit over the weekend.

A fifth TBM is still working on completing the short section of tunnel under Port Jackson between Barangaroo and a launch site near Blues Point on the northern shore.

TBMs that began their journey near Sydenham at the southern end of the tunnels have taken 14 months to complete their runs.

Since starting work at Marrickville in November 2018, Mum Shirl took about 14 months to build an 8.1-kilometre tunnel to Barangaroo, cutting through sandstone and shale to excavate more than 821,000 tonnes of rock - enough to fill 126 Olympic swimming pools.

About 29.5km of 31km of twin metro tunnels between Chatswood and Sydenham – or 97 per cent – are now complete with TBM Kathleen now digging under Sydney Harbour to finish her second under-harbour metro tunnel.

TBMs Nancy, Wendy and Mabel finished work late last year.

Sydney Metro/NSW Government

Barangaroo station on Sydney CBD's northwest periphery took two years to excavate and during that time, 460,000 tonnes of rock were removed.

According to an indicative timeline, after tunnel and station pit construction has been completed, the tunnel fit-out phase - the installation of track, emergency egress & walkways, overhead electrical equipment, signalling and communication systems - will run for approximately 2 years.

Thereafter, a testing phase will run for approximately 12 months.

The second phase Sydney Metro City & Southwest project also sees the conversion of existing railway between Sydenham and Bankstown in order for metro services to take over operations of services in the inner southwest of Sydney.

Summertime shutdowns of existing services will occur over several years to convert the line for metro use and the second phase of the entire Sydney Metro project is expected to start taking its first passengers in 2024.

Tunnelling under Sydney CBD complete for the second phase of Sydney Metro
Map of Sydney Metro phases 1 and 2. Image: Wikipedia

The second phase of the first Sydney Metro line precedes other work underway for a second and third line.  The second line dubbed Sydney Metro West, in October last year, had its station locations narrowed down by the NSW Government.

It will add more capacity between Sydney CBD and Parramatta with future-proofing to allow the line's eventual extension westward.  Initial work is expected to start in 2020, tunnelling to start in 2022 and the project is expected to take its first passengers in 2030.

The third line, dubbed Sydney Metro Greater West, will see a line built from St Mary's on the existing T1-Western line southwards to the new Western Sydney International (Nancy-Bird Walton) Airport.

Federal and NSW Government money has been allocated for the Sydney Metro Greater West with construction expected to be completed by the time the new Western Sydney Airport opens in 2026.

Alastair Taylor

Alastair Taylor

Alastair Taylor is a co-founder of Urban.com.au. Now a freelance writer, Alastair focuses on the intersection of public transport, public policy and related impacts on medium and high-density development.

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Stuart Brown's picture
Stuart Brown 1 year ago
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Well work has continued during the pandemic, funding has increased, on the Metro, West, Greater West Airport line, fit out of the stations and tunnels has begun, on the NW to SW line. I think the pandemic vaccine and testing, combined with for example the $35 billion spending for just 10 US airports, Asian European Airports, combined with international metro projects including to airports. Will create loads for the Metros in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane.

The Gold Coast light rail, has been very effective, as likely, will be the Sydney and Canberra light rail systems, distance isn’t the problem it used to be, fibre to the curb 2023, 5G mobile finished this year. It’s the Golden Age of rail in NSW, new trains, interstate, intercity, light rail, Metro. Qantas’s 12X A350, 300 seat aircraft, going from Sydney, to London and New York airports non stop, with their metro trains and big expansions.
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Stuart Brown 2 years ago
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Good to see tunneling complete, on stage 2, of the Sydney Metro stage 2, hopefully fit out can begin, of the tunnels, in late 2020. The frequency, faster load and unloading times of Sydney Metro, due to no blockage, between carriages, floors, with no middle seating, 3 sets of doors instead of 2, known door boarding positioning at stations. Coupled with no slow down, in the Central station bottleneck, due to tunnels, for example, saving 20 to 30 minutes between Epping and Sydenham, not changing platforms; the dog leg, through Strathfield, or the all stops, on the North coast line.

A very different situation between Epping and Sydenham, turn up and go, hub to hub, Northern to Southern; hopefully, Metro West, conversion of the current Airport and Eastern Suburbs lines, to Metro will be accelerated. By clean Disruption capital, from cheap desert solar, liquid hydrogen fuel exports; clearly changing trains to Sydney’s Second Airport, from Metro West, to Schofield, then the Airport Metro, is a nightmare.
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