Sydney Metro Tunnel Boring Machine Breakthrough

Sydney Metro Tunnel

ADE’s Managing Director, Ross Nefodov and fellow colleague, Edward Moss, had the pleasure of attending the Sydney Metro Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) breakthrough at Victoria Cross Station in North Sydney on the 26th of August 2019.

The event was organised by the principal contractor John Holland CPB Ghella Joint Venture in the presence of the NSW Premier Gladys Berekjiklian, NSW Minister for Transport and Roads Andrew Constance, Project Director Terry Sleiman, media, subcontractors and on-site personnel.

In brief, Sydney Metro City & Southwest is the second stage of the planned Sydney Metro line which in its entirety will run in a semi-circular fashion from Rouse Hill via the City to Bankstown. The second stage involves tunnelling beneath Sydney Harbour and the CBD, with two dive sites located in Chatswood and Marrickville. Tunnelling for the Project is at around 60% completion with tunnelling under Sydney Harbour commencing in recent months.

ADE has been involved in the Project as early as January 2018, undertaking a range of works including Waste Classification, Acid Sulfate Soil Investigations, Groundwater/Ground Gas Monitoring, Resource Recovery Exemption Applications with the NSW EPA and Contaminated Land Investigations.

The Sydney Morning Herald has published an interesting article delving into the engineering thought process behind the Victoria Cross Station: https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/deep-dilemma-for-engineers-designing-giant-metro-cavern-under-north-sydney-20190826-p52ks1.html