A new milestone has been reached on one of Sydney’s biggest railway projects.

Last week, two tunnel boring machines broke through at the site of the box that will form the new Parramatta Metro Station as part of the $25.32 billion Sydney Metro West project.

As a result, tunnelling on the project is now 90 percent complete.

Set to open in 2032, Sydney Metro West will deliver a new underground rail line that will connect the Sydney CBD with the fast-growing area of Greater Parramatta.

The project involves two 24 kilometre tunnels and nine underground stations.

Once open, the project will double railway capacity between the Sydney CBD and Parramatta.

It will slash travel times from Parramatta to the CBD to just 20 minutes.

This is significant as Parramatta is envisaged to become the second major city in Sydney under a plan to reshape the Sydney Metropolitan Area into a metropolis of three cities.

The new Metro station at Parramatta is set to play a crucial role in transforming the Parramatta City Centre into a vibrant precinct.

The station will anchor a mixed-use development over the equivalent of two city blocks.

The new Metro station will be close to Light Rail services and will link directly to the new Civic Link – a 450-metre-long pedestrian spine connecting the metro precinct to the future Powerhouse Parramatta.

However, the project has not been without controversy.

Published early last year, a report by the NSW Legislative Assembly’s Committee on Transport and Infrastructure found that the project’s original budget had been exceeded by at least $12 billion.

Tunnelling is being delivered in three sections.

The breakthrough at Parramatta is part of the 9 km western section Between Sydney Olympic Park and Westmead.

This package is being delivered by a consortium involving Malaysian based multi-national engineering firm Gamuda and UK based multi-national engineering firm Laing O’Rourke.

The machines will now continue to their final stop at Westmead.

Launched from Sudney Olympic Park early last year, the two TBMs employed on the western section of tunnelling have been grinding through solid rock for the past seventeen months.

During that time, the machines have:

  • chewed through 200 metres of Sydney sandstone per week
  • excavated 1.25 million tonnes of rock – enough to fill the Olympic pool at Sydney Olympic Park 204 times over: and
  • installed more than 48,000 precast concrete segments to line the tunnels.

Each of the segments that have been installed weigh up to four tonnes.

Combined, these segments weigh as much as three and a half Sydney Harbour Bridges, 317 Airbus A380s or 34,500 African elephants.

The two TBMs were named TBM Betty and TBM Dorothy.

These were named after ‘Golden Girl’ Olympic champion sprinter Betty Cuthbert and human rights activist Dorothy Buckland-Fuller.

In addition to the tunnelling, six of the nine station boxes for the project have been excavated and lined.

Work is continuing on the final three box at Parramatta, Pyrmont and Hunter Street.

NSW Premier Chris Minns welcomed the latest progress.

“This station breakthrough is a huge step towards the delivery of Sydney Metro West,” Minns said.

“When it’s up and running Metro West will be a gamechanger for commuters making it significantly easier to travel between Sydney’s west and Sydney’s CBD.

“Metro West will double rail capacity, it’ll link new communities, support the growth of housing and jobs in Western Sydney.”

 

 

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