Two tunnel boring machines have relaunched on Melbourne’s biggest road tunnel project.

In a joint press conference held on Thursday, the Commonwealth and Victorian Governments announced that tunnel boring machines have relaunched on the $26.1 billion North East Link project.

Set to open in late 2028, North East Link will connect the Metropolitan Ring Road in Watsonia with the Eastern Freeway at Bulleen.

This will close a missing link in Melbourne’s freeway network and will enable continuous travel through Melbourne’s eastern, northern and western suburbs for the first time.

Once opened, the project is expected to take 15,000 trucks off local roads each day and reduce travel times by up to 35 minutes.

A core part of the project is two 6.5 km North East Link tunnels. These will connect with the M80 at the northern end and the Eastern Freeway at the southern end.

The tunnels will have three lanes in each direction.

The project also includes upgrades to the M80 and the Eastern Freeway as well significant works relating to tree planting and creation of new parklands and wetlands.

The two TBMs travelled 1.6 kilometres before breaking through a 30 meter deep box at Lower Plenty Road earlier this year– the site of a vital interchange point for the project.

The machines have now relaunched toward Bulleen to excavate the remaining stretch of the 6.5 kilometer tunnels.

The TBMs being employed on the project are among the largest to be used in the southern hemisphere.

Weighing more than 4.000 tonnes, each machine is 90 meters long and 15.6 meter in diameter.

In addition to the tunnelling, construction is continuing at the Lower Plenty Road site to build the entry and exit ramps to the tunnels.

Work is also continuing to realign Bulleen Road onto its permanent alignment, with these works expected to be completed later this year.

The main part of the project is being delivered by the Spark Consortium. The consortium includes CPB Contractors, Pacific Partnerships, Ventia, WeBuild, GS Engineering and Construction, China Construction Oceania, Capella Capital, John Laing and DIF.

This includes the two tunnels, interchanges at Lower Plenty Road and Manningham Road, new parklands, wetlands, bike and walking paths and improvements to local roads.

The upgrades of the two freeways are being delivered as separate projects.

More than 8,000 people are currently working across the North East Link project, with 10 per cent of work hours being delivered by apprentices, trainees and cadets.

The development is set to create more than 12,000 jobs in total.

Still, the project has been subject to cost blowouts.

Initially budgeted at $10 billion, project costs were reassessed in 2019 at $15 billion.

North East Link is now expected to cost more than $26 billion – more than two and a half times its original cost estimate.

Nevertheless, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese welcome the latest progress.

“This is one of the biggest infrastructure projects in Victoria’s history – creating thousands of jobs and transforming the way people move across Melbourne,” Albanese said.

“Infrastructure projects like this help people to move more quickly and more safely around their communities, reducing commute times and reducing traffic on local roads.”

 

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