Metro Tunnel

Victoria’s largest public transport project – the Metro Tunnel – continues to move forward, with the second tunnel boring machine (TBM) Meg having started its journey. 

“The second TBM is in the ground, building the biggest public transport project in Victoria’s history,” Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said.

Named after Australian women’s cricket captain Meg Lanning, the TBM has progressed approximately 50m towards the tunnel entrance in Kensington, installing more than 20 rings that form the walls of the tunnel. 

The project’s first TBM Joan, named after Victoria’s first female Premier Joan Kirner, has already travelled more than 250mwest from North Melbourne and installed more than 140 rings to line the new tunnel.

“It’s amazing to see how much work is happening underneath Melbourne, to build the Metro Tunnel and deliver more frequent, reliable trains every day,” Premier Andrews said.

Each tunnel ring comprises six concrete segments, which are being manufactured at a purpose-built facility in Deer Park that is supporting 70 jobs.

The Metro Tunnel will use more than 56,000 segments in its construction.

The TBM is powered by a purpose-built electrical substation that supplies power to the site and the TBMs, which are working round the clock to build the twin nine-kilometre tunnels. 

Each TBM is 7.28m in diameter, 120m long and weighs more than 1,100 tonnes.

TBMs Joan and Meg are expected to arrive in Kensington – the western entrance to the Metro Tunnel – in early 2020. 

Each TBM will then be retrieved and returned to the North Melbourne site to be relaunched towards Parkville for the second leg of their journey.

Early next year, two more TBMs will be assembled at the Anzac Station site on St Kilda Road, ready to start boring towards the eastern entrance at South Yarra.

Victorian Minister for Transport Infrastructure Jacinta Allan said, “I’m delighted to see the progress being made by these huge tunnel boring machines. It’s an early glimpse of what the Metro Tunnel will look like.”

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