It has been revealed that Victoria’s biggest ever infrastructure project, the Suburban Rail Loop (SRL), is expected to create more than 800 jobs during the initial early works phase for SRL East.
The project is also expected to create a pipeline of opportunity for students to kick start their careers.
As Melbourne grows to a projected city of nine million by 2056, SRLwill be crucial to ensuring its public transport network can deliver an extra 11.8 million daily trips and manage an 80 per cent increase in private vehicle trips.
Victoria Premier, Daniel Andrews, said, “The Suburban Rail Loop will change the way people move around Melbourne and is a project our city and state needs.
“We’re recruiting hundreds of Victorian workers, trainees and graduates to help deliver this vital project.”
SRL will help deliver Plan Melbourne’s vision of a city of centres, with investment, new local projects and urban planning in the broader precincts around new SRL stations helping to reshape how Melbourne grows in the decades ahead.
Work is continuing at pace, with sites being established in Burwood, Glen Waverley, Monash, Clayton, Box Hill and the stabling facility at Heatherton, as crews pave the way for tunnel boring machines and prepare for construction of the six new underground train stations.
A recruitment drive will launch next month to help attract people to jobs across a diverse range of fields including engineering and technical specialists, trades, and roles in sustainability, health and safety and importantly, urban planning.
The project will expand Victoria’s skilled workforce over the long-term, with 14 per cent of hours to be completed by apprentices, trainees, and cadets during the first phase of construction
Victoria Suburban Rail Loop Minister, Jacinta Allan, said, “Suburban Rail Loop won’t just transform our public transport system, slash travel times and ease congestion – it will create thousands of well-paid and secure jobs for decades to come.
“SRL is a generational investment not just in infrastructure, but in how our city grows, revolutionising our public transport system and ensuring we’re ready to support a population the size of London within the next 30 years.”
In a Victorian first, girls studying science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) subjects will be able to strengthen their career prospects with an innovative school-based SRL East traineeship program, to be delivered in partnership with Laing O’Rourke, Head Start and Holmesglen TAFE.
The group of Year 11 and 12 students will gain hands-on experience on the SRL East project two days a week over the two-year program – supporting more women to pursue careers in the construction industry.
Expressions of interest for the 2024 Suburban Rail Loop Authority (SRLA) Graduate Program will open in mid 2023.
