Tunnelling is now complete for the western end of the Sydney Metro West project, with tunnel boring machine (TBM) Dorothy breaking through at the Westmead metro station.
It’s a historic breakthrough for the 1,200-tonne machines, which are the first autonomous TBMs to be used in Australia.
Autonomous TBMs are equipped with sophisticated artificial intelligence software that can automatically steer, operate and monitor the machine. While an operator always remains in control, the autonomous algorithm takes on the machine’s repetitive tasks leading to increased speed and greater accuracy.
TBM Dorothy, named after Australian human rights activist Dorothy Buckland-Fuller, arrived at the Westmead metro station box after carving out nine kilometres of tunnel from Sydney Olympic Park, tunnelling through 788,000 tonnes of earth and installing 28,788 concrete segments.
The Westmead metro station box is an underground marvel, featuring a 240-metre-long rail crossover cavern for future trains to switch tracks for the return journey, a station cavern and stub tunnels to futureproof a potential extension of the line beyond Westmead. At 39-metres-deep, the station box is also the deepest on the Sydney Metro alignment – deeper than the height of Qudos Bank Arena at 33 metres.
The last two TBMs building the Sydney Metro West tunnels, Jessie and Ruby, are now powering ahead to complete the final leg of the eastern section of the line, having crossed under Sydney Harbour and are now heading towards Hunter Street in the Sydney CBD.
Sydney Metro West is targeting a 2032 opening and once operational will slash travel times, offering passengers fast metro trips from Westmead to Parramatta in two minutes, Sydney Olympic Park in seven minutes and to Hunter Street in 22 minutes.
