Victorian premier Daniel Andrews has visited New York’s newest underground rail project to get some insight as his state prepares for his “signature infrastructure project”, the Metro Tunnel under Melbourne’s CBD.
In the middle of an an 8-day visit to the United States, Andrews visited New York City’s East Side Access project on May 5.
Travelling 45 metres below the streets of Manhattan, Andrews was joined by the president of NYC’s Metropolitan Transport Authority, Michael Horodniceanu, and the coordinator general of the Victorian Major Transport Program, Corey Hannett.
Similar to the Melbourne Metro Tunnel project, the East Side Access project includes 13 kilometres of tunnelling under the East River in New York, with the aim of reducing daily commute times on certain lines by as much as 40 minutes.
Melbourne’s tunnel will travel north-south under the Yarra River and the CBD.
Andrews said the visit provided “valuable insights” for the project he has so much riding on.
“Construction of New York City’s massive East Side Access Project hasn’t been easy, but that’s exactly why Victoria should learn from its challenges and how engineers were able to overcome them,” the premier said.
“The East Side Access project has already been underway for nine years and is the biggest infrastructure in the USA and now its leader is coming to Melbourne to make sure the Metro Tunnel is just as good.
“This is all about jobs and making sure that the world’s most liveable city has a truly world-class public transport system.”
Dr Horodniceanu gave some perspective.
“There is no project of this magnitude that is without problems that’s why you have engineers to overcome them,” he said.
“Like everything else I imagine Melbourne will have challenges, but they will be overcome carefully and thoughtfully.”
Hannett added: “The methodology around how we connect the underground stations to the existing ones is a key part of the project so I’m keen to spend more time with Dr Horodniceanu later this year to go through that.”