Inland Rail has ticked off a major construction milestone in Victoria, completing foundation pile drilling at the Seymour-Avenel Road site marking the end of the important pile drilling process across the first four Victorian Inland Rail construction sites.
Fifty-six piles have been drilled and filled with concrete and will form the foundation of the new Seymour-Avenel Road bridge.
Each pile is approximately 15 metres deep and a meter wide and will support the substructure of the bridge, including the pile cap, blade walls and bridge beams.
Inland Rail Program Delivery Director B2A Ed Walker celebrated the milestone.
“The completion of the underground foundation work marks an important milestone in the delivery of the first four tranche 1 sites,” he said.
“Barnawartha North and Glenrowan sites are almost finished, and Wangaratta and Seymour-Avenel Road are progressing well.
“The contract to build the eight remaining Victorian sites will be awarded in June and work will begin next year.”
Once the material is excavated, a steel cage is inserted and roughly 15 cubic metres of concrete is poured.
A 130-tonne piling rig completed the drilling of the 56 piles at Seymour Avenel Road in three weeks.
McConnell Dowell Seymour-Avenel Road Area Manager Kelvin Kumangai explained even further.
“This is an important milestone for the Seymour Avenel Road Bridge, and the Inland Rail project as it is the last site on Tranche 1 to complete piling works.
“The focus now shifts to building the bridge structure out of the ground, at a new raised height to provide clearance for double-stacked trains.”
Inland Rail is a nation building project that will transform how goods are moved around Australia, first connecting Beveridge to Parkes, NSW, by 2027 before later connecting from Narromine, New South Wales, to Ebenezer, Queensland.
In Victoria, work will take place at 12 sites between Beveridge and Albury, to enable double-stacked freight trains to pass safely and ensure everyday products can be delivered faster and more reliably around Australia.
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