A miniature tunnel boring machine has completed drilling a stormwater main 17 metres below Auckland in preparation for major construction of the City Rail Link project.
The micro-sized TBM known as ‘Jeffie’ has finished boring a 423-metre stormwater main for the project, needed to replace an existing main which was in the path of the future CRL tunnels.
“Jeffie’s journey brings the City Rail Link and a much better rail service one step closer to Aucklanders,” CRL chief executive Sean Sweeney said.
Throughout its four-month job, Jeffie removed more than 2,000 cubic metres of spoil, installed 208 concrete tunnel segments, and made a sweeping curve to avoid a field of hard volcanic basalt along its way.
Major construction will soon begin on the CRL, which will turn Britomart station from a deadend in the network to a two-way through station. The project requires 3.45 kilometres of new underground railway to be bored and built.
The Link Alliance was last week selected to deliver major construction for the project, which will cost roughly NZ$4.4 billion.