The second tunnel boring machine working on Perth’s major Forrestfield-Airport Link project has broken through to the future site of the Airport Central Station.
TBM Sandy broke through to the arrival box on May 20, following TBM Grace, which arrived a few weeks earlier on May 8.
Each TBM started its journey last year in Forrestfield, and will soon continue boring towards Bayswater, where the new rail line will join the existing network.
They arrived after a tricky stretch which saw Grace grind to a halt on February 14 due to minor ground disturbances experienced when travelling through difficult terrain. Sandy stopped work on March 28 when it came within 40 metres of Grace – the minimum distance determined by contractor Selini Impregilio for safe operations – due to Grace’s prior stoppage.
The machines eventually arrived, two weeks apart, at the future Airport Central Station, 17 metres below ground level.
Each travelled through a 12.5-metre block of concrete over a period of 24 hours, to make their eventual break-through into the station dive-site.
Both machines are now the focus of a month-long maintenance program including cleaning and servicing. Grace will continue its journey once this is complete, and Sandy will follow two weeks later.
WA transport minister Rita Saffioti said the TBM’s arrival at the future station site was “a visible sign of great progress on the project”.
“This is the biggest rail project to take place in WA for more than a decade, and will dramatically change the way eastern foothills residents travel, how their communities develop, and how the rest of Perth journeys to Perth Airport.”
“The station construction workers and machine operators are to be congratulated,” Premier Mark McGowan added. “This job-creating, city-transforming project is just one element of our record rail investment for Metronet.”
The Forrestfield-Airport Link project, which will build an 8-kilometre line featuring twin tunnels and four station connections – three of them new – is a joint directive of the state ($1.37 billion) and federal ($490 million) governments.
It’s being included in the McGowan Government’s Metronet urban rail program, which has received support from the Turnbull Government.
“The recent federal budget continued to deliver for the city-shaping Metronet projects,” federal urban infrastructure minister Paul Fletcher said, “including commitments to the Morley-Ellenbrook Line, Byford Extension, Midland Station Project and the Lakelands Station business case.”