Two tunnel boring machines (TBMs) have passed the deepest point below Darling Harbour in Sydney, about 35 metres below sea level, as they continue to carve out the new Sydney Metro West line.
This is the second trip under the harbour for TBMs Jessie and Ruby since they began their journey from The Bays last year, after previously travelling below Sydney Harbour at Johnstons Bay.
Each of the TBMs now has less than 700 metres of tunnel left to go to reach their final destination at the future Hunter Street metro station in the CBD.
To bore the 250-metre tunnels below Darling Harbour, the TBMs travelled from the Australian Maritime Museum on the western shore toward King Street Wharf on the east.
Next, the TBMs will travel beneath some of Sydney’s busiest streets, including York, George and Pitt streets, and pass closely underneath Wynyard Station to reach the Hunter Street cavern.
Sydney Metro said in an update: “This part of the journey will require precision tunnelling as the TBMs dig close to existing critical infrastructure including the City East Cable Tunnel, a 132KV underground cable responsible for powering the central business district.”
The TBMs have excavated about 286,692 tonnes of earth so far and have about 7000 precast tunnel segments left to install to reach Hunter Street.
They are progressing at a pace of around 90 metres per week, working around the clock with the assistance of a dedicated tunnelling team of 210 workers.
The tunnelling machines are on track to reach the Hunter Street site by the end of 2025.
Tunnelling for Sydney Metro West has been underway since early 2023 and has reached 97 per cent completion.
Once the 24-kilometre line opens, passengers will have access to fast, high-frequency metro services connecting Sydney CBD with Parramatta in a 20-minute trip, doubling the rail capacity between those two centres.
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