Where's TBM2 Florence?
19.12.2014
Tunnel boring machine (TBM) 2 Florence has travelled 536 metres from Bella Vista. At the end of tunnelling in 2017, 2.8 million tonnes of rock will have been excavated, the equivalent of 1,000 Olympic swimming pools. One hundred per cent of the crushed rock from tunnelling is being recycled or reused at sites across Greater Western Sydney, with none going to landfill. The tunnelling conditions are proving to be ideal as these machines tunnel first through shale then Sydney sandstone - ideal rock for tunnelling.
Did you watch the London's Super Tunnel documentary series recently on SBS? The three part series started 22 November and followed a team of more than ten thousand engineers and construction workers as they race to build a brand new subterranean railway under London. Costing almost £15 billion and taking ten years to build, Cross Rail is currently the biggest engineering project in Europe.
Did you know the North West Rail Link is the first public transport infrastructure project in Australian history to use four tunnel boring machines that are also digging Australia's longest railway tunnels—a clear indication of the sheer size and scale of Australia's biggest public transport project.