North West Rail Link TBM arrives

11 November 2014


AUSTRALIA - The third North West Rail Link (NWRL) TBM has arrived in Sydney and has been named Isabelle by tunnellers working on the project. The first of the four machines were promised to be in the ground before the end of 2014, but now there are three on-site in the North West, ahead of schedule.

Gladys Berejiklian, transport minister, said: ³Isabelle is the first of the two tunnel boring machines which will start work from Cherrybrook, digging the longest railway tunnels ever built in Australia.

³The first tunnel boring machine Elizabeth is already more than 330m along her underground journey from Bella Vista to Cherrybrook, while the second machine Florence is now being assembled at Bella Vista to start digging before the end of this year.

³The third tunnel boring machine Isabelle, which weighs more than 900t, is being assembled and tested about 14m below the surface at the new Cherrybrook Station before she also starts digging in the next few months.²

Berejiklian added that work was powering ahead on the North West Rail Link ­ a project that will transform public transport in Sydney. ³The North West Rail Link includes eight new railway stations and 4,000 commuter car parking spaces. The project is due to open in the first half of 2019 and is the first stage of Sydney Rapid Transit, the city¹s new fully automated rail network," said Berejiklian.