First TBMs arrive for Sydney Metro West

The two Herrenknecht machines have arrived at The Bays Station site and will be the first in the ground for Sydney Metro West. They will carve out 11km twin tunnels from The Bays to Sydney Olympic Park.

The TBMs include refurbished parts from the mega boring machines used on the Sydney Metro City & Southwest project. The cutterheads, front shields and gripper shields were originally used for the TBMs that dug the metro tunnels from Chatswood to Blues Point.

The TBMs are due to start tunnelling from The Bays in the first half of 2023 and will arrive in Sydney Olympic Park in late 2024. The double-shield, hard rock, gripper-type TBMs will excavate through sandstone and shale and advance at an average 200m per week.

Sydney Olympic Park is one of nine underground stations on the new 24km line. Excavation of the station is expected to take around 13 months and will include the installation of 114 active anchors and 467 passive bolts, and 2,151 rock bolts to support the station box structure, as digging progresses to a depth of around 27m.

Once the station box is complete, it will be used as the extraction site for four of the six TBMs employed for Sydney Metro West.

Excavation work has also started on the station boxes at The Bays and Burwood North.

When Sydney Metro West opens in 2030 it will double rail capacity between Greater Parramatta and the Sydney CBD.