On 5 June, Rail Projects Victoria announced that the first piece of the TBM, named Joan for Victoria’s first female premier Joan Kirner, had been lowered into the North Melbourne station box.
The pieces will be lowered into the shaft where the machine will be assembled, before the construction crew tests the machine.
Each machine is 120 m long, weighing 1,100 t and designed to complete drives of approximately 10 m/d, installing a total of 56,000 concrete segments to line the tunnels over the entire project.
The TBM will travel from North Melbourne Station to what will be the start of the new tunnel in Kensington, excavating more than 100,000 m3 of rock and soil.
For more information visit the Metro Tunnel website.
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