Snowy 2.0 has reached a major milestone with the commissioning of its fourth tunnel boring machine (TBM), with the renewable energy mega-project now more than 70 per cent complete.
Named in honour of Monica Brimmer, a talented Tumut High School student and winner of a First Nations art and storytelling competition, the machine was powered up during a ceremony on-site.
Joined by Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen on-site, Monica radioed in instructions for the first rotation of the TBM’s huge 12m cutterhead to applause from local community members and workers in attendance.
TBM Monica is among the world’s most advanced tunnel boring machines. It has been purpose-built to tackle the Snowy Mountains’ unique and highly variable geological conditions.
Launching from the project’s Marica worksite, just outside Kiandra, TBM Monica will begin tunnelling in the coming weeks and will excavate the portion of the 17km headrace tunnel that passes through the geologically challenging Long Plain Fault Zone.
The commissioning milestone comes as significant progress is made across the project’s worksites in the New South Wales Snowy Mountains.
Almost 1km underground at the project’s Lobs Hole worksite, the focus is shifting from tunnelling and excavation to preparing the intricate fit out of a complex underground power plant the size of Sydney Opera House.
To prepare for this, 46 permanent concrete pours have already been completed.
More than 733,000m3 of underground excavation – equivalent to 293 Olympic-sized swimming pools of material – has taken place in the huge subterranean caverns that were created using drill-and-blast techniques, some of which were pioneered on the original Snowy Scheme.
More than 5200 workers are delivering Snowy 2.0 across four major project work fronts and more than $300 million has been invested in the local economy.