Go behind the scenes of the $6.7b West Gate project

Just 18 months ago, the West Gate Tunnel’s northern entrance was just a vacant block of land in Yarraville with few shipping containers. See its transformation in these exclusive pictures.

Even Collingwood giant Mason Cox would feel small standing in the shadow of Melbourne’s mega project, with the 2.11m key forward no match for Bella the 4000 tonne tunnel boring machine.

Just 18 months ago, the site of the West Gate Tunnel’s northern entrance was nothing but a vacant block of land in Yarraville and a few shipping containers.

Today it looks more like a scene from Transformers as crews in hard hats lower mega machines bigger than most buildings into the ground.

New photos taken exclusively by the Sunday Herald Sun have revealed an undertaking of epic proportions as work ramps up on the $6.7 billion project.

Senior project engineer Michael Cocksedge stands underneath Bella’s cutting head. The giant disc will be fitted into the front of the machine and dig at a rate of 9m per day by constantly spinning. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Pieces of the mammoth tunnel-boring machine are lowered into the ground at Yarraville and will start digging the 15.6m-wide tunnel at the site of this large ring. As it digs, Bella will also produce concrete to hold up the walls. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Just one of several pieces of Bella, the tunnel-boring machine. The mammoth machine is 90m long and will weigh 4000 tonnes once assembled. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

By the end of 2019, Bella’s 15.6m cutting head will get to work digging one of the widest tunnels in Victorian history and won’t stop until she reaches the other side in 2021.

Workers will constantly replace parts at 35m below ground level and will be unable to return to the surface without spending two hours depressurising in hyperbaric chambers built into the 90m long machine.

The Yarraville launch shaft for Bella the tunnel-boring machine is more than 300m long and in three years will be transformed into the northern entrance to the road tunnel. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Near Millers Rd in Altona North, workers are building extra lanes on the West Gate Freeway that will tackle traffic snarls and also feed into the tunnel once completed. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

An MCG’s worth of rock and dirt will be dug up at the site over the next three years. Works at the Miller's Rd entrance to the West Gate Freeway. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

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West Gate Tunnel Project CEO Peter Sammut said specialist crews would work around the clock to dig up an MCG’s worth of rock and dirt over the next three years.

“Our tunnel boring machines will work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and dig up to 9m a day,” he said.

“In the next few months the project will launch two of the biggest tunnel boring machines in the southern hemisphere.”