How giant drills are shaping Metro Tunnel station
As the Metro Tunnel takes shape, enough soil and rock to fill 17 Olympic swimming pools has been removed from the central cavern of the Town Hall underground railway station. Now a giant drilling machine is set to go even deeper. See the pictures.
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Melbourne’s new Town Hall underground railway station is taking shape with the Metro Tunnel project reaching a new milestone.
Transport Infrastructure Minister Jacinta Allan toured the site of the new station on Friday before a giant drilling machine, known as a roadheader, broke through into the central cavern to meet two other roadheaders.
They have been tunnelling passenger walkways with entrances at Federation Square, City Square and Flinders Quarter. More than 42,000 cubic metres of soil and rock have been dug by the roadheaders — enough to fill 17 Olympic swimming pools — with the machines set to dig another 8m down to the final depth of about 33m.
The 118-tonne drilling machines have been tunnelling since late last year to create passenger connections across Flinders St and under Swanston St.
Ms Allan said the Town Hall station would give commuters easy access to Melbourne landmarks such as Federation Square, Southbank, the Arts Centre, St Paul’s Cathedral and other popular tourist locations, and allow passengers to switch easily from Metro Tunnel services to City Loop services at Flinders Street Station.
“This is a huge milestone for this important project, bringing Melbourne another step closer to a ‘turn up and go’ rail system,” she said.
“We’ve made such amazing progress. We now have deep underground a new station entrance at Federation Square, the length of the future station platform and come out at the new entrance at City Square.”
Ms Allan said despite the coronavirus pandemic, the $11 billion project was on track for completion by 2025.
Reduced traffic and lower public transport usage has also allowed rail upgrades to continue and movements in and out of worksites to go on with little disruption.
Melbourne’s rail network will be able to cater for an extra 500,000 peak-hour passengers once high-capacity services start using the tunnel.
In April, the project hit a major milestone after massive machines finished digging its first stretch — two 1.2km rail tunnels between Kensington and the future Arden station.
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