Carving out Sydney’s future transport hubs underground

Twenty metres below Australia’s busiest CBD, workers are carving out tunnels for a Sydney Metro station. The Sunday Telegraph got an exclusive look at the around-the-clock operation beneath Pitt St and just 4.5m above the Cross City Tunnel. GO UNDERGROUND

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Twenty metres below Australia’s busiest CBD, workers are carving out caverns for a Sydney Metro station, narrowly bypassing an existing maze of tunnels.

With roadheaders excavating around-the-clock, the underground operation doesn’t look delicate but the platforms beneath Pitt St sit just 4.5m above the Cross City Tunnel — about the length of a medium-sized car.

“It’s like putting a thread through the eye of the needle,” NSW Transport Minister Andrew Constance said of the “extraordinary” engineering feat.

“The best thing is it’s happening under people’s feet and they don’t even know it.”

Transport Minister Andrew Constance checks the progress of construction at the underground station at Pitt St. Picture: Richard Dobson

With trains hurtling along the City Circle and Eastern Suburbs lines 90m away and car parking basements dotted around them, the design of Pitt St Station threw up challenges.

The Sunday Telegraph went below the bustling CBD strip for an exclusive look at the site, part of the next stage of Sydney Metro stretching from Chatswood to Bankstown, which is expected to open in 2024.

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One of four new underground Metro city stations under construction, Pitt St will run the length of an entire block, between Park and Bathurst streets.

New escalators will take commuters from ground level down to the driverless trains.

Sydney Metro chief executive Jon Lamonte said: “It’s really moving along — we’re ahead of schedule.

“If we went down the road to Martin Place Station, you’d see exactly the same thing and even larger.”

The tunnels being created under Sydney for the underground station at Pitt St. Picture: Richard Dobson

Boring through the tunnel is hard work. Picture: Richard Dobson

Pedestrian walkways will connect the two 170m-long platforms with plans to link the station underground with Town Hall.

“At the moment Town Hall is a very old station with very narrow platforms — you can’t really do anything with it,” Mr Constance said.

“We are at the point now where we have to close the station when too many people are on the platforms for safety.”

Mr Constance said the state government will negotiate with the City of Sydney to build walkways under the proposed new Town Hall Square on George St.

Mega tunnel boring machines — each the length of two Airbus A380 jets — are making their way from the inner-west and are expected to arrive at the station by July.

One of the workers at the tunnel. Picture: Richard Dobson

Roadheaders are excavating around-the-clock. Picture: Richard Dobson

Three roadheaders have already excavated more than 116,400 tonnes of crushed rock as they create 247m-long caverns under Pitt and Castlereagh streets.

Above the station, two high-rises will be built at either end with proposed development plans for apartments, office spaces and shops.

“It’s not just building a railway — it’s far more about developing a place as well,” Mr Lamonte said.

Along with excavation work for the Metro, Sydney’s underground is set to become even more crowded.

Across the city, more than 150km of tunnelling is completed or in the pipeline.

The tunnel construction at Pitt St is ahead of schedule. Picture: Richard Dobson

“Sydney has never experienced that. Not even in the Bradfield era would you have ever envisaged this degree of tunnelling happening under the city,” Mr Constance said.

The Metro line, winding its way from Rouse Hill to Bankstown, will have 61km of twin tunnels while WestConnex — Australia’s biggest road project — will 44km of underground bitumen.

The Cross City Tunnel’s Rushcutters Bay entrance heading into the city.

Future motorways — the West Harbour Tunnel, Beaches Link and F6 Extension — will also be built under suburbs and waterways, with a combined tunnel total of nearly 36km.

Later this year, a specialised boring machine will dig the first rail tunnels underneath Sydney Harbour.

The sites of the West Metro stations, from the CBD to Westmead, are also expected to be announced with a location in the CBD yet to be determined.

The Sunday Telegraph understands the new stations under construction at Barangaroo, Martin Place, Pitt St and Central aren’t suitable options.

“We’re still doing assessment in terms of the best way to bring it into the city,” Mr Constance said.

Originally published as Carving out Sydney’s future transport hubs underground