Watch behind the scenes footage of $5bn Suburban Rail Loop East being constructed
The Sunday Herald Sun recently toured three planned Suburban Rail Loop station locations as more than 1500 workers hit construction sites for the multi-billion dollar project. Take a look at the progress.
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More than 1500 workers are now on Suburban Rail Loop East construction sites in suburban streets, as the Allan Government steamrolls ahead with its $34.5bn project.
The Sunday Herald Sun recently toured three planned station locations in Melbourne’s southeastern and eastern suburbs to see construction of tunnel access structures, a road bridge, and substations that will power tunnel boring machines and, eventually, trains.
Some of the sites are more than 1km in length, with the scale of the state’s most expensive project starting to be laid bare.
The pace of work on the SRL has ratcheted up in recent months, as crews pave the way for tunnellers to start digging the suburb-altering line in 2026 – a state election year.
Under the Allan Government’s plan the SRL East would open in 2035 and connect Cheltenham to Box Hill via a 26km tunnel, opening the door to high rises of up to 40 storeys in station precincts that also include Clayton, Monash, Glen Waverley, and Burwood.
Burwood’s work site is one of the furthest-advanced; a fenced-off construction zone is nestled between sleepy streets dominated by single-storey brick and weatherboard family homes.
The start of a 38 metre-long and 19m deep cavern is being excavated where a 6.4 metre-wide tunnel boring machine will launch towards Cheltenham.
About 1200 tonnes of steel struts are being installed to support the concrete structure, while 2500 tonnes of earth is being removed every week as workers continue to dig down.
Progress on the contentious new line, which will connect Cheltenham to Box Hill via a 26km tunnel, comes amid debate about Commonwealth funding as the next federal election nears.
As revealed by the Herald Sun, the Coalition is planning to ditch $2.2 billion in federal funding promised by Anthony Albanese in 2022, if Peter Dutton wins the election.
Victorian Opposition Leader John Pesutto has called for the mammoth project to be paused, announcing earlier this year his party would “reserve the right not to complete the SRL if elected”.
Economists have also questioned whether the time is right for the mega-build, which aims to add more than 70,000 homes — many of which will be in high rises — to middle Melbourne precincts.
But the Allan Government has ignored critics and the project’s budget black hole, signing two major contracts for the SRL East worth more than $5bn.
It says the project has been taken to two state elections and that voters have clearly given it the tick of approval.
Transport Infrastructure Minister Danny Pearson toured the Box Hill site with the Sunday Herald Sun as workers poured concrete for a 28 metre-high road bridge that will go over a new station, and said the project was on track for major construction.
“Works are powering ahead at all six station sites on the Suburban Rail Loop, with 1500 workers already on the ground and major works set to ramp up early next year in preparation for tunnelling to begin in 2026,” he said.
Mr Pearson said the SRL, which was designed to be a 90km orbital rail loop that would eventually connect to most existing radial rail lines in Melbourne, was also Australia’s “largest housing project”.
“The first stage will deliver 70,000 new homes where Victorians tell us they want them – close to jobs, transport, services and Australia’s largest universities,” he said.
“The first stage of the Suburban Rail Loop will play a vital role on how our city grows, as our population reaches the size of London by the 2050s.”
To squeeze in more people, precincts around stations would get new height limits likely to be between 12 and 40 storeys, with Labor encouraging more suburban high rises.
Precinct structure plans are currently being devised, which will set the rules for how high and wide the level of densification could go.
Outside of the six station precincts, the largest work site for the project is in Heatherton, where trains for the new line would be stored, maintained and cleaned.
The construction footprint of that site is more than 1km long, or about the size of six MCGs.
Part of the area, which sparked controversy with local residents because it is on land previously set aside for a chain of parks, will include the only section of rail line that will come above the surface, to as to provide an exit from the stabling facility when trains are pulled out of service.
To build that structure, tunnel boring machines will be manually lifted between two tunnel portals currently being built, and which are about 1km apart.
Steel struts are being pile-driven into the ground and a diaphragm wall has been built, with the tunnel access structure on that site scheduled to be finished within about a year.
Executive general manager of land, planning, environment and sustainability at the Suburban Rail Loop Authority, Dr Lissa van Camp, said the scale of work on the Heatherton site had ramped up significantly.
“What we are doing is to prepare for four tunnel boring machines to get into the ground in 2026,” she said.
“It’s the biggest construction year yet.”
Originally published as Watch behind the scenes footage of $5bn Suburban Rail Loop East being constructed
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