The tunnelling contract was awarded in July to Acciona Ferrovial Joint Venture, which has now appointed manufacturer Herrenknecht to design, build and deliver the TBMs. The two borers are 1,266-tonne, 165m-long double-shield, hard rock, gripper-type TBMs, designed to excavate through sandstone and shale.
The first machine set to be in the ground before the end of this year. Each TBM will tunnel an average of 200m per week and will be operated by a team of 15 workers per shift as they dig the 11km twin tunnels from The Bays to Sydney Olympic Park.
These TBMs will be specifically built for the conditions they will meet on this job, with design improvements taken on board from the experience of building more than 30km of tunnels for Sydney Metro Northwest and City & Southwest.
These are the first of six TBMs being used to build the 24km of tunnels from the Sydney CBD to Parramatta.
Got a story? Email news@theconstructionindex.co.uk