Mega recycling task for mega borers
28.09.2017
Work will soon start on building a specialised precast concrete factory at Marrickville to deliver more than 99,000 concrete segments which will line the inside of Sydney’s new metro railway tunnels.
Already, 108 giant moulds have arrived on site – they were originally used to deliver the twin 15km Sydney Metro Northwest tunnels between Bella Vista and Epping and are being recycled for the next stage of Sydney Metro tunnelling.
The factory will start making the concrete segments in the first half of next year and is expected to make an average of 280 a day, with up to 120 workers employed at the site.
Two of the five massive tunnel boring machines delivering the Sydney Metro tunnels will start work from Marrickville and dig 8.1km to Barangaroo.
Tunnel builders John Holland CPB Ghella will reuse the equipment and plant from the precast concrete factory they built at Kellyville in 2014, which produced 98,184 segments for the Sydney Metro Northwest tunnels.
The facility will open in the middle of next year so a stockpile of segments can be created for when the tunnel boring machines start work.
The moulds are designed to cast segments which each weigh about 4 tonnes and measure 3.5 metres long and 1.7 metres wide. Some new moulds will be needed for segments under the harbour and for a few tighter bends.
The first tunnel boring machine will be in the ground before the end of next year.