Since March 2024, the Spark North East Link Tunnels D&C team has installed 4,454 culverts across the project, averaging 150 installations per week.
While casting is now complete, culvert deliveries to site will continue in line with ongoing TBM excavation.
Each culvert measures 3.5m high and 4.1m wide and was manufactured by Humes at its Echuca facility before being transported to Watsonia for installation. Weighing approximately 19 tonnes each, the culverts form the service tunnel beneath the road surface, providing access for maintenance vehicles and personnel once the tunnel opens to traffic in 2028.
Spark, comprising Webuild, CPB Contractors, GS Engineering & Construction, and China Construction Oceania, is delivering the North East Link programme’s primary package, including 6.5km of three-lane twin road tunnels. It will be the longest road tunnel in Victoria.
Meanwhile, the Victorian Infrastructure Delivery Authority has announced that the TBMs carving the northern section of the Suburban Rail Loop (SRL) East twin tunnels will be powered by First Nations company Yurringa Energy.
Yurringa Energy is Australia’s only First Nations-owned energy retailer and will supply 100% renewable energy to the machines that will excavate the 10km twin tunnels between Glen Waverley and Box Hill.
“Yurringa Energy is proudly First Nations owned and we are a leader in providing employment opportunities for First Nations people in our company, but this only happens by having profitable, financially sustainable First Nations businesses. It’s pleasing that Yurringa Energy came out on top through a very competitive tendering process,” said Yurringa Energy executive chairman Daniel Briggs.
All TBMs for SRL East, and the SRL trains, will be powered by 100% renewable electricity, while all stations will target a 5-star Green Star rating.
A TBM launch site has been built in Burwood, where the machines powered by Yurringa will launch later this year. Crews are now assembling the TBMs on site, building acoustic sheds and preparing to excavate the underground space where the station will be built.
Excavation of the second TBM launch site is under way in Clarinda.
