In the coming weeks, the 12m-diameter TBM, named Monica, will be launched from the Marica worksite, near Kiandra, to excavate the portion of the 17km headrace tunnel that passes through the geologically challenging 850m Long Plain Fault Zone.
Originally the tunnel was to be completed solely by TBM Florence but the challenging conditions required an additional machine.
TBM Monica was named after Monica Brimmer, a Tumut High School student and winner of a First Nations art and storytelling competition. At the on-site commissioning ceremony, attended by climate change and energy minister Chris Bowen, Monica radioed in instructions for the cutterhead’s first rotation.
Snowy Hydro says progress is being made across the project’s four worksites in the NSW Snowy Mountains.
Almost 1km underground at the project’s Lobs Hole worksite, construction work is shifting from tunnelling and excavation to preparing the fitout of a complex underground power plant the size of Sydney Opera House.
In preparation, 46 permanent concrete pours have been completed so far and more than 733,000m3 of underground material has been excavated. The large subterranean caverns have been created by drill-and-blast, using some techniques that were pioneered on the original Snowy Scheme.
At Tantangara, principal Future Generation JV has completed the crown of the tunnel transition at the entrance to Snowy 2.0’s intake structure. The work required 450m3 of concrete, 160m2 of formwork 3.7m thick, and 80 tonnes of steel reinforcement.
