Excavation of Sydney Metro West’s Hunter Street station cavern has been completed, marking a major milestone for the project.
Work has been ongoing around the clock for 20 months to create the cavern, which measures 180m long, 28m wide and 20m high.
To build the station cavern, one roadheader and a team of 57 workers removed more than 240,000 tonnes of material.
Because of the cavern’s central Sydney location, meticulous planning and sub-millimetre accuracy were essential throughout excavation. At times, work took place just 1.8m from the M1 Metro Line and directly below iconic landmarks including the heritage-listed State Library of New South Wales and The Domain.
Meanwhile shaft excavation at both Hunter Street East and West sites continues.
Hunter Street Station will be the final stop on the 24km Sydney Metro West line that will double rail capacity between Greater Parramatta and the Sydney CBD.
When the line opens in 2032, the station, which will have two entrances, is expected to be the busiest on the Sydney Metro West network.
A joint venture of John Holland, CPB Contractors and Ghella is delivering the station excavation and tunnelling between The Bays and Hunter Street in the CBD.
This week the NSW premier and minister of Transport, John Graham, visited the Hunter Station site.
Elsewhere on the Sydney Metro project, Gamuda Australia and Laing O’Rourke is constructing the the rail crossover cavern, station box cavern and stub tunnels at Westmead Station and the station box at Parramatta Station; Acciona Ferrovial Joint Venture is continuing site demobilisation work within and around the two construction sites at Five Dock; and at North Strathfield Station and Sydney Olympic Park Station tunnelling and the construction of the station box is complete, with minor nozzle and tunnel work ongoing.
