It's been a very interesting journey. We've really, really gone through a
lot to get the machines up to where they are. Even without everything from 2020 it was a big,
a big task, and with the team we had we really achieved a lot.
The tunnelling works is the crux of the project, oh it's absolutely
critical without the tunnel you basically won't have a rail system.
The construction of it and the planning of it was quite challenging and time consuming, we use
massive machines on this project two very beautiful tunnel boring
machines and six roadheaders so the Gabba obviously it's the
epicentre for tunnelling work. We had quite a old building built in the
70s I believe, the Landcentre and Goprint site. We had to demolish that as part of early works,
so we delivered a nice clear site for the contractor
to come along and start the excavation work. Our TBMs are actually manufactured by Herrenknecht
however the machines have been used on the Sydney Metro project.
The main components like the domain drive and all that were sent back to Germany where it was
refurbed and everything was brought back to Herrenknecht where it was reassembled
to our specification. Essentially just pulling apart
all of the components checking every seal every bearing and replacing
anything that needed to be replaced. We repainted the whole machines, we had to
widen the walkways on both machines because the tunnel here in Brisbane is slightly
bigger than in Sydney. Yeah we went through a whole process of
cutting off a bit of walkway and extending it and then just
all the components had to be slightly adjusted to suit.
You know 200 millimetres doesn't sound like much but yeah, it's a lot of work on our end to go through.
Particularly the can itself like the cutterhead, main drive and tail skin,
all new because of the larger diameter. So over at the Gabba we've actually created a
mini-city, we have our two offices. One's for the tunnelling office and the other one is the station
works so we've got two contractors on board to deliver those two packages of works.
I mean, on-site there's a hive of activities. You've got a water treatment plant,
you've got grout plant, you've got the spoil acoustic shed, as
well as a gantry crane to lift the large componentry off the TBM down
into the cabin below. So everything
serves the tunnelling activity, as well as a day-to-day ongoing delivery of logistics for
the tunnelling work such as delivery of the pre-cast segments from Wagners
at Wacol so that's pretty much running 24/7, as well as the spoil trucks
coming in taking up spoil to be disposed of.
One of the moments that sticks to my mind that was tricky, when we brought the machines to site
was the railway crossing at Cavendish Road.
Plenty of anxious moments, just with such a tight deadline there's you're always worried about something.
So, it was train lines as well as a light pole mast. It was very, very tricky we had to back and forth
back and forth several times just to make sure the gripper shield managed
to go under and clear this light pole.
I think there was 30-40 mil between the TBM and the overhead wires as it was crossing over the
train line there, so everyone was on the edge of their seat there,
truck drivers were sort of laughing it's a bit of an extreme sport.
It was quite a bit, there's a lot of planning works to go transporting the machines to site.
Yeah, all the planning really paid off. Once it was past it's fine and
then for the next machine and the next piece everybody was,
was calm and sort of knew what to expect.
News reporter: Two giant boring machines were today named after two famous Queensland women
who also broke new ground.
Cross River Rail's two giant tunnel boring machines named after two women who forge the way for others.
Professor Else Shepherd: I must say this is the most wonderful, exciting honour. I'm absolutely
delighted to see so many women over there who are working, who are engineers.
It was thrilling to actually invite Professor Else Shepherd to site,
just to see her reaction and her name emblazoned on the side of the
tail skin, she was very chuffed about it, so it was very exciting
to have witnessed the whole machine in parts delivered
here and there and to come to the gather site all assembled and ready for tunnelling,
that was definitely very exciting.
When we're underground, we can't use a conventional GPS system so we have a laser array set up in
the tunnel and we use that laser which can tell us position and distance and we can redirect that
laser around the curves in the tunnel and everything
and then we know from that point exactly where the TBM is in millimetre precision.
There is a crew of 15 staff on each of the machine at a time, and they're busily operating the
machines to ensure that gets to the Northern Portal as quick
as possible, I mean it is operating 24/7.
Obviously the TBM driver is a very specific role,
has to be someone that's very experienced and a good driver makes a big difference.
It's actually pretty noisy working on the TBM, always constantly rattling noises, conveyors are
beeping, even when the machine's grinding you hear the alarm going for the conveyor belt.
There's also a lot of extension of the pipe works so as the machine
cuts forward when it's downtime they just extend the ventilation bag,
dewatering pipes, electrification HV extension, so there's a lot
of things that continuously is extending as the machine progresses forward.
When the TBM s operating has allowed for seven metres of rock which is a diameter of the TBM itself.
Any tunnelling project whether it's TBMs, mine
tunnels, micro tunnels they all have a degree of complexity in passing through any urban area.
There's a lot of pressure on to make sure that we're ready by the time the the TBMs arrive.
So we've got the TBM Trackers and we're very conscious they're passing from Woolloongabba and
seemed to be moving very quickly. TBM Else passed under the Brisbane River and everyone was
saying that could potentially slow down while passing under the river.
The main area of concern is not under the river, it's as we start going under the river,
that's where the real change is happening,
so we got good production rates under the river after we got through
those size of the river the bank areas, where we had those areas of geological concern.
The next thing we knew both TBMs were passing under the under the Botanic Gardens and approaching.
Reporter: Face to face with the first Cross River Rail's second tunnel boring machine is finally here.
It's another major milestone, the twin tunnels now connect the future Roma Street and
Woolloongabba stations, transforming the way we travel in the River City.
To see these complex piece of machinery together side by side
for it to start spinning, oh it's really exciting to you know that you've achieved
a critical milestone on project.
There is an unbelievable amount of work that has gone into this. It's really exciting to be a part of
this project in the future to be able to look back and say that I had a part in
completing the new Cross River Rail.
Really proud of everyone and it's a big milestone for Brisbane.
Blood sweat and tears has gone into getting us to this place, we've done it safely,
and we're doing it on time.