Four of seven roadheaders now working on north-south bypass tunnel

Inspecting two new 135-tonne roadheaders on site with Brisbane Lord Mayor Campbell Newman, RiverCity Motorway CEO Flan Cleary confirmed that tunnelling remained two months ahead of schedule at Kangaroo Point following an early start to work.

“Brisbane’s hard rock is behaving as expected and our machines are progressing as planned,” he said.
“The two new roadheaders have started excavating approximately 500 metres of tunnel at our Bowen Hills worksite, prior to the delivery and commissioning of two 3000-tonne tunnel boring machines.

“The manufacture of the first tunnel boring machine in Germany is now in the final stages. Following factory acceptance testing later this month, the machine will be shipped to Australia for commissioning, with tunnelling to commence before the end of the year” he said.

Construction Director, Adam Hudson was on hand today to explain the excavation process to the Lord Mayor and took the opportunity to congratulate the project team on progress to date.

“We have worked over a million man hours to date and achieved several milestones including this handover of the Bowen Hills work site to our eager tunnel crew.

“However, once the roadheaders get to work their efforts will go largely unseen, as they work away underground and within a large enclosure building,” he said.

Mr Cleary said he was pleased with construction progress since work commenced on the North-South Bypass Tunnel in September 2006.

“In addition to the excellent tunnelling progress, work has commenced on 9 of the 18 bridges being constructed which will link the tunnel to five major roads on the north and south sides of the Brisbane River,” he said.

“The project has recruited a first-class bridge team and we are now on track to have all 18 bridges under construction by the end of the year,” he said.

“Work is also well advanced to establish a state-of-the-art pre-cast concrete manufacturing facility at Pinkenba on Brisbane’s northside.”

Commencing operations in June this year, the manufacturing facility will use the latest concrete and robotic welding technology to manufacture over 37,000 tunnel lining segments, together weighing approximately 300,000 tonne.

“Our design and construction contractor is very focused on delivering the North-South Bypass Tunnel safely, on-budget and as early as possible,” Mr Cleary said.

There are now more than 900 designers, work force and staff working on the project with more people joining the team every week.


Further information:
River City Motorway
Anthony Haversy
140 Melbourne Street
South Brisbane (Australia)
Phone: +61 7 3837 4868
Fax: +61 7 3837 4999
Web: www.rivercitymotorway.net.au