At Herrenknecht's Northside facilities, the government of Queensland unveils the two TBMs that will excavate the bulk of Cross River Rail’s 5.9km twin tunnels. The Tunnel Boring Machines have been going through refitting and refurbishment process.

The first TBM, a 1350-tonne, 165-metre long TBM is undergoing last-minute checks at Herrenknecht’s northside facility before being moved to excavation-start site at Woolloongabba, says the Transport and Main Roads Minister Mark Bailey. The second TBM will go through the final works next month before being transported to the tunnelling site.

According to the minister, more than 100 local subcontractors and suppliers are benefiting from more than $10 million in work to help get the two TBMs ready. He adds that “The Palaszczuk Government has a $51.8 billion infrastructure program that locks in jobs to support Queensland’s economic recovery”.

As per plans, the Tunnel Boring Machines will start boring through the hard rock from the Woolloongabba station site early next year, tunnelling under the Brisbane River to Albert Street station in mid-2021, before continuing on to the new Roma Street station and emerging at the project’s northern portal at Normanby.

Tunnel Boring Machine fast facts:

• Two TBMs are being refitted and refurbished at Herrenknecht’s northside facility
• More than 100 local companies have been supporting Herrenknecht to prepare the TBMs, including QIC Protective Coatings (Birkdale), LCR Group (Wacol), AC Hargreaves Pty Ltd (Seventeen Mile Rocks), C&L Tool Centre (Hendra), ShapeCUT (Carole Park), and Citi-steel (Darra)
• More than 40 workers have helped refurbish the two TBMs’ gantries, assembling their shields and testing all their systems to make sure they’re ready to go
• The TBMs’ back-up gantries have been repurposed from the Sydney Metro project
• Each TBM weighs 1350 tonnes and is 165 metres long
• A crew of up to 15 people will work in a TBM at any one time
• The cutterhead weighs 106 tonnes and measures 7.2 metres in diameter
• It includes 39 cutting discs that exert up to 32 tonnes of pressure each
• TBMs will work at a rate of 20 to 30 metres per day
• At their deepest point, the tunnels will be 58m below the surface at Kangaroo Point, and 42m below the Brisbane River
• Each TBM is fully equipped with crew facilities, offices and toilets
• The TBMs must be disassembled to be transported
• The TBMs will generate 290,000 cubic metres of spoil as they make way for the twin Cross River Rail tunnels.