City Rail Link tunnelling set to forge ahead

Caryn Wilkinson Reporter from Community News

The 450-tonne shield of City Rail Link’s tunnel boring machine is now fronting Mt Eden's tunnel portal.

It took one and a half painstaking hours to move the machine 500 metres.

The shield was shifted from the Mt Eden site's western edge by a truck towing a hydraulic trailer fitted with 15 axles and 250 wheels.

"It was a very big and delicate operation but many hours of planning and all our hard work on site has paid dividends for us,” said Link Alliance project director Francois Dudouit.

The next phase will be putting everything together, he said.

The shield would be put inside the first 50 metres of the tunnel and connected to the tunnel boring machine's factory, Dudouit said.

This comprises eleven sections which provide hydraulic, mechanical and electrical power to excavate the tunnels and install precast concrete segments to line the tunnels.

When all the gantries are connected, the machine will undergo extensive commissioning tests before excavating the first of the twin tunnels in late April.

The Link Alliance will operate the machine to the new Karangahape Station then to Aotea Station in Auckland's CBD where it will join tunnels already built from Britomart Station and under lower Albert St.

City Rail Link's 3.45 kilometre-long tunnels are earmarked to open in late 2024.

Go to www.cityraillink.co.nz... for more information.