Brisbane’s Cross River Rail TBMs can be tracked in real-time

cross river rail, major projects,

May 17, 2021

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Track Cross River Rail TBMs with a new online tool

Cross River Rail TBMs can now be tracked in real-time. I know, exciting right?

They have recently launched a new online tool through their website that allows the public to follow the project’s TBMs as they dig the twin tunnels in real-time beneath Brisbane.

TBMs Else and Merle – both weighing in at 1350-tonnes – were excavating the project’s twin tunnels from Woolloongabba north towards Albert Street.

Meanwhile, two 115-tonne roadheaders were excavating the tunnels in the opposite direction from Woolloongabba towards Boggo Road.

“With TBM Else and TBM Merle on their way north, and the project’s roadheaders excavating south, Cross River Rail’s year of tunnelling is well and truly underway,” said Cross River Rail Delivery Authority CEO Graeme Newton.

The Tracker showed the project’s TBMs and roadheaders as they excavated the project’s 5.9 kilometres of twin tunnels, including how far they had already travelled.

This is a great tool for the public to see all the work and construction happening underground, we are otherwise we are quite oblivious of the sheer scale of work taking place beneath our feet.

Each of the TBMs is equipped with trackers and sensors which fed technical information to the project team in real-time.

The TBMs would reach Albert Street mid-year, before continuing to Roma Street and finally emerging at the project’s northern portal at Normanby before the end of 2021.

The TBM Tracker can be found here.

Tunnel Boring Machine fast facts:

• Cross River Rail’s two TBMs are named in honour of two groundbreaking Queensland women – trailblazing engineer Else Shepherd AM and pioneering feminist Merle Thornton AM;
• 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;
• TBMs work at a rate of 20 to 30 metres per day;
• The TBMs will install 25,000 concrete segments weighing 4.2 tonnes each along the tunnel walls as they go;
• 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 will generate 290,000 cubic metres of spoil as they make way for the twin Cross River Rail tunnels.

ENDS

Read the Media Release here.

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