With work on 3 level crossing removals and new stations at Pakenham and East Pakenham powering ahead, another huge milestone has been achieved on the project, with the first sections of rail track laid in East Pakenham in its new, permanent position.
In June last year, the existing tracks were decommissioned and removed, as the construction team installed drainage structures in Deep Creek and Pakenham Creek. They could then get started creating the new East Pakenham Station platforms and pedestrian underpass, which will improve pedestrian access between Sharnet Circuit and Ryan Road.
Once the foundations were ready, the track work happened very quickly. Crews started by installing ballast – which is made up of crushed stone and helps with the drainage of water from the track. It also holds the track in place as the trains pass over it.
Overall, the Pakenham project is using 60,000 tonnes of ballast, which is 6 times the weight of the Eiffel Tower.
Once the ballast is in place, concrete sleepers are laid, then railway tracks.
The Pakenham level crossing removal team is working closely with Metro Trains as the new track and stations come together.
Metro Trains Senior Project Engineer Rhys Glowaski explains:
‘In East Pakenham we are laying around 6000 sleepers, and on an uninterrupted day we can lay as many as 1600 sleepers.’
The team then welded the tracks together, then placed more ballast – leaving only the top of the rail visible. Once this is finished, a machine known as a tamper comes through to compact the ballast underneath the sleepers.
Rhys says the Pakenham project is using concrete sleepers, replacing the old wooden ones, which have been donated to Walhalla Goldfields Railway, and old concrete sleepers, donated to Yarra Valley Railway.
‘Concrete sleepers have a better life expectancy and can handle larger train wheel loads over the traditional timber sleepers.’
In the coming months, the team will need to ‘tie in’ or connect the new tracks that have just been built into the existing tracks, so trains can run along the new section of track and service the new East Pakenham and Pakenham stations when they open later this year.
Until then, the team will continue work on the new East Pakenham and Pakenham stations, with construction on the new bus interchange now underway at Pakenham, in front of the station.
The level crossings at Main Street, McGregor Road and Racecourse Road in Pakenham are 3 of 22 crossings being removed on the Pakenham Line.
2024 is going to be a big year for Pakenham, with the 3 level crossings gone, new stations open at Pakenham and East Pakenham, and 6 MCGs worth of community open space created for locals to enjoy.