Precast concrete segments made in Benalla have now arrived in Watsonia, ready to line the walls of Victoria’s biggest road project – North East Link.
More than 46,000 concrete segments are being made by Benalla business LS Precast for the 6.5 kilometre North East Link tunnels. Ninety segments are being made per day creating jobs for 120 locals and providing a massive boost to the local economy.
The first of these segments have been delivered and are currently being housed in a large shed at Watsonia, and will be installed by the tunnel boring machines when the first one begins its journey to Bulleen in the coming weeks.
When tunnelling has begun, the segments will be transported from the shed, through the tunnel, and to the back of the TBM which will pick them up and place them in the tunnel wall.
LS Precast has already supplied 49,000 concrete products for the West Gate Tunnel Project, and the transition to providing segments for the North East Link tunnels has secured a pipeline of regional jobs.
Across the north-east, a massive amount of work is underway to prepare for tunnelling. The 200-metre-long TBM launch box is complete, and work is underway to prepare the Lower Plenty Road and Manningham Road sites for the arrival of the TBMs which will begin tunnelling in the coming weeks.
Works are also underway to prepare for the upgrade of the freeways that will connect to the North East Link tunnels, with barriers and worksites being set up along the Eastern Freeway and M80 Ring Road.
The North East Link tunnels and freeway upgrades are jointly funded by the Australian and Victorian governments and will be complete in 2028, slashing travel times by up to 35 minutes, and taking 15,000 trucks off local roads.