Concrete culverts made in regional Victoria are being installed inside the North East Link tunnels to create a maintenance tunnel to service Victoria’s largest road project.
The 3-metre-high by 3-metre-wide box culverts each weigh 20 tonnes and are being installed throughout the 6.5 km twin tunnels to create a service tunnel underneath the road surface, providing clear access for maintenance vehicles and staff when the tunnels open to traffic in 2028.
Each culvert is installed once the tunnel boring machines have passed through, excavating the tunnels and lining them with more than 43,000 concrete segments made in Benalla.
The culverts are then lifted into place and surrounded with additional concrete to create the service tunnel and a flat surface for road base to be laid on at a later stage.
Local concreting company Humes is making the 4500 box culverts at its Echuca facility and delivering 14 culverts per day to the North East Link, supporting 60 jobs in the regional border town.
The facility uses a type of concrete that adds alternative material to the cement, including industrial by-products, which can help reduce the environmental impact of building and infrastructure construction projects.
The 2 tunnel boring machines – TBM Zelda and TBM Gillian – are currently making their way from Watsonia to Bulleen, with Zelda already reaching the first kilometre of its journey.