Excavation for the North East Link has reached another significant milestone with road headers breaking through in Bulleen in March, marking a key step in the construction of the 6.5 km twin tunnels that will connect Watsonia and Bulleen.
The roaders are electric powered tunnelling machines that are used for finely controlled digging of a tunnel. They can excavate up to almost 2000 tonnes of rock each day and can break through rock three times harder than concrete.
The road headers have been working since last year to excavate the section between Manningham Road and Trinity Grammar with the sequential excavation method (SEM) of tunnelling particularly suited to this section of the project.
With the 5 road headers currently working on the project now having broken through at both ends of this section, they will soon continue excavating the lower half of the tunnel.
Recently the tunnel boring machines, Gillian and Zelda, also made breakthroughs at the Lower Plenty Road interchange, and will soon continue their journey to Bulleen.
This combined approach of using both road headers and TBMs will ensure that the North East Link tunnels are completed efficiently, with the project set for completion in 2028.