Major construction has kicked off on Suburban Rail Loop (SRL), with works full steam ahead to build a massive tunnel boring machine (TBM) launch site in Clarinda, where tunnelling will start next year.
The giant machines will start arriving on site later this year, before carving out the southern section of the SRL East tunnels.
Consortium Suburban Connect will build 16km of twin tunnels between Cheltenham and Glen Waverley, while Terra Verde is building the tunnels north of Glen Waverley to Box Hill. Four TBMs will be launched from Clarinda – 2 digging towards Glen Waverley, and 2 towards Cheltenham.
In an Australian-first, the TBMs will start their journeys through ‘flying launches’. A flying launch allows tunnelling to begin while the TBM continues to be built from behind from a smaller launching area. In total, each TBM will take about 3 months to assemble and will travel up to 90m a week.
In Burwood, excavation of a second SRL East TBM launch site is well underway, with tunnelling also starting from that site in 2026.
Construction of SRL East from Cheltenham to Box Hill is creating up to 8000 direct jobs, with more than 3000 people already working on the project.
SRL East trains will be running in 2035 – increasing access to jobs, healthcare and education in Melbourne’s east and southeast, and bringing thousands more homes to neighbourhoods where people want to live – on the doorstep of world class public transport, services and jobs.
Hundreds of Victorians had their say on draft structure plans for the neighbourhoods around the 6 SRL East stations in March and April this year – helping to shape these communities for the decades ahead.