CPB Contractors to Deliver Victoria’s West Gate Tunnel Project

Workers have started clearing the site where tunneling will begin for Australia’s West Gate tunnel project. Contractors will dig down more than seven stories, clearing the way for the project’s two tunnel boring machines. Major construction work is expected to start in early 2018 with the project scheduled to open to traffic in 2022. The project contract was awarded to Hochtief’s CPB Contractors and John Holland.

Another work site will be established nearby later this year, with the two sites connected by an elevated heavy-duty, covered conveyor belt. The conveyor will transport materials from the TBM excavation to large sheds, to be loaded onto covered trucks and removed from the site.

The two sites will be home to more than 500 workers – part of 6,000 jobs created on this massive project.

More project sites will be established in the inner west over the coming months as work gets under way to widen the West Gate Freeway and move utilities including gas pipes, sewers and drains to make way for the tunnel.

The design and construct contract will generate revenue to CPB Contractors of approximately $2.49 billion.

The West Gate Tunnel project, one of Victoria’s largest ever urban road projects, will deliver an alternative to the West Gate Bridge, provide quicker and safer journeys and remove thousands of trucks from residential streets.

Design and construction works include widening the West Gate Freeway from eight lanes to 12 between the M80 Ring Road and Williamstown Road; a 1.7-mile eastbound tunnel and 2.5-mile westbound tunnel under Yarraville; a new bridge over the Maribyrnong River; an elevated road along Footscray Road to the Port of Melbourne, CityLink and the city’s north and major new cycling and pedestrian paths.

Photo source: http://www.cpbcon.com.au.