West Gate Tunnel project reaches new milestone
In a new milestone for the Melbourne West Gate Tunnel project, Tunnel Boring Machine Vida has completed its 2.8km journey from Yarraville to Williamstown Road near the West Gate Freeway.
The breakthrough of TBM Vida marks the first of the two tunnels to be excavated, after 7,000 combined hours of tunnelling. It is the largest ever breakthrough of a TBM in the southern hemisphere.
The APP Group in partnership with Arcadis and WSP are providing Independent Review and Environmental Auditing services to the project following our appointment in 2017.
Melbourne's major freeways move millions of people and important goods every day and the West Gate Freeway is one of the busiest, moving more than 200,000 vehicles a day.
The West Gate Tunnel project will give Melbourne a second freeway link between the west and the city, providing a much needed alternative to the West Gate bridge and a vital second river crossing.
When completed, the West Gate Tunnel Project will:
- provide a necessary second river crossing
- widen the West Gate Freeway from 8 to 12 through lanes, including express lanes for vehicles heading to the south and south eastern suburbs
- give drivers a choice between the tunnel or the bridge
- ease congestion for the 200,000 cars that use the West Gate Freeway daily
- create better connections to Melbourne to support the travel needs of growing regional populations especially in the Ballarat, Geelong and the Wyndham areas
- enable better access to the port for trucks, allowing them to avoid taking residential roads
- better connect Melbourne's west to CityLink, Footscray Road, Dynon Road and Wurundjeri Way
- better manage traffic flows and incidents through smart technology.
The West Gate Tunnel project is scheduled for completion by 2025.
