Melbourne’s Suburban Rail Loop has passed one of its biggest milestones yet, with the first tunnel boring machine now grinding its way underground between Burwood and Glen Waverley. After years of planning, land acquisition and above-ground preparation, the project has officially moved into its tunnelling phase.
Alice leads the way
The first machine to start excavating is TBM Alice, which launched from Burwood and is now boring towards Glen Waverley station. A second machine, Hacia, has also been lowered into position and is expected to begin cutting its own twin tunnel in the coming weeks.
Both machines were named by local primary school students after influential Victorian women. Alice honours Melbourne musician and producer Alice Ivy, while Hacia is named for Hacia Atherton, founder of the Empowered Women in Trades alliance and a well-known advocate for women in construction.
Each TBM is a formidable piece of engineering: once fully assembled, the machines stretch to roughly 120 metres in length, with a cutterhead 7.25 metres in diameter capable of chewing through rock to create the twin tunnels that will link the project’s underground stations.
A Victorian first: tunnelling before the machine is even finished
Rather than waiting for each 500-tonne TBM to be fully assembled before starting work, engineers are using what’s being called an “umbilical method” — a launch technique new to Victoria. Under this approach, the front cutting section of the machine begins boring into the ground while the rest of the TBM is progressively built and connected behind it via a system of cables and hoses running back to the surface for power and support.
It’s a practical solution to the tight confines of the Burwood launch site, allowing excavation to start weeks or months earlier than a traditional full-assembly-then-launch approach would allow.
More machines on the way
Alice and Hacia are just the beginning. A third TBM is scheduled to launch from Clarinda later this year, boring tunnels between Cheltenham and Glen Waverley. Further machines are expected to join the effort next year, launching from Burwood towards Box Hill and from Heatherton towards Cheltenham — eventually bringing the total tunnelling fleet to eight machines working across the SRL East corridor.
Together, these TBMs will carve out more than 10 kilometres of twin tunnels between Box Hill and Glen Waverley alone, as part of a broader 26-kilometre tunnel network connecting six new underground stations: Cheltenham, Clayton, Monash, Glen Waverley, Burwood and Box Hill.
Why it matters
The Suburban Rail Loop is designed to connect Melbourne’s outer suburbs directly to major employment, health and education precincts — including new direct rail links to Deakin and Monash universities — without requiring passengers to travel via the CBD. When the East and North stages are complete, the project is projected to take more than 600,000 cars off Victorian roads every day.
The first section of the SRL is scheduled to open in 2035, with construction continuing across the SRL East corridor in the years ahead. For now, though, all eyes are on Alice and Hacia as they begin the slow, steady work of boring Melbourne’s newest rail tunnels into existence.
Sources: Infrastructure Magazine, Victoria’s Big Build, Trenchless Australasia, Webuild Group
Sound good but shouldn’t they finish the projects off that are still in progress before placing funds to start on this one?
Like the state is broke atm so they keep telling us!!!
I hope those seat shiners in Spring St going to donate % of their generous pay packet to fund it instead of slugging the taxpayers with tax hikes elsewhere!