Jack Herbert and Laurance Gogorossis provided us with an overview of the design and progress of the West Gate Tunnel Project. They both work for the major contractor, Transurban.
Jack is the Stakeholder Community Engagement Manager. His team works with the residents and business owners and keeps them informed of any impending works which may affect them. The key issues are construction noise, vibration, air pollution and traffic movement. They are kept informed via newsletters, websites, social media, forums and meetings.
Laurance is a Senior Project Engineer.
Construction commenced in early 2018 and the tunnel is expected to open in 2022.
There are three components to the build:
West Gate Freeway upgrade
Tunnel construction
Port to City
Some of the key works include:
Building new noise walls along the West Gate Freeway.
Building the tunnel portals.
Building the Maribyrnong River bridges.
Widening the West Gate Freeway.
Changing the high-voltage power lines.
Building the elevated road and connections to City Link, the port and the city.
Building the Hyde Street ramps.
Excavating two tunnels beneath the Maribyrnong River that will allow for three lanes each way.
Extracting, sorting and dispersing 1.5 million cubic metres of rock and soil.
Upgrading the Federation Trail.
Two tunnel boring machines will be purchased from China at a cost of about $100 million each. They are 15 metres high and will bore at a rate of about 9 metres per day.
Both Jack and Laurance promised to return in 1-2 years to update us on progress.
Click here to visit the West Gate Tunnel Project website to find out much information about this massive project.