Five world-class bidders have made the shortlist to construct two major tunnelling projects for Melbourne’s Suburban Rail Loop, with the final two contractors to be announced next year.
This news comes on the back of initial and early works recently starting on the SRL East that will create up to 800 local jobs, according to the Victoria Government. These works include utility protections, road modifications, service relocations and preparations for three sites where tunnel boring machines (TBMs) will be launched. Up to 10 TBMs will be used to speed up tunnelling for the project, with construction expected to start in 2026.
The five local and international bidders responded to the Expression of Interest (EOI) to deliver twin tunnels between Cheltenham and Glen Waverley, and Glen Waverley and Box Hill for the SRL East project. New underground stations are included for Cheltenham, Clayton, Monash, Glen Waverley, Burwood and Box Hill.
An interesting group of contractors, mostly in joint ventures, have thrown their hats in the ring:
- Samsung C&T Corp and Hyundai Engineering & Construction
- We build and GS Engineering and Construction Australia
- CPB Contractors, Ghella and Acciona Construction Australia
- Bouygues Construction Australia
- John Holland and Gamuda (Australia)
Three of these bidders will move to the Request for Proposals stage later this year, after which two will be appointed for the tunnelling contracts in 2023. The Victoria Government said SRL East will generate up to 8000 jobs during construction, offering, “exciting opportunities and a long pipeline of work for local industry and suppliers”.
Related content: https://concreteinstitute.com.au/srl-tunnelling-package-eoi-opens/
About the author
Desi Corbett
Desi is the Editor of Concrete in Australia and at the helm of our magazine for 8 years. She was behind the Institute's weekly news bulletins from 2016-2021 and is now writing our focused news items. Desi has been an engineering news and features journalist/editor across all disciplines since 2013 - part of a 30-year career writing for a wide range of industries.