MTBM Domenica has completed her first drive

Central Interceptor has reached a significant milestone. Domenica, the 12m-long, 76,566kg micro-Tunnel Boring Machine (mTBM), has completed her first drive from May Road to Haycock Avenue. Once she’s up we’ll service her and get her ready for the next phase in her journey.

The link sewers that Domenica is creating will connect to Central Interceptor's super-sized wastewater tunnel that will run from Grey Lynn to our Māngere Wastewater Treatment Plant - that's 14.7kilometres.

Back in June, she started tunnelling from the project's 55-metre-deep May Rd shaft on the first section of the link sewer. Working 24 hours a day, five days a week, she’s been laying up to 15 metres of pipe a day. She’ll be retrieved from the Haycock shaft, go through a thorough check-up and have a bit of a rest before she’s launched at the Dundale Ave site in Blockhouse Bay next year.