TBM Merle breaks through at the Northern Portal

TBM Merle has broken through at Cross River Rail’s Northern Portal site, and that means the project’s twin tunnels now stretch all the way from Boggo Road in the south, under the Brisbane River and the CBD and out to the Northern Portal near Normanby.

Like her namesake and women’s rights activist, Merle Thornton, Cross River Rail’s ground-breaking TBM made huge progress, tunnelling under Brisbane’s CBD in nine months.
 
During her 3.6km journey Merle installed 2,250 precast concrete rings and excavated around 400,000 tonnes of spoil.
 

The $5.4 billion Cross River Rail project is an important part of Queensland, Australia’s future, with the State’s population continuing to grow rapidly.

Ghella’s tunnel and stations component includes the construction of twin 5.9 km tunnels under the Brisbane River and Brisbane’s central business district, as well as the construction of four new underground stations.

Tunnelling for the project is expected to conclude in 2021.