Headlines

Platinum Sponsors

Australasian Tunnelling Society is a Technical Society of Engineers Australia and affiliated with Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, the Institute of Professional Engineers New Zealand and the International Tunnelling Association (ITA).

Featured Articles

Legacy Way breakthrough
Legacy Way breakthrough

The breakthrough of Brisbane's latest traffic tunnel did not go completely to plan on 13th June.
As Annabel the cut through to the tunnel's second side, a large slab of rock and concrete crashed down, covering invited guests with ground water and debris.
Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk attended the Legacy Tunnel worksite alongside Federal Labor MP Craig Emerson.
Councillor Quirk admits that part of the event was unexpected. "Normally these things crumble bit by bit but this was the cleanest cut of all I have to say," he said.

Written on Friday, 14 June 2013 00:29
Search starts for name of Waterview tunnel boring machine
Search starts for name of Waterview tunnel boring machine

"Tradition says that Waterview’s tbm is given a name before it starts work boring the tunnels later this year as a sign of good luck for the project," says the NZTA’s State Highways Manager for Auckland, Tommy Parker. "It’s an engineering tradition carried on throughout the world for machinery of this size." Mr Parker says tradition also says that the tbm, like ships, has to be named after a woman.
That search for a suitable name began Monday, 10 June in the classrooms of Auckland’s primary schools, with pupils being asked to find a suitable one for the tbm.
"Waterview is going to make a huge difference to travel in Auckland and we’d like children to come up with suggestions that recognise a woman from Auckland’s past whose big contribution to the city in the fields of heritage, the community, nature, culture, transportation or engineering continues to this day."
Entries close on Friday 28 June and can be submitted via the Waterview Connection website at www.nzta.govt.nz/waterviewconnection. Four finalists will be announced a week later, on 5 July, after which the public at large will be invited to vote for the name they like best.
The prize for the successful pupil includes the chance to take part in the official launch of the Waterview tbm in late October and a model of a tbm. There’s also an ipad and, for the winner’s school, $1000 cash.


The Waterview Connection Project is New Zealand’s largest roading project at a cost of $1.4b. It will connect the Northwestern (State Highway 16) and Southwestern (SH20) motorways and is part of the Government’s Western Ring Route national road of significance to provide a 47km-long motorway alternative to SH1. The tunnels are due to open to traffic by early 2017, after fitting out with mechanical and electrical services.

The tbm is the 10th largest in the world with a cutting head diameter of over 14 metres. It is due to arrive in pieces from China in mid-July. It will be assembled in the motorway trench at the southern end of the tunnel route between Owairaka and Waterview.

Mr Parker says it will be assembled facing north, ready to start its year-long journey north to Waterview in late October boring the first of the two 2.4km-long tunnels. It will then be turned to work its way back to Owairaka, where it is due to arrive by the end of 2015.

Written on Tuesday, 11 June 2013 23:59
TBM Joyce completes her journey in world record time
TBM Joyce completes her journey in world record time

 

Brisbane celebrated a major milestone on Brisbane City Council’s Legacy Way project this week, with the breakthrough of the project’s first tunnel boring machine (TBM) Joyce at Kelvin Grove. Joyce’s breakthrough marks the culmination of more than two years of work and three million work hours, moving motorists one step closer to a four-minute trip between Toowong and Kelvin Grove once Legacy Way, Brisbane City Council’s 4.6 kilometre road tunnel that will connect the Western Freeway at Toowong with the Inner City Bypass (ICB) providing an alternative route for traffic leaving the Western Freeway and travelling to and from the ICB. Once open in 2015, Legacy Way will almost halve peak hour travel times between the Centenary Bridge and the ICB and considerably help Brisbane’s current congestion problem.

 

 

The Herrenknecht-built machine, along with her sister TBM, Annabell, has demonstrated outstanding levels of production with an average rate of excavation reaching more than 150 metres per week, setting the project at a world class level for production using large diameter TBMs. During her time digging under Brisbane’s inner western suburbs, Joyce achieved incredible records excavating 49.7 metres in a single day, as well as a maximum of 248.82 metres in one week and a 30-day maximum of 787.78 metres.

 

Fernando Fajardo, Project Director for Transcity, the joint venture building the link, said he was extremely proud of the project’s performance. “The breakthrough of Joyce in such a short timeframe is an amazing feat, and a credit to the team’s combined expertise and hard work,” Mr Fajardo said. “The performance of our two TBMs, Annabell and Joyce, has set our project amongst the best in the world, and we are all very proud of our achievements. Joyce’s performance can been attributed to our seamless logistics process, innovations in tunnel construction, and perfect ground conditions.”

 

Now she has arrived at the eastern worksite, TBM Joyce will be disassembled over the next three months.

 

Written on Friday, 07 June 2013 01:28
EA calls for certainty on Cross-River Rail
EA calls for certainty on Cross-River Rail

Engineers Australia has called for increased transparency in the scheduling and provision of major infrastructure projects after the announcement that the federal Coalition would not fund Brisbane’s Cross River Rail project if elected.

Simon Orton, Engineers Australia Queensland Division president, said: “It is imperative that federal and state governments work together to avoid election-led boom/bust investment cycles. Critical infrastructure projects like the Cross River Rail should go ahead, and sooner rather than later.

“Major infrastructure projects like the Cross River Rail promote employment, increase productivity and underpin Queensland’s future economic growth. Any delays to an infrastructure project of this magnitude will lead to labour force planning implications and place increased pressure on the engineering profession and the Queensland economy.

“A large proportion of Australia’s 250,000-strong engineering workforce is employed in delivering major infrastructure projects. We need to avoid acute demand spikes across specific locations and engineering specialisations, and provide far more certainty to those employed in the delivery of major infrastructure projects.”

Written on Friday, 31 May 2013 05:00

Latest Articles