John Holland CPB Ghella: TSE Works

John Holland CPB Ghella (JHCPBG) is delivering the Sydney Metro City: Southwest Tunnel and Station Excavation Works – a $A2.81-billion contract to design and construct cathedral-like station caverns and twin 15.5-km tunnels beneath one of the world’s busiest cities. The critical project builds capacity to meet rapidly growing transport demands. Five tunnel boring machines worked simultaneously – including building the first rail tunnels under the iconic Sydney Harbour through an ancient paleochannel of marine sediments under pressures up to four bar.

John Holland CPB Ghella (JHCPBG) is delivering the Sydney Metro City & Southwest Tunnel and Station Excavation Works–a $A2.81-billion contract to design and construct cathedral-like station caverns and twin 15.5-km tunnels beneath one of the world’s busiest cities. The critical project builds capacity to meet rapidly growing transport demands. Five tunnel boring machines worked simultaneously–including building the first rail tunnels under Sydney Harbour through an ancient paleochannel of marine sediments under pressures up to four bar. With Hochtief (HTEG), Arcadis, BG&E, McMillen Jacobs Associates, NOMA Consulting and Pells Sullivan Meynink, JHCPBG addressed a complex vertical and horizontal alignment with challenging geotechnical and hydrogeological conditions,17 different sites including adjacent to the harbour and heritage structures. Tunnels were completed within 17 months,six complex caverns were mined and lined. Staging and logistical challenges at four tight CBD tunnelling sites included intricate excavation within one metre of operating rail and road tunnels, barging spoil (100% reused) and TBMs components, maintaining public safety and traffic flows, and a major marine heritage discovery. With strong safety, outstanding sustainability and legacy training initiatives, significant portions were delivered many months early, allowing Sydney Metro to advance the tunnel fit out and construction of station developments.

This award seeks to recognise excellence in delivery of a tunnelling project or tunnelling-related element of a project over the value of $500M that was completed between July 2019 and July 2020 Judges will be looking to reward the project that best meets or exceeds the design brief and/or client expectation but that also have sought to advance industry best practice and have worked in a truly collaborative way.

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