Double Breakthrough at Pyrmont Station

We’re celebrating a major milestone on the Sydney Metro West - Eastern Tunnelling Package: TBMs Jessie and Ruby have broken through to the Pyrmont Station cavern!

This carefully coordinated breakthrough followed weeks of detailed planning. Inside the cavern, our team used a roadheader to excavate 1.2 metres of rock from the tunnel face. The TBMs then advanced the final 300 millimetres, safely navigating a known fault zone and the slurry pressure of the mixed shield machines. A textbook delivery by our tunnelling and station teams!

With the breakthrough complete, both machines will now traverse 313 metres through the station and crossover caverns. To support this, 2,000 metres of steel rail have been installed on a specialised traverse system. Once they reach the eastern end of the cavern, the TBMs will undergo maintenance and relaunch to continue tunnelling toward Hunter Street Station in the Sydney CBD.

This breakthrough marks the end of the first leg of a major underground journey. Each TBM is carving a 2.3-kilometre tunnel, lined with precast concrete segments produced at our Eastern Creek facility. These tunnels are 7 metres wide and sit at an average depth of 37 metres, making them some of the most technically challenging in the metro project.

As the TBMs move on from Pyrmont, the final stages of excavation will continue for the 168 metre long station cavern and the 145 metre long crossover cavern.

The journey continues as we prepare for the next drive toward Hunter Street!