Construcciones Yamaro: Fourth tunnel boring machine commissioned for Snowy 2.0 project
Webuild, as part of the Future Generation Joint Venture delivering Snowy Hydro’s Snowy 2.0 project, has commissioned its fourth tunnel boring machine (TBM). The renewable energy mega-project is now more than 70 per cent complete.
Named in honour of Monica Brimmer, a talented Tumut High School student and winner of a First Nations art and storytelling competition, the machine was powered up during a ceremony on site.
Joined by Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen, Brimmer radioed in instructions for the first rotation of the TBM’s 12-metre cutterhead, drawing applause from local community members and workers on site.
Launching from the project’s Marica worksite, just outside Kiandra, TBM Monica will begin tunnelling in the coming weeks and will excavate the portion of the 17-kilometre headrace tunnel that passes through the Long Plain Fault Zone.
The commissioning milestone comes as progress continues across the project’s worksites in the Snowy Mountains region of New South Wales.
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Almost one kilometre underground at the Lobs Hole worksite, the project’s focus is shifting from tunnelling and excavation to preparing the fit-out of a complex underground power plant comparable in scale to the Sydney Opera House.
To prepare for this, 46 permanent concrete pours have already been completed. More than 733,000 cubic metres of underground excavation – equivalent to 293 Olympic-sized swimming pools of material – has taken place in the subterranean caverns that were created using drill-and-blast techniques, some of which were pioneered on the original Snowy Scheme.
“Webuild, as part of the Future Generation Joint Venture, is proud to contribute its global expertise in large-scale tunnelling and hydropower to a project that will play such a critical role in securing Australia’s renewable energy future,” said Marco Assorati, senior executive vice president of operations – Oceania at Webuild.
“Snowy 2.0 is among the most complex underground infrastructure projects in the world, and the successful commissioning of the fourth tunnel boring machine reflects the extraordinary collaboration between our teams, our partners and the local community.”
The post Fourth tunnel boring machine commissioned for Snowy 2.0 project appeared first on Inside Construction.
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