North East Link

🧱 All in all you’re just a, ‘nother beam in the wall. We’ve been working on upgrades to the Grimshaw Street bridge in Greensborough. As part of the works, crews worked around-the-clock to install 26 concrete beams to support a new wider road bridge over the Hurstbridge rail line. The beams were lifted into place using a 450t crane, with each beam weighing up to 26 tonnes! Crews also installed 72 precast panels to form part of the extended rail tunnel. But we’re not there yet - we’ll be need to do further works to complete the bridge and extend the rail tunnel in 2025 and 2026. Once complete the bridge will form part of the Grimshaw Street interchange that will link to the M80 Ring Road and North East Link, with dedicated lanes for local trips and express lanes to the North East Link tunnels.

A sign of change on the Eastern Freeway! 🚧 We’ve just finished removing 6 gantries between Bulleen and Tram roads. Measuring between 6.3 and 8.3 metres in height, some motorists will have driven beneath these overhead signs hundreds of times since the first ones were installed back in the 1980s. Behind the barriers we’ve also been undertaking site investigations and relocating utilities along the freeway. Learn more about the Eastern Freeway Upgrades https://bit.ly/3Skysql

Teaming up towards decarbonisation. We’re taking part in a research trial towards decarbonising Australia’s concrete industry by turning excavated soil and rock into calcined clay from sites on the Major Road Project Victoria M80 Ring Road Completion and North East Link tunnels. With support from Building 4.0 CRC, The University of Melbourne is leading the study with the excavated site materials being heated to activate the clay, it’s then tested as a possible substitute for concrete to be used on infrastructure projects. The trial aims to tackle two significant challenges within the industry by supporting a circular economy through the reuse of excavated material as a valuable resource and reducing carbon emissions if successful by cutting the embodied carbon of cement by up to 70% on projects. We’ll share the results once published by the University of Melbourne in early 2025. Haven’t had your calcined clay fix? Head over to Major Road Projects Victoria to learn about a similar trial they’ve implemented on the Mickleham Road Upgrade.

Tunnel 👁️ vision TBM Zelda and Gillian are digging their way to Bulleen, but they’re not the only tunnels taking shape on the project. Fit out works on the ventilation tunnel under Yallambie Road are well underway as crews make the tunnel watertight before they continue concreting the rest of the tunnel. Once finished the vent system will help keep air quality safe in and outside of the tunnels.

Mid week 🤝 mid production More than 50% of the concrete segments that will be used to build the North East Link tunnels have been made by LS Precast in Benalla. Over 22,000 concrete segments have been completed for two giant tunnel boring machines to build the twin tunnel walls. LS Precast is making 90 segments per day, with the partnership also delivering 140 local jobs in the area.

Tunnelling under Manningham Road 🔦 ⛏️ The 2 road headers that were recently lifted into our Manningham Road work site are now digging the section of tunnel from Manningham Road to our work site at Trinity Grammar - where tunnelling has also begun heading north. Road headers are used for a process called ‘mined tunnelling’ where tunnels are excavated in sections deep underground with supports being installed along the way. Road headers in both the northbound and southbound tunnels will continue to tunnel towards each other until they meet underground next year. Once complete these tunnels will link to Manningham Road and the Eastern Freeway interchanges.

We recently shared the names of our 2 TBM – Zelda and Gillian – that are currently digging their way to Bulleen and helping build the North East Link tunnels. The other week some special guests visited our Watsonia site - the friends and family of the TBM naming competition winners! They saw the launch box where TBM Gillian was being readied for her journey towards Bulleen and the start of the tunnel TBM Zelda had already started digging. Fleur tells us why she nominated Zelda D’Aprano and the experience of seeing how massive the scale of work is on site.

‘We see this project as a great platform to contribute building a positive legacy beyond the tunnel’ says Coby, Senior Social Procurement Advisor at Spark North East Link Tunnels D&C October is Indigenous Business Month and we’re celebrating businesses like A2B Personnel. Hear how the Aboriginal owned and operated company is using projects like North East Link to create meaningful employment opportunities for First Nations people. Over 300,000 hours have been worked by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people across all North East Link packages to date. Explore jobs and opportunities here https://bit.ly/3TAlqEV #IndigenousBusinessMonth

What is that? 🤩 Learn about the 2 hectare Yarra Link green bridge that will stretch over Bulleen Road once North East Link is complete.

Moving ‘mound-tains’ on the M80 Ring Road Completion. ⛰️ What a difference four months makes! Then there was an enormous mound where the M80 Ring Road meets Greensborough Bypass. Now, more than a million tonnes of soil and rock has been removed, creating the space needed for crews to build a new M80 Ring Road interchange. More than 9 kilometres of road safety barriers now line the M80 from Plenty Road, all the way down to Watsonia – but what’s happening behind them? Join us for a tour with Project Engineer, Ned.