MCT Italy supports Melbourne Metro Tunnel

MCT Italy supports Melbourne Metro Tunnel: one of the largest public transport projects undertaken in Australia. The Metro Rail project will free up space in Melbourne city loop to run more trains to and from the suburbs, by taking busiest train lines through a new tunnel under the city. That means more trains, more often across Victoria, with a less crowded and more reliable train network.

The Melbourne Metro Tunnel consists of:

An $11 billion project which will create a new end-to-end rail line from Sunbury in the west, to Cranbourne/Pakenham in the south-east, with high capacity trains and five new underground stations.

The Sunbury, Cranbourne and Pakenham lines will run exclusively through two new 9 Km tunnels, meaning that the remaining lines will be able to run more services through the existing City Loop

This results in a capacity increase on the network which will enable 504,000 more passengers to be able to use the rail system during each peak period

This project is expected to increase the capacity of the Melbourne railway network by an additional 39,000 passengers during each peak travelling period per day. It is expected to be finished by 2025.

The Cross Yarra Partnership (CYP) joint venture, comprising Lendlease Engineering, John Holland and Bouygues Construction, has been selected by local authorities to perform the entire project.

The CYP engaged Boral to supply the concrete to manufacture the 56,000 tunnel lining segments, which will be arranged into around 9,300 rings forming the walls of the Metro Tunnel, the biggest public transport project ever built in Victoria.

The first tunnel boring machine Joan – named after Victoria’s first female Premier Joan Kirner – will be joined by three other TBMs to dig the Metro Tunnel, which will take two of Melbourne’s busiest train lines out of the city loop, creating room for more services and passengers right across the city.

Boral’s Project Manager Catherine Wood affirmed: “Boral worked closely with CYP to develop mixes suitable for the project, including extensive quality, performance and fire testing for the segments that will line the tunnels. Boral’s innovation and technical teams from across the country have been developing solutions for this project.”

“CYP built a $30 million facility within Boral’s Deer Park operations in western Melbourne to manufacture the segments. CYP and Boral worked together closely in the planning and construction of the facility. To support the project Boral built a bespoke concrete batch plant to supply concrete to CYP”, Catherine said.

Massive Metro Tunnel Factory

A huge, state-of-the-art concrete plant is helping build the Metro Tunnel and creating jobs in Melbourne’s west.

MCT Italy, in a true partnership with the Australian Partner Bennett Equipment from Adelaide, delivered a special concrete batch plant, to Boral specifically designed to produce the concrete for the tunnel segments. The high quality concrete containing 30 kg of steel and 1.5 kg of polypropylene fibers per cubic meter, is batched by no. 2 Eurostar planetary mixer 3000\2000 and transported by dedicated flying bucket. The concrete has undergone a series of tests to ensure it meets the required standards for strength and durability. Very restricted tolerances lower on all dosed components assure the success on the most severe test, including fire testing held in Victoria, Australia.

Each segment weighs 4.5 tonnes and will be stored at the factory before being transported to the tunneling sites at Arden and Domain. At peak production, the factory will churn out around 150 curved segments every day – one every seven minutes.

Premier Daniel Andrews and Minister for Transport Infrastructure Jacinta Allan visited the $30 million purpose-built facility in Deer Park where 70 workers are producing concrete segments that will line two nine-kilometer tunnels under Melbourne. Premier Andrews affirmed: “This state-of-the-art facility is building the future of our train network and it is a jobs-boon for our community – giving local workers a chance to gain invaluable skills and experience, and boosting local businesses in Deer Park and across Melbourne’s west.”

Another flagship project for MCT in Australia

Boral’s Project Manager Catherine Wood continued: “The precast plant was sourced from MCT and erected by local contractors under MCT representatives’ supervision. “Boral selected MCT to supply the batch plant due to the positive experiences with similar MCT precast plants on comparable projects in Perth and Sydney.”

MCT’s plant has enabled Boral to supply concrete to the Forrestfield-Airport Link project that will link Perth Airport to the CBD by train and Sydney Metro, a project revitalizing the city’s rail network.

Mr. Gabriele Falchetti, Executive Australia Sales Manager of MCT Italy, pointed out: “Boral‘s highly specified concrete is being supplied to meet the project‘s stringent fire resistance requirements via a purpose-built precast batch plant at Deer Park site. MCT Italy is honored to have been selected to work with the Victoria Government to build a lasting legacy that will transform Melbourne, creating massive economic opportunities and greatly improving the daily lives of so many people”.

He also added: “MCT envisions itself to be recognized as a quality manufacturer and an innovator of precast concrete solutions globally. Our inner aim is to attain profitable growth through setting the highest standards in service, quality, safety and cost containment in our industry. The recent batching plants installed in Perth, Sydney and Melbourne confirm that our customers‘ oriented solutions together with high quality components are the win-win cards to play”.

“MCT Italy overall concept of the system is thus in perfect harmony with our objectives to produce quality products in the factory with the minimum variables to handle production processes. We will to adopt digital technologies and automation, to remain competitive in the long term. We will infuse and adopt new technology and integrated traceability system into this old industry, in order to make it relevant for the future” he concluded.