Sydneys Super Tunnel Season 2 Episode 3 Testing Times
#Lani John Tupu
#Matthew Reilly
#Rodd Staples
#Sydneys Super Tunnel - Season 2
#Lani John Tupu
#Matthew Reilly
#Rodd Staples
#Sydneys Super Tunnel - Season 2
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TVTranskript
00:00In Australia, Sydney is on a mission.
00:05There's still a huge amount of work that we need to do.
00:08To relieve chronic traffic congestion.
00:10Sydney's traffic problems are incredibly difficult to solve.
00:13By building a new state-of-the-art metro system right through the heart of the city.
00:21But can it all be built underneath five million busy people?
00:25Huge logistical nightmare.
00:27Without bringing them to a standstill.
00:29A lot of things have to go right in sequence.
00:32Live vehicle, cross passage five, Waterloo inbound.
00:35So an expert team of men and women from around the world.
00:38Quite scary. There's a lot that can go wrong.
00:41Are stepping up to this challenge.
00:44With some pleasure.
00:46Oh wow, this is amazing.
00:48And pain.
00:49I am.
00:50Along the way.
00:51That's my station here. That's what we've built.
00:59After years of tunneling, the five megaboran machines on the $21 billion city line.
01:21Have completed their mission.
01:23And have left the building.
01:26In their wake.
01:27More than 30 kilometers of seven meter wide concrete tunnels remain.
01:33The colossal station cabins are also excavated.
01:36So it's time for this mega metro build to enter a new phase.
01:42The project's really flipped around.
01:43We've gone from that massive excavation and tunneling stage to just as big a mega problem.
01:48Which is how do we deliver everything into the tunnels and into the stations and complete that build.
01:53It's the build of the stations but it's also the track, the power, the systems going in.
01:58That's what's going to be the next critical path to getting this railway open.
02:08At Blues Point, Deputy Project Director Nathan Hoffmeister can't wait to start getting the railway tracks down.
02:15So train testing can begin.
02:17Now that we've removed all the earth, we've got these lovely concrete line tubes.
02:23We now need to pack these things with rail infrastructure.
02:27It's not as easy as it sounds.
02:30The main way into the tunnels is through the giant excavations where train stations are being built at the same time.
02:37We need to feed all our tunnel infrastructure through the stations while the station's being built.
02:42So there's a constant juggling of priorities, who needs to go first, who needs to go second.
02:47The rail crews will have to compete for access at nearly every point.
02:52Because the station builders have their own mega challenges.
02:58The first job we now need to do is get the rail into the tunnels.
03:01We've got to thread the steel rails 110 metres long each, through the tunnels all the way along so we can start building the track.
03:08As there is no train station being built at Blues Point, Nathan and his team can use the 35 metre deep shaft as an access point for equipment and materials.
03:23In the tunnels, the steel rails are pulled to either side to allow prefabricated sections of concrete sleepers to be brought in and laid one after another.
03:33Once the sleepers are in, the rails are lifted from either side of the tunnel and carefully placed on top.
03:42They are then manually attached to the sleepers with metal clips and pan pullers.
03:47And we have a dedicated specially built concrete train that actually delivers concrete to the front of the track build.
03:54Nearly 100,000 tonnes of concrete is needed to level the tunnels and lock the 45,000 sleepers into the ground.
04:04Once the sleepers are placed, the tunnels are essentially blocked to heavy machinery.
04:09All it takes is one machine in the wrong place.
04:14If we get our sequencing and logistics wrong, we end up with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of plant potentially stuck in a tunnel behind a concrete pool.
04:21It could be there for months, it could be there for weeks, it's a huge amount of down time.
04:25But the tracks are just the beginning.
04:29As soon as the rails are locked down, services like power and data need to be installed.
04:35And the big machines need to go back into the tunnels.
04:38We're just about to lower down a shaft, a 10 tonne high rail truck, specialist kit, down onto the newly formed track down below the harbour so we can start fitting off the bracketry on the side of the tunnel.
04:50We have millimetres either side as we're lowering it down onto the track.
04:54The skill of the operators is second to none to make sure we get this to happen safely.
04:58The high rail truck is a work platform to carry and install cable trays and walkways.
05:03All the containment, all the services are all hanging off the wall.
05:08Each one of those brackets needed dozens of holes drilled.
05:11We have an automated drilling rig that we actually set up to drill holes all the way along the full length of the tunnel.
05:18The team must also install an elevated metal walkway to enable maintenance and emergency access.
05:25That train will fly through those tunnels in the future at 100 kilometres an hour, unmanned, driverless trains.
05:31Those brackets need to be millimetre perfect. Those nuts and bolts need to be tight. They've got to be triple checked.
05:36Every little job, no matter how small it seems, is critical and everything's being done to such a high level of detail and quality.
05:44But all this attention to detail takes time.
05:48And the train testing team are counting down the days until they can launch.
05:53About 35 kilometres northwest of the CBD is the Sydney Metro Trains Facility.
06:05It operates the first stage of the driverless railway and it's where the trains are stable and routinely maintained.
06:14It's also home to a vital component of the Metro Railway called the Operations Control Centre or the OCC.
06:23I'm very excited to show you where we are right now.
06:28Pretty much like the brain in your body, the OCC is the brain of our Metro Railway.
06:35This brain is currently operating the northwest line and will control the city line when it opens.
06:41Our Metro Railway is unique. The main difference between our Metro and other networks is that it is fully automated.
06:51What that means is that our trains are driverless, our stations are automatic and what that actually also means is that you're able to step into the train, head right in front of the train, look outside the window and see where you're going.
07:05The system operates on a closed network, protecting it from cyber threats as hundreds of CCTV cameras monitor every inch of the automated trains and stations.
07:18The OCC is connected via our network. It's like the nervous system with all the real-time information coming back into the OCC to make real-time decisions.
07:31Melvin heads to the maintenance shed to get a closer look at this 21st century rolling stock.
07:42Technically, the train is one big robot and the magic of automation means that the train automatically wakes up.
07:52The train control system has its program where it will go through all the critical systems that it needs to check.
07:58It will check those one by one and give itself a green light.
08:03When that happens, it will slowly start to creep out outside the depot, onto the main line, start picking up passengers.
08:11With trains travelling up to 100 kilometres an hour, it's critical to know where they are at all times.
08:19So we're actually under the train right now, we're in the pit and one of the critical elements of the train and signalling control is the precise location of each train.
08:33Throughout the metro network, there are hundreds of electronic transponders out on the tracks called belices, which send important information back to the OCC.
08:46We've actually got a belice detector installed on each train.
08:50When the train passes over it, it allows the signalling system to know exactly where each train is and the speed at which the train is travelling.
09:00With this information, the signalling system can maintain a safe distance between the trains by speeding them up or slowing them down.
09:08One of the unique features on our driverless train is this safety device, which is an obstruction detection device.
09:18Should there be an obstruction that falls onto the tracks, this bar will detect it and when it is activated, the train will undergo an emergency brake.
09:28And once the obstruction is cleared, the train and signalling will deem ready to go and then it will be on its way.
09:39Not only are the trains themselves automated, the stations are highly automated as well.
09:46These are our platform screen doors and this is what makes our metro railway unique.
09:51The main reason why the metro system works so well is one, it protects passengers from falling onto the tracks and prevents those odd objects rolling onto the tracks.
10:04The beauty about that and what makes it very different is that our trains are able to enter the station at speed and stop exactly in the precise location.
10:15The system knows the weight of the train and calculates the amount of braking required to stop the train comfortably for the passengers.
10:25An added safety feature is the train cannot depart without both sets of doors closing.
10:31The train automatically knows when it is finished for the day and when it needs to head back to the depot.
10:36And if it is lucky enough, the timetable will schedule it to go into the train wash for its nice deep clean and then roll sleepily into its stabling yard where it will undergo its own sleep procedure.
10:51When the 23 brand new trains arrive for the city line, the OCC staff will be operating all 45 trains, 21 stations and two train facilities,
11:03all from their desktop work stations.
11:06The construction phase at Central Station has given the metro team plenty of headaches, but nothing like the migraines the station caused in 1901, before it was even built.
11:26While the rest of the country was celebrating the Federation of Australia, workers were clearing the station site.
11:37A very big job, considering it was already a well-established cemetery.
11:46Worse still, no one knew exactly how many burials had taken place.
11:50Archaeologists like Dr Ian Stewart think that at least 30,000 souls had once rested in what was called the Devonshire Street Cemetery.
12:02Although we knew that there had been a cemetery on that site, the historical evidence was that the cemetery had actually been removed in its entirety in 1901 and 1902.
12:12Very early in the Central Station Metro Works, graves and human remains were found by construction workers.
12:21But how could they have been left behind?
12:24When it was decided that the station was going to be here, they gave notice to all the relatives and they gave them opportunity to exhume their family members themselves or have it arranged and re-buried elsewhere.
12:38In what would have been a grisly job for relatives, the remains were collected, then re-buried at cemeteries around Sydney.
12:47Some, however, were missed completely.
12:50This is a burial vault. This is Vault 4 and that's Vault 6.
12:56So they are basically vaults that were excavated to put people in, so they're family vaults.
13:00What was left behind included six vaults and 62 grave cuts.
13:07This is known as Burial Vault 2. It's the only brick-lined vault that we have on site.
13:12There were at least four people in coffins on the metal brackets that you can see, and then there's a shelf made of bricks on the far side that would have had at least a couple more coffins on top of it.
13:26Social historian Penny Russell from the University of Sydney has had a decades-long professional interest in Australia's early colonial social life.
13:38But things got very personal when she read an article about a nameplate that had been recently found on one of the graves.
13:45I open up the story and here is an account of the discovery of a grave, which I know immediately is the grave of my great-great-great-grandfather, Joseph Thompson.
13:57His bones were found in a coffin that had his nameplate on it, just Joseph Thompson, 1858, not much more.
14:04His wife and his brother had been buried in the same grave later on, but they seem to have been moved successfully to Bunurong when the family graves were moved.
14:15So I think his headstone was moved to Bunurong, and Mary and Samuel were moved to Bunurong, but somehow Joseph must have got left behind.
14:22Joseph Thompson was a draper who migrated to Australia in the 1830s with his wife and five children.
14:33He was an active member of the Pitt Street Congregational Church in Sydney, along with people like newspaper magnate John Fairfax and department store founder David Jones.
14:44So it's fitting that some of the descendants of Joseph Thompson meet at the very same church for a memorial service prior to his reinterment at Bunurong Cemetery, alongside his wife and brother.
14:59Joseph, we let you go into the smiles of our historical memories, into the cycle of living and dying and being recycled again.
15:20May you rest in peace.
15:22We knew when we started our work at Central Station, we were potentially going to find remains from the Devonshire Street Cemetery that was there before Central was built.
15:34I don't think we ever imagined we'd find someone as notable as Joseph Thompson.
15:38Today is really a great opportunity for us to pause and reflect with some of his descendants that we've been able to find and connect with to bring here,
15:45to have this memorial service to show our respect to him and be part of his reinterment, you know, in his kind of rightful burial place with some of the other members of his family.
15:57And now, after 160 years, Joseph Thompson can finally rest in peace.
16:04About 180 kilometres from Sydney is the port city of Newcastle.
16:15These busy docks are about to receive a very special shipment.
16:20The first consignment of six brand new metro carriages destined for the city line.
16:26To achieve the timetable of a train every four minutes in the peak hours, the current fleet of 22 train sets will be more than doubled to 45.
16:43At the Sydney Metro Trains Facility, Deputy Project Director Nathan Hoffmeister has come to witness the arrival of the new trains at the yard.
16:52Huge day for the project today. I'm really excited. I couldn't wait to be here today.
16:59Trains are arriving in Australia on a boat up at Newcastle. There's one dock there at the moment.
17:05Huge step for the project, one step closer to opening a railway.
17:09Each carriage is covered in multiple layers of toughened plastic to protect them on their long journey over the ocean.
17:16It's quite critical to actually get the unloading sequence right, so we don't overload one side of the boat,
17:21causing it to roll in the ocean.
17:24The ship has two cranes, which are used in tandem to lift the carriages from the hold.
17:30So we've got the two cranes. One picks up each end with these massive slings.
17:34The slings are the width of my body. They're huge.
17:37And the two operators, one in each crane, have to lift up in unison, make the carriage come up.
17:41It pivots out of a hold down adjacent to the boat onto a waiting truck.
17:46The carriages are most vulnerable to the elements when they leave the safety of the hold.
17:51Once we've got the carriage up in the air at its highest point, it's where we've got the greatest tipping balance of the boat.
17:57That's where we really expose the elements like wind. A gust of wind would put us at risk.
18:02But also, any undercurrents or any wash from radiation vessels coming through also puts us at risk.
18:06Those two cranes will then lower this carriage onto the waiting truck, where we'll strap it down, take the slings off and get it ready to send to Sydney.
18:21Nathan is relieved to see the first carriage make it off the ship. But this is just the beginning.
18:29We have 22 more trains to deliver this way. So that's 22 times 6 carriages from Newcastle to Sydney to start building up the network so we can get the entire fleet ready for the city line.
18:42A truck arrives at the depot to deliver the first new train carriage.
18:46This is a pretty cool process that we've got to do next. The truck's now pulled up here in the depot.
18:51It's reversing up at the moment to a specially designed ramp, which is designed to complement the size and shape of the back of that truck.
18:58As the truck backs up, it'll slightly raise its trades, a slight tilt, and allow us to winch the carriage down onto the waiting ramp, which allows us to then roll it onto the network onto the test track.
19:09This may be an automated train, but it has no power yet, so it needs a little help to get into the shed.
19:18It's at this point where we need some help from Johnny. Johnny is our resident rail tractor.
19:23He's a little diesel loco which is used to push and pull trains all around the yard.
19:28He can be operated remotely, or you can have a driver sitting on the back of him.
19:31Johnny's going to grab the back of the wagon. He's going to couple up to the back of that carriage, pull it through the sets of points.
19:37We're going to switch those points. We're going to get Johnny to push that carriage through into the shed.
19:47The team start to tear away the protective coverings, the travel strapping and the timber chocks.
19:54This is our early Christmas present. Once we unwrap this carriage, we can see our first new carriage for the city.
19:59These carriages will get thoroughly checked before they are coupled together to begin the extensive process of testing and commissioning.
20:11Testing and commissioning can be a slow process, but an essential process to make sure that the train and system runs like clockwork when we open the city line.
20:19The Sydney Metro trains facility is the brains and the heart of the automated railway.
20:32With the new train sets continuing to arrive, delivery director of trains, Melvin Bolas, is on site to begin the next critical phase of the program.
20:43Testing and commissioning.
20:45You're always in two minds in testing and commissioning. One, you hope that nothing happens, but at the same time you hope that something does happen and it's the right time for that thing to happen.
20:58Eleven thousand hours of testing is in front of the team, both on new trains and existing rolling stock. If the new trains can't be integrated into the system or fail these tests, the opening of the city line could be delayed.
21:14It's the pointy end of the spirit. It's where design, construction, all come together and it needs to work.
21:24Melvin is joined by depot operations manager Gus Ells and Stephen Jones, head of rolling stock.
21:32They're all here to put one of the 22 brand new trainsets through an automated wake-up process, something that is vital to the daily operation of the Metro.
21:45The first step is to pull the plug on the automatic system.
21:51DTC to Gus.
21:56DTC receiving Gus.
21:58DTC, I'm going to shut down the train manually. Train set 38 on road 2. Over.
22:03So what I'm going to do now, I'm going to shut down the train manually using the driver's key.
22:12The main Metro network is controlled by the incredible OCC, the Operations Control Centre.
22:20But the yard has its own much smaller but very important control room, the DTC, or the depot train control.
22:29The DTC operator switches train set 38 out of auto mode and hands control to Gus.
22:37Yes, copy that. Right to shut down. Train set 38 road 2. Over.
22:42Thank you very much. No shutting down now.
22:49There's no use for a person to go onto the trains on a daily basis to wake them up individually.
22:53So this is why we need to test the system. It's very important that we establish communication from the OCC to the train.
23:00But it's Steven Jones, who looks after the rolling stock.
23:04It would be his problem if the train fails to wake up.
23:07So we shut down the train control management system and we'll be automatically waking the train up,
23:12doing a train wash, putting it through the equipment monitoring system, making it available for revenue service.
23:16At 130 metres long and 240 tonnes, this is now a high-tech, brand new, $15 million sleeping giant.
23:28And then as soon as the train wakes up, we need to make sure that the unattended train operation or driverless mode is active on the screen.
23:35If not, we will have a problem.
23:37They really need it to wake up perfectly.
23:39DTC, we are going to do a test on the train where we need to test the remote wake-up functionality.
23:46Is it possible for you to please wake up the train remotely? This is train 38 on road 2.
23:50History is buried everywhere in Sydney.
24:06Whenever construction crews scratch the surface in the city, they are almost certain to come across artefacts from the past.
24:13On nearly every metro site around the CBD, archaeologists have been called in to excavate and record ruins and relics,
24:25often personal items that are remarkably well-preserved.
24:30But at the Barangaroo site, right next to the harbour, the discovery of a timber boat has marine archaeologists intrigued.
24:38We think it is the earliest Australian-built colonial vessel ever excavated in Australia.
24:45The find has caught the attention of Kieran Hostie from the Australian National Maritime Museum.
24:51It is nothing like I've ever seen in boat building.
24:54The other thing we need to be doing is to see where that hole's been dug over there, next to the hull.
24:59That's where we've got the keel.
25:01By analysing the timbers of the vessel, the archaeologists were able to verify the boat's special status.
25:09It's made out of Sydney bluegum, stringy bark and spotted gum, so local tinders.
25:16And that's what does conclusively say that it's an Australian-built vessel.
25:20But these vessels get wrecked very easily.
25:24And the reason we've got this vessel is because it was dragged ashore near a boatyard and just left to decay until it got buried.
25:32So it's a very rare find.
25:35Built around 1830, the priceless 190-year-old wreck needed to be preserved.
25:43And the race was on to painstakingly disassemble and remove the newly named Barangaroo boat.
25:50So the decision then was taken to actually lift it in pieces and then conserve it in pieces.
25:54So with the Barangaroo Metro build waiting patiently nearby, an army of archaeologists, volunteers and construction workers removed every tiny, fragile piece of the boat.
26:12But keeping track of all the pieces is no easy task.
26:17We've recorded every timber in position. We put a new tag on it that will stay with it its whole conservation life.
26:25So once we've tagged it and recorded it, we pull it up and we put it on a board and take it over to be processed.
26:35The biggest danger to the wreck in terms of its being reassembled is if they dry out and they start warping.
26:42So keeping them wet and then in the refrigerator means that they stay wet longer until such time as we get them into a tank full of water and start treating them.
26:52Come on in please, Karen.
26:54Great, thanks Jane.
26:56Let me show the artefacts.
26:58The Barangaroo boat was giving up other secrets from Sydney's colonial waterfront past.
27:03So we've got a range of different types of artefacts from the boat.
27:07Archaeologist Jane Rook is examining the treasures found in and around the wreck.
27:13It's really important to do this kind of work.
27:17The boat is unique that we are learning things from it every day.
27:22It's opened our eyes to the boat building technology that we didn't know.
27:26We're rethinking everything.
27:28The artefacts and stories of everyday people tend not to survive through the ages.
27:32The boat and surrounds were a Sydney waterfront time capsule.
27:38There's thousands of artefacts found.
27:42Underneath the vessel we found material.
27:44On top of the vessel we found material and underneath the ceiling planks, the inner linings of the vessel, we found material.
27:50This one was found sitting in the boat.
27:54I'm intrigued.
27:56This is a sperm whale tooth.
28:00As cataloguing the artefacts continues, the boat itself will embark on its long voyage of conservation.
28:07Throw out the rule book when it comes to boat building with the Brangaroo boat.
28:12It is totally unique craft.
28:16At the Sydney Metro Trains Facility.
28:20Is it possible for you to please wake up the train remotely?
28:23This is train 38 on road 2.
28:26Copy that. I'm going to wake up train set 38 on road 2 now. Over.
28:30Copy that DTC. Thank you very much. Over.
28:35The team is waiting to see if train set 38 will wake up when the control room tells it to.
28:44Good. It looks good.
28:4738 is now fully awake, but its morning routine involves a few processes that everybody can relate to.
28:54We've now given the command over to the depot control centre and then we'll automatically bring the train through the wash.
29:02Yeah, so we just thought of moving at the moment.
29:05What we're going to do is just to wash the train, make sure the train is all clear and all ready for passenger service.
29:13The team are operating the train outside the normal routine and time is extremely tight.
29:18But they need to run this test. Washing is a necessary part of the process.
29:24The trains do get dirty. It operates out in the weather and also through the tunnels.
29:29So it does pick up a lot of grime and dirt.
29:32The train will need to guide itself to the wash bay amongst the maze of tracks out in the yard.
29:38The depot train control pulls 38 up in the siding.
29:42The system is waiting for clearance to reverse into the train wash.
29:45So the train has currently moved into the head shunt.
29:48This enables us to set the mission to any one of the 31 roads that we have in the maintenance shed.
29:52And now we're setting the point, so the automatic route system will set the points and route us through the train wash.
29:58But the wash will have to wait, while they make room for other trains coming off their shifts to move in.
30:04Now, train set 38 is in a rush of its own.
30:09Gus, we've got an ETA on the train wash because we're going to have to start launching PM services for Northwest.
30:13If we don't launch this train in the next seven minutes, we're just better off not doing this test.
30:20Getting track time and access in the midst of the workings of the Northwest Line is a difficult process.
30:27It might take time to get another opportunity to test this train.
30:30We're trying to integrate this new city fleet with the Northwest operations, so this is actually a pretty good test right now.
30:38A Metro train passes, and there's a gap.
30:42I'll have you on the move from the head shunt shortly to Road 15 City and for a train wash over.
30:48Copy that DTC, and again, thank you for accommodating us over.
30:54Wow, that's really good.
30:56So, at the moment, we're train testing within an operational environment.
31:00We've got to fit in with their schedule, but we're also going to make our program.
31:04As you can see, we've made the road and we're going ahead, so that's just great news.
31:08It's quite unusual for people to be on board for the wash.
31:13This all usually happens without a human touching a train.
31:19The wash plan's got its own software, which is coded, and also has sensors on the ground,
31:23so the sensors actually pick up when the train is approaching the train wash and will activate the wash sequence.
31:27Seven trains will go through this process every day, so each train gets a wash every six days,
31:41using around 2,200 litres per train, and 80% of this is recycled water.
31:48Today, though, the train gets an extra rinse courtesy of Mother Nature.
31:53I guess it always happens when you wash your car, it rains.
31:57Yeah.
31:59Train Set 38 rolls back into the shed with a clean exterior and a clean bill of health,
32:05and they beat the afternoon rush.
32:07How did we go?
32:08Well, we've got ten minutes before PM launch, and I guess in an automatic train system, we've got plenty of time.
32:13Five minutes, Steve.
32:15Nine minutes.
32:17There's only one thing better than being on time, and that's actually being early.
32:22So we did it.
32:25There we go, we're off.
32:35Project director for the city line, Hugh Lawson, is almost allowing himself a moment to breathe,
32:42as the country's busiest station, Central, inches towards completion.
32:47Years of work, we're just coming to the end now of its insight.
32:51We started to hand over the first parts of the station back to Sydney trains.
32:54People are already getting to use the Northern Concourse and some of the great infrastructure we've built.
32:59Just got to push to that finish line now.
33:01The Northern Concourse has already been open to the public, and recently so has the long-awaited Central Walk.
33:10And you can just see walking around Central how much people love what we've built, and you see these people racing through the new walkways and taking the escalators up to the platforms as if it's always been like that.
33:20But we know how much hard work went into delivering it.
33:24Tom Simmons is delivery director at Central Station.
33:29He's now in a position where instead of hoardings and hard hats, he can see a beautiful architectural and technical marvel that's changed the way millions of people move through Central.
33:40These are really hard projects, massively complicated and technically challenging, and at times it's hard to see the light at the end of it, but when you stand here now and look at it and see people using it and moving through the space, they are really satisfying.
33:55They become quite addictive doing these types of jobs. The hard ones are the ones I think you get the most satisfaction out of.
34:00Over a million people per week pass through Central, and their journey through the 120-year-old building is made easier by Central Walk.
34:09This is one of the new key pieces of the project we've done, makes wayfinding and travelling around the station a lot simpler.
34:15Before that, about four sets of stairs on and off the platforms, labyrinth of tunnels downstairs, very easy to get lost and around.
34:23Central Walk cuts right through the centre of the station and links all the suburban lines.
34:29But a big part of the design was building a brand new entry on the eastern side of the station, on Chalmers Street.
34:35And enables people to come in from that whole Surry Hills capturing area, down underground, into the station, and then seamlessly connect with existing city trains or the metro services.
34:46From the metro offices here, when you look out the window, we can actually see Central Station and the new eastern entrance that we'd built as part of the project.
34:55It was the last big bit of construction we had and really marked the end of the project for us at that point.
35:00And we'd had the handover walks, we were just ready to finish that part of the job, it was looking brilliant, ready to hand it over to Sydney trains, actually get it into use, get it open for passengers to use.
35:11We'd finished, achieved the milestone, later that afternoon I'm flying off on a well-deserved holiday.
35:16But what happens next, no one could have expected.
35:21On the very afternoon, the Chalmers Street entrance was handed over.
35:25Hugh walks out of a meeting and is told...
35:28There's a fire at Central Station.
35:30In a large shed in Western Sydney, an important conservation operation is in full swing.
35:39The hundreds of individual pieces of the excavated Barangaroo boat have been delivered in refrigerated containers, ready for conservation.
35:50This sort of work hasn't been done in Australia in over 30 years, and it has never been done on Australian timber shipwreck.
35:59Because Australia has limited experience in this type of specialist work, experts have been brought in from the UK.
36:07We're used to oaks and ash, things like that, whereas here they're using the local eucalyptus type work, so we have to factor that into the process as well.
36:16The first step is to get a baseline on the condition and potential threats to the wreck.
36:22It is quite well preserved. One of the problems we do have though, which we'll have to deal with, is quite a lot of iron contamination and sort of concretion build up on the surface.
36:32So that may have been protecting the wood to a little extent, but we're going to have to deal with that during the conservation process.
36:38The 190 years spent covered in Sydney mud and seawater requires a complex conservation process to remove iron and stabilise the timbers.
36:48But before that process can begin, every last piece is scanned to create an extremely accurate digital 3D representation of the boat.
36:58Eventually we will have a 3D scan of every timber on the wreck, so we can use that data to kind of reconstruct the vessel digitally.
37:08We also have it for documentation purposes, so we'll be using these scans to look at where the nails are, the tunnels are, and that will tell us about the construction sequence of the ship, which tools were used, how many builders were on the project.
37:20It kind of gives us a deep dive into the archaeological record.
37:24The 3D scans have revealed secrets of the wreck and the people who might have built it.
37:30This boat doesn't look like it was built in a very formal shipyard. It looked like it was done by, maybe by a couple of guys by the side of the river.
37:40It seems to have been repaired over and over, so it means that this was precious to somebody.
37:45They built it for a reason and they used it for a long time until they could no longer keep going.
37:50Once the iron has been removed, the timbers are still extremely fragile and waterlogged.
37:56But it's the water trapped inside the wood that is actually holding everything together.
38:02Conservator Heather Berry gets the timber ready for another bath.
38:07The timbers are waterlogged, so what is actually keeping these cells in their shape is water.
38:14We need to replace that water with something else and that's where the polyethylene glycol wax comes in.
38:21We need to pull that in.
38:24Let's start with that.
38:26These timbers will sit in the polyethylene glycol and they will slowly start taking up peg wax.
38:33Then eventually, when it is time to take them out, there will be minimal changing of the wood because instead of water bulking it out, it's now polyethylene glycol wax.
38:44The conservation process is forging ahead, but it still hasn't been decided what the boat's fate would ultimately be.
38:52This is a highly significant vessel and once it's finished its time in the tanks, the idea would be for it to come to some public institution in New South Wales and put it on display for other people, for Australians, overseas visitors to come.
39:06And we hope future research will allow us to sort of unravel the mystery of the Brangaroo boat.
39:12Central Station security cameras begin to pick up signs of a fire in Randall Lane, the rear axis for the brand new Chalmers Street entrance.
39:29As cinders and debris fall into the laneway, Hugh Lawson is notified of the fire.
39:36The afternoon, literally the afternoon after we've done those walkthroughs, get a call, come out of the meeting here and told there's a fire at Central Station.
39:46A fire has broken out in the Heritage Building, right on top of the Central Station Eastern Access.
39:53You can look out the window and you can see our entrance and you can see the building on fire right behind.
39:59It's literally across a little laneway and the building's on fire behind our station, the smoke's coming up as well.
40:05Twenty engines and over 100 firefighters respond and emergency services are on the scene in minutes.
40:14Fire crews act immediately on the huge risk of the old building collapsing.
40:19The RC Henderson Hat Factory is a six-storey brick and timber building built in 1912.
40:33The fire spreads rapidly through the timber work and into the upper levels.
40:37Central Station is at genuine risk.
40:40Once we made sure everyone was out safely, knew that, you know, all our teams, construction teams that were in there were in the clear, then, you know, we can see just this disaster unfolding, like massive fire, a number of fire engines down there.
40:56Railway fire service crews arrive inside the Chalmers Street entrance.
41:00They'll try to prevent the flames from reaching Central Station.
41:05At this point, I'm sat in a taxi heading to the airport and one of my senior PMs is messaging me pictures of the fire brigade stood in the entrance where we were earlier that morning with fire hoses fighting the fire out the back and round the lane with the hat factory going.
41:21As the old building's internal supports burn, there is a high risk of the walls collapsing. Firefighters establish a perimeter and send thousands of litres of water into the fire.
41:36They also focus on saving the buildings around the hat factory.
41:39And how quickly the blaze happened, you know, that whole building just went up in flames.
41:44Water from the firefighters begins to run down through the rear access and initiates a new hazard for Central Station, flooding.
41:54You've got water coming in through this new station entrance and actually flowing down into Central Station.
41:59Between us and Sydney Trains and Fire and Rescue, that was a key thing to get sorted quickly to not just worry about the new Metro works, but actually protect the operation of Central Station itself, the main station.
42:10The water is safely directed away. And amazingly, the trains keep running at Central Station.
42:18The blaze has now consumed most of the old building. Flames and debris fall into the narrow gap between the hat factory and the Chalmers Street entry.
42:28Firefighters in the street below must remain outside the collapse zone, but work hard to contain the huge blaze.
42:36Inside Central, fire crews are waiting down the rear lane entrance, trying desperately to prevent further spread into the station.
42:45But as the timber framework is consumed in the flames, the threat to Central escalates as the double brick walls of the old hat factory begin to fall.
43:03One of the biggest milestones on the City Line project is in sight.
43:08And train set 28 is being prepped for a very special mission.
43:14The panel is unlocked and the train is taken out of automatic mode.
43:18A testing crew are about to take this train, where no other has gone before, into the new tunnels under Sydney Harbour.
43:32At the Sydney Metro Trains facility, at the far end of the Northwest Line.
43:37Around midnight, they make their way towards the technical and physical boundary between the existing and the new Metro Lines.
43:46Chatswood Station.
43:47This job is Chatswood.
43:49You never know what's going to happen.
43:52For delivery director of trains, Melvin Bolas, this is his personal moon landing moment.
43:59The significance of the first train under the harbour really is, I would say, the apex of the project.
44:08Just to the south of Chatswood Station, at the very edge of the connection between the Northwest and the new City Line, the tracks are blocked.
44:18When we rolled into Chatswood, we still had all the safety, physical safety barriers.
44:24The ground team won't be able to remove the barrier until there's clearance for the train to proceed.
44:31The crew on the train face an agonising wait.
44:34Everybody kind of knew that this was the first night of dynamic testing and it just had to work.
44:40Just before 1am, the call comes through.
44:44Our assistance clinic, we're looking for authority to enter the tunnel of Chatswood.
44:47And the barriers are lifted from the tracks.
44:51Train said 28 and her passengers are ready to roll into history.
45:02As soon as we got the green light, the train inched forward, we're like, there's no turning back now.
45:07The tracks and power in the tunnels have only just been completed.
45:12Everything has been tested and triple checked.
45:16But for the team running the 240-ton train under the harbour for the first time, it's extremely nerve-wracking.
45:24Anything could have gone wrong.
45:26First of all, the number one thing that could have gone wrong is loss of communications with the OCC.
45:31Wi-Fi systems and transponders to track and communicate with the trains are installed within the tunnels.
45:38But if the team loses contact with the operations control centre at any stage, and for any reason, the whole mission will be called off.
45:48So that was something that we were very cautious of because if we lost communications, we'd have to abandon the night.
45:53The train is literally taking baby steps, creeping along at five kilometres an hour.
46:00The air conditioning was switched off because we wanted to hear everything.
46:04And it felt like everyone had stopped breathing.
46:08Sensors and cameras are feeding information back to the OCC and the dynamic testing crew on the train.
46:14My mind was thinking, I hope everything is going to work, right?
46:19The last thing we wanted to do was, you know, a traction matter failure or something, and we had to call the whole test off.
46:25The trip from Victoria Cross to Barangaroo Station is 2.5 kilometres.
46:32The last 850 metres is in tunnels built into the rocks and soft sediment in the seabed of Sydney Harbour.
46:40You can think about all the tunnelling that's happened, all the stations built to allow that first train under the harbour. Just remarkable.
46:51In the early hours of the morning, the train slowly makes its way up and out of the harbour tunnels.
46:58When we crawled up into Barangaroo and the pilot said, we're here at Barangaroo, I had no idea what time it was.
47:04It just felt like we had gotten there in a flash.
47:09And I remember coming out of Barangaroo Station and it was like 4am, 5am in the morning and thinking to myself,
47:17what have we just done here? Like, what have we just done?
47:22What they had just done was to open the way for trains to start down the long road of dynamic testing.
47:29To make sure that by opening day, every minute detail of the automated systems, the tracks, the power, the communications and the platform systems between Chatswood and Sydenham is working perfectly.
47:44A mega fire burns on Central Station's doorstep.
47:59From the moment the fire crews arrived, they knew collapse was a massive threat to the 110 year old building.
48:06The New South Wales Fire and Rescue Officer in charge sends out this warning over the radio.
48:13I see the wall, there is an audience for the fire ground, I want everyone outside me to collapse down.
48:21The southern wall is the first to go.
48:26Then, the wall directly over Randall Lane crashes to the ground.
48:30Debris rains down on Central Station's eastern entrance.
48:38Firefighters inside the passageway see the threat and escape as flames and smoke explode into the building.
48:49The immense impact triggers a huge piece of the Hat Factory facade to collapse, sending a plume of flames high into the sky.
48:58When it started to collapse, it's collapsing onto the station building.
49:06You know, we can see the brickwork falling onto the new station entrance that we built.
49:14It's pretty strange when you're looking out the window and it's almost like watching a movie or something on TV.
49:19It's unbelievable. This is a building we've worked on for years. It's a new part of the station. We're really proud about it. We're ready to open it.
49:29And yet, we're kind of watching it from a distance, right next to this fire, being damaged in front of our eyes.
49:35Very strange. Very strange. Very strange to see and know there's nothing really you can do to stop it.
49:42And just hoping that the damage isn't too significant and we're going to be able to fix this up.
49:47Railway fire service crews make their way back into the passageway and continue to fight to keep the flames out of Central.
49:54I think we're all lucky that Fire and Rescue were able to kind of contain the blaze.
50:01It takes another 12 hours to fully extinguish the blaze.
50:05Central and the surrounding buildings have been spared the worst.
50:10But still, there is substantial damage and the lingering shock.
50:15For the team involved, you know, to be right on the point of handover and completion, it was heartbreaking.
50:22You know, to see the works ready to go and then have that taken away.
50:27It was just unbelievable. It was so close. We'd finished and pushed hard as a group, so hard to get it done.
50:34Then that to happen a day or two out from actually opening it to the public was unbelievable.
50:39Next time, emergency evacuation systems are tested on trains deep under the city.
50:51Attention customers, once again I'm just conducting a welfare check before we transmit your services.
50:57The team have a well-earned break and take a ride on a 120-year-old steam train.
51:03Oh wow, this is amazing.
51:04Amazing.
51:05And excitement builds as opening day for the city line rapidly approaches.
51:10Can't wait to see just how many people are waiting for us, but it looks like it's going to be a popular train.
51:22Up now, a chilling clue brings a violent secret in this British crime drama, Verdi.
51:27And tomorrow, witness the strained bond of two brothers unfold through the archives of William and Harry, the unseen photos.
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