Sydneys Super Tunnel Season 2 Episode 2 Down And Dirty
#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.
00:07To 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.
00:20But can it all be built underneath 5 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 5, 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.
00:41...are stepping up to this challenge...
00:43...with some pleasure...
00:45Oh wow, this is amazing.
00:48...and pain...
00:49Oh wow.
00:50...along the way.
00:51That's my station here, that's what we've built.
00:54Deep underneath the crowded streets of Sydney, engineers have embarked on a city-shaping mission to build a revolutionary new metro system for the 21st century and beyond.
01:19It's a really gruelling stage of the project right now.
01:22It's all happening below ground, behind the hoardings. People can't see it.
01:26Thousands of people on the ground, just that constant fight to keep the TBMs moving, it's about just getting the job done.
01:32South of the CBD, two tunnel boring machines, or TBMs, are driving north towards the city.
01:39On Sydney's lower north shore, two are digging south, downhill to the harbour's edge.
01:47And near the harbour bridge, deep under the surface of Sydney Harbour, the highly pressurised TBM Kathleen is making her second perilous journey to Blues Point.
01:59TBM Kathleen has recently completed the risky journey across Sydney Harbour by barge, and arrived safely at Barangaroo.
02:10Her massive front shield and cutter head were driven onto dry land, and she's been reassembled underground.
02:18underground, and successfully relaunched right next to her first completed tunnel.
02:29Making his way to work on this machine, tunnel shift boss Adam Griffith is happy with progress so far.
02:37Overall, we're pretty much on time, and apart from a few niggly issues along the way, we're looking pretty good.
02:45The niggly issues were actually more serious than it sounds.
02:50A few months earlier, on their first journey under the harbour, things didn't always go to plan.
02:56And TBM Kathleen and members of her crew, including Vincent, Andreas, Michele, Red Dog and Griffo, had some serious challenges to overcome.
03:09We then made the decision to immediately stop the tunnel boring machine,
03:13and to prepare for an intervention.
03:15They had to enter the pressurised cutter head, when TBM Kathleen was deep under the harbour,
03:21to replace a metal wedge.
03:26A 400 kilogram cutter wheel was threatening to come loose, and severely damaged the TBM.
03:32And the last thing you want to do is put a hole in the Sydney Harbour.
03:35But just when they thought their problems were over, a stream of bubbles started to appear on
03:40the surface of Sydney Harbour, right above their TBM.
03:44Bubbles are not good, it means that something is going wrong.
03:47We had a little bit of air escape into the harbour at one stage.
03:50The team were alerted to the issue by members of the public, who were starting to get concerned,
03:56thinking it might even be a whale.
03:58Probably quite dramatic for people looking from the outside, more of a panic,
04:02but on the inside everything was fine.
04:04With these troubles now behind them, this specialised slurry TBM is about halfway through the second drive,
04:16and things seem to be going well.
04:18Actually we're bang on schedule.
04:21Yeah, we're literally one day early.
04:24The crew have made a few changes, and it's allowing the TBM to work faster and more efficiently.
04:31We've made a few modifications to the cutterhead, which has improved a lot to get rid of the clay.
04:37That was our biggest problem in the first drive.
04:40Lessons learned on the first trip under the harbour means this TBM is flying through the
04:45treacherous ground under the seafloor.
04:48The geology on the first one, you know, was a bit tricky.
04:51It's the same geology, it's just cut a lot of steel out, made the openings a lot bigger,
04:56which allowed the flow of material a lot better to come through.
04:59Working on her first TBM, site engineer Jamie Cherk takes the walk to TBM Kathleen every day.
05:08Before the launch, she was nervous about what to expect and has had a steep learning curve,
05:13but now she's settled into the day-to-day routine of working on the TBM.
05:18So at the moment, we're excavating, and that means the cutterhead is hurting.
05:23Once the excavation is done, we get into the ring building process, and then once the whole
05:30ring's in store, I just check that the ring's been built in a good position and that there's no major gaps.
05:36For Jamie, she can see herself being a tunneller into the future.
05:41I really enjoyed the crew life, actually. I think just being together as a crew,
05:47we spend so much time together every day, day in, day out, every week, and I think it makes all the
05:53difference when you work with the right group of people.
05:55With every concrete ring installed, TBM Kathleen is inching towards the finish line and into history under Sydney Harbour.
06:10On Sydney's lower north shore, a brand new metro station is being constructed.
06:16It's called Victoria Cross, and when completed, it will contain the largest underground cavern
06:22ever built in Australia. But this daunting task doesn't faze station engineer David Ast.
06:30We're at the bottom of the hill here, so this one will only be 25 metres deep. Up at the northern shaft,
06:37it's at the top of the hill, so we need to be 45 metres deep to ensure that the cavern is dead flat.
06:43The major challenge here is the steep topography in the area. So it's been decided there will be two
06:50entrances to this station. The northern end will be dug 45 metres deep, and the southern end about 25 metres,
06:58to ensure the train platforms are level. Surrounded on all sides by golden Sydney sandstone,
07:06everything in this station has mega proportions, and David and his team need a head for heights.
07:12And this is what 45 metres of cut sandstone looks like.
07:19This station is a beast. There is nothing bigger on the metro.
07:26Further down below, the mega size of the cavern is astounding.
07:30But with two TBMs on their way from Crow's Nest, they have just 18 days to prepare for their arrival.
07:40We've got a little bit to do before the TBM comes through. So the TBM will come through on the left-hand
07:46side. We've got just under three weeks to actually pour the invert up to the point where the waterproofing
07:54is now. So yeah, we are under time pressure to get that done. The TBMs are on schedule to break through,
08:02traverse the huge cavern, then start the 1500 metre downhill run to their final destination.
08:09No, we're not going to slow them down. They're just going to stay here, do some maintenance,
08:14and then head off to Blues Point. And when the TBMs do arrive, David and the team are ready.
08:21The walls fall, and TBM Wendy, and later TBM Mabel, make their grand entrances.
08:36They can now take a little time to regroup before the final push to Blues Point.
08:41Sydney's Central Station is the largest and busiest railway interchange in the country,
08:56as it's expanded over the years.
09:01The foundation stone of the original building was laid in 1903,
09:06and it slowly took shape over the next few years.
09:15In 1906, the station was opened to the public, complete with the grand concourse,
09:21with a towering roof canopy over the main terminal.
09:25This concourse is still in use today, and so is its centrepiece,
09:30the clock that has been marking time for commuters for 120 years.
09:36But with the construction of the new metro and central walk,
09:39the new underground pedestrian walkway,
09:42this historic station's layout is in desperate need of an upgrade.
09:47Enter John Prentiss and Neil Hill.
09:51Lead architects charged with designing a beautiful, yet functional, new space called
09:56the Northern Concourse.
09:59Initially the 1906 building, which was a single-storey, beautiful kind of station in the park,
10:04got built up with a clock tower. Then the suburban lines came in,
10:08and all of that congealed into quite a complex organism. But then this project became the
10:13unlocking all of that complexity to open it back up again.
10:15The task was set, but the puzzle of unlocking the complexity of Central's maze-like configuration
10:23had no easy solution.
10:25We have to create an identity for the station, that they know they arrive at Central Station.
10:29We've got to free that up. We've got to get the view lines up,
10:32so that you can see the whole facade.
10:34Well, if you were to release the facade, then you can see it, and celebrate it.
10:37But we've got to do then, the route sails passed, opening up, releasing the heritage building.
10:44I think it's very important that these facades are released as well,
10:48and that what we introduce to this works with those facades.
10:51Despite the complexity, when it came to winning the pitch,
10:55the purity of their design only needed some lines drawn on a page.
11:00The success of this project came down to one drawing, and it's this drawing here.
11:04We wouldn't have had this project if that drawing wasn't produced,
11:07presented to the client base. We wouldn't be standing here today.
11:11With all of the complexities of this station and the site, I think we both realised,
11:17and the team realised, to open up that space was going to be important.
11:20The plan was to combine the walkways and passageways into one vast, light-filled transit space,
11:28and a single-span canopy with diamond-shaped skylights.
11:33But was this idea too ambitious?
11:36Only ambitious designs can really engage people.
11:39The public are the ones that are going to be the beneficiaries of this ambition.
11:42Great design is one thing.
11:44But how were they going to build it without interrupting the never-ending stream of people using the station?
11:51So working with some of the best engineers and builders in the world,
11:55a solution for the modularity built off-site was critical for this to be successful.
12:00The new Northern Concourse canopy will have a modular design and be fully assembled in a test run
12:07before being installed at Central.
12:11There's this one drawing. We've made a promise, and now we have to deliver.
12:15When the city line is complete, the new driverless trains will terminate in the south,
12:29at an existing railway station called Sydney.
12:32It's a main junction for the south-western rail lines of Sydney,
12:36and two of its heritage platforms will need to be upgraded for the new metro.
12:42But before trains can run, some critical work requiring major surgery to the Sydney trains network
12:48needs to take place.
12:49At Sydney, we've got six rail lines that converge into four coming into the city.
12:54So we've got the Illawarra mains, Illawarra locals and the Bankstown line that come through.
12:58They all converge at Sydney Station.
13:00So we actually have a natural bottleneck in the system.
13:02That bottleneck's been there for a very long time.
13:05As the new metro will be a standalone railway,
13:08with no direct interface with the Sydney train's railway lines,
13:12Nathan and his team must clear this bottleneck and separate the tracks,
13:17so the metro will run parallel to the existing rail lines.
13:22We've got a massive possession at the Sydney Junction to separate the future metro network.
13:27Huge amount of work in a very tight area.
13:29Everything's got to go like clockwork.
13:31We've got a very short, well-defined window to achieve this.
13:34They don't have much time.
13:37But as this is a very busy section of the Sydney trains network,
13:41they can't have the whole site to themselves.
13:44We also have a live set of tracks on the other side.
13:46We've got a separation set out.
13:47We've got a single track in between with an isolation to separate our workers from the live rail.
13:52The track team get cracking.
13:56They've got to get the job done and replace the tracks in time for the weekday peak, just 48 hours away.
14:04The site has a maze of lines, power and switchgear, all squeezed into a narrow corridor.
14:12Ballast is dug out as new sections of rail and points are brought onto the site.
14:16The crew are sharing the site with machines called regulators and tampers.
14:22They're reshaping and levelling the ballast and straightening and refinishing the existing tracks.
14:27We've got dozens and dozens of machines, each doing their own specific task.
14:31Line, signal and track crews all work on the site, while the high rail loaders position the rails and sleepers.
14:39Not only do we have big plant, big front end loaders, big excavators, everything they're moving around is large.
14:45We've got large lengths of rail. The rail comes in 110 metre lengths.
14:49We've got the sleepers, they're all large heavy concrete sleepers.
14:52We've got poles to move, we've got overhead wiring structures, large steel elements.
14:56Everything is large and everything is big on this build.
14:58The hundreds of sleepers are connected to the rails with hundreds more clips,
15:03locked in with a tool called a pan puller.
15:06The 400 tonne trains doing up to 80 kilometres an hour put huge stress on the tracks,
15:12and the clips keep the rails firmly in place.
15:17Once the rails and sleepers are in, they can start dropping in the ballast.
15:23One of the underrated components of a track system is ballast.
15:26Ballast is what stabilises the track and what holds the track in place.
15:30Railway track is flexible, but able to withstand the forces placed on it,
15:36by the trains. Joining the sections of track requires a special welding technique.
15:41We've got large lengths of rail, they do need to be welded together.
15:45There is a fine art in welding rail.
15:48To join the tracks, they use a powerful chemical reaction called thermite.
15:53Thermite is a mixture of powdered aluminium and iron oxide.
15:57The mixture burns at 2200 degrees Celsius,
16:01liquefying the steel inside the mould and fusing the ends of the lines together.
16:06It's one of the last activities we do, but it also controls the temperature
16:09and movement and stability of the rail as well.
16:11It actually holds the rail and the rail formation together.
16:13It's been a massive effort and the trains are back up and running in all directions.
16:19We now not only have our new metro separated out,
16:22we have now rebuilt and reinstated the entire Sydney train's junction,
16:26and that's now running with bacillus.
16:39TBM's Nancy and mum, Cheryl, are powering their way deep into downtown Sydney.
16:44Leaving Waterloo, they dig deep below the excavation work at Central,
16:52and past this new station location, and push onto Pitt Street.
16:57The tunnels they have left behind at Central,
17:00will be broken into later, to complete the underground station box.
17:05For TBM Nancy, the first daylight she will see in 12 weeks,
17:09will be right in the centre of Sydney, at Pitt Street.
17:12And her destination is coming up fast.
17:17At the business end of the TBM,
17:20Timo and the control room crew have the machine at its slowest pace in months.
17:25Just about to fire the conveyor belts up, mate.
17:27Start having a bit of a scratch away and work our way into Pitt Street,
17:30hopefully within a couple of hours.
17:33This is the first big breakthrough in downtown Sydney.
17:36The entire team is on edge.
17:38These are our cylinders that push out the cutter head.
17:42This is our thrust force that we'll be pushing against the rock.
17:44It's all wound right back.
17:46So we can just come in nice and slow and still grind up the rock as we're going in.
17:50They've been pushing against hard rock for months,
17:53but the closer they get to a breakthrough, the more delicate the operation.
17:57On the Pitt Street side, a crowd of VIPs and Metro workers have gathered to see one of the most important breakthroughs on the whole project.
18:07Preserving the integrity of the exit point is critical to keep the cavern wall stable and avoid any delays.
18:13We've put mitigation measures in place such as coring holes around the future perimeter of where it comes through.
18:26We've done saw cuts on the face to help control the breakthrough in some previous breakthroughs.
18:31There has been other excessive overbrake, which comes down as well.
18:37Yeah, copy, copy for Timo.
18:39The call comes in.
18:41Hi, mate. Sorry, I'm nice and slow, please.
18:45Copy that, mate. Starting up the machine now.
18:48Then Timo wakes up the 1300 ton beast.
18:53Let's give her a go.
18:54But this is more than just a spectacle.
18:58Getting this wrong could mean weeks of extra work for station crews to repair the damaged walls.
19:04We've got just over a metre to go to break through.
19:08Yeah, it's pretty slow going.
19:10Keeping it slow keeps it safe.
19:13Because we don't have that pressure of the hard rock, we can't put the pressure on there,
19:18just so we don't drop that whole last bit of stone down and just grind away at it.
19:21Cracks are starting to form on the rock face.
19:26We're nearly there, 700 mil, and it's just started to get a bit of cracking on the other side there.
19:30It's one of the rare occasions when cracks are good.
19:35As Timo and the crew inch into history, a hush falls.
19:41Cameras roll as TBM Nancy creeps forward.
19:46Here she comes.
19:48From here on, they're in a grey zone between tunnel and station excavation.
19:54Then TBM Nancy gets a whiff of fresh air.
19:59Gotta be rumbling over there now, yep.
20:01And the barrier between Waterloo and the CBD is smashed forever.
20:08Yeah, fellas, that's a breakthrough into Pitt Street.
20:10Congratulations, lads, and well done.
20:16Yeah!
20:21Oh, it feels amazing.
20:23So incredibly proud of the team.
20:25Two years of hard work to get to today.
20:27I feel so fortunate to be able to spend this time with everyone involved to celebrate.
20:31Beautiful, Nancy. She'll be able nicely for us today.
20:45A strange structure has appeared 180 kilometres north of Sydney on the outskirts of Newcastle.
20:53But blink and you'll miss it, as it won't be there for long.
20:59The 2,200 square metre northern concourse canopy, destined for central station,
21:06has been painstakingly put together in a trial run.
21:09It's up to Hugh Griffiths, as the project leader for the northern concourse, to get this behemoth built.
21:17Twice.
21:18The roof has been extremely challenging.
21:21Trying to get access into the grand concourse with Sydney trains has pushed us down a road
21:25where we've basically built a kit of parts that we can then reassemble.
21:31This is no flat pack coffee table.
21:33The canopy has thousands of separate parts, in all shapes, weighing many tonnes.
21:39So there's eight major steel beams, which we call the hockey sticks.
21:43They come in two pieces and weigh approximately 30 tonnes per hockey stick.
21:48The cassettes, there's 58 of those, and they're approximately five tonnes each.
21:54All of the finishes are on them, all the services are contained within the cassettes,
21:58and that allows us to do multiple lifts.
22:02Design leader John Prentiss is also on site to follow its progress.
22:07Ultimately, it was about the respect for the heritage buildings.
22:10I mean, there's such bold architecture in the old,
22:13and we had to kind of match that with something new and make it really identifiably new,
22:17but still respectful in its form and shape.
22:19And what has he been most impressed with about the design?
22:22The complexity and the simplicity, you know.
22:26I think the two things coming together,
22:28this just highlights a well-coordinated design from all aspects.
22:31This trial run has been a success, but major challenges still remain.
22:37How can we get this up, and how can we get it built
22:40while we've got 270,000 people a day walking through Central Station?
22:44It's taken over six months to assemble the canopy.
22:48But the modular design means it comes apart very quickly, ready for the trucks.
22:55This afternoon, once everyone's had a look, we start taking it to pieces.
22:58All right, man, winch it up.
23:04You can imagine that the size of this roof as it is now,
23:07once it's broken down into pieces on trucks and the logistics,
23:10and driving everything through the city.
23:12It's coming down, man. You're looking good.
23:14The trucks roll in, and the pieces are lifted in a precise order, ready for reassembly.
23:22She's all tied down. Next stop, Central.
23:27As night falls, the semi-trailers are ready to go.
23:32These are the first of many trips for these trucks.
23:36Tonight, the roads were cleared,
23:39and the convoy arrives safely in the city.
23:44Rolling over the truck bridge to their final destination,
23:47hundreds of individual pieces of a giant puzzle.
23:51They'll only know if they've done everything right when the time comes to put it all back together.
24:03At Victoria Cross,
24:06both TBM Wendy
24:09and TBM Mabel
24:10have arrived.
24:16They now need to get to the far end of the cavern to start digging again.
24:21They do this by a manoeuvre known as a traverse.
24:25Tunnel manager Kat Skevity has led the two northern TBMs in a race against time and distance.
24:33Some of the biggest challenges in a traverse is all the activities that are happening at the same time.
24:37So you can see here, we're laying modules, we're grounding, we've got TBM there, we've got a TBM there.
24:43The brutal lifestyle the TBMs lead takes a huge toll.
24:48And at every breakthrough,
24:50a major pit stop means more than just a grease and oil change.
24:56Teams of technicians service every inch of the battered metal monsters.
25:01At 265 metres long,
25:03Victoria Cross is also the longest cavern on the metro.
25:08And it highlights a bizarre challenge that faces the TBM once they exit the tunnel.
25:16TBMs move through the ground by pushing off the rings they're installing in the tunnel behind them.
25:23But what to do when there's no tunnel and no rings?
25:27A system of steel tracks called modules are laid along the floor of the cavern.
25:33So the TBM pushes off its own module.
25:35So we've got module one's down the bottom and then module two's off the top.
25:39As the TBM emerges into the cavern, the modules must be lined up perfectly to guide the 130 metre machine from one end to the other.
25:49And the TBM uses a dolly to push forward.
25:53The dollies are massive sections of steel bolted to the tracks.
25:58They replace the concrete tunnel rings, giving the TBM something to push against.
26:02So this bit here is the dolly and that pushes against the module to push the TBM forward.
26:09As it digs, eight hydraulic rams push the cutter head hard into the rock.
26:14And at the same time, the rams compress the concrete segments behind it tightly together.
26:21In the cabins, they're tricked into sliding the machine along the modules.
26:25Those rams down in the back of the TBM there extend and then that all pushes against here and the TBM slides on these bottom rails.
26:35They creep through the station box, hauling what the crew call trailers or trailing gear.
26:41The articulated sections that make up the bulk of the TBM.
26:46They move about two metres at a time and we aim for about 60 metres a day.
26:51To keep that rate up and traverse the massive station box, the crews on the rattle guns and modules are going hard.
26:59Because there's still one and a half kilometres to TBM Mabel and TBM Wendy's final destination.
27:07Two metres at a time, both TBM Mabel and TBM Wendy travelled the 265 metres through Victoria Cross and begin their final push into Blues Point.
27:21The closest station to the Sydney Harbour Bridge is Barangaroo.
27:28Right on the harbour's edge, it's had more than its fair share of challenges so far.
27:34Excavation was delayed for months after the discovery of the oldest Australian-made colonial boat.
27:41This wreck is the wreck of the earliest known Australian-built ship that we have in Australia.
27:46A major road was moved to enable the excavation of the massive station box.
27:52And a gigantic cabin was carved out so TBM Kathleen could launch under the harbour twice.
28:00All this has meant that more than three million tonnes of excavated spoil has converged at Barangaroo.
28:07And trucking it all out is not an option.
28:10At Barangaroo, that kind of challenge of 22,000 trucks potentially going on the road, that's just not an outcome we want.
28:16But fortunately, the site's unique location has provided a centuries-old solution.
28:23It's so obvious when you think about it. We're right on the harbour, we can use barges.
28:27That's how people have done it for hundreds of years.
28:30Hugh and the team have decided to barge the spoil up the Parramatta River to a site called Clyde.
28:36Barges are great for taking bulk materials out. The site is adjacent to the harbour.
28:42We can pretty much load it straight onto them, take them up river and process the fill from there.
28:48But while it solves logistics issues within the city limits, this is no leisurely cruise.
28:54The Parramatta River is a busy commercial waterway.
28:58Getting the material away from the Brangaroo site on barges was great,
29:01but we've got to get it up the river to Clyde. And that river is really challenging.
29:06Twists and turns, narrow, you need really skilled pilots and operators.
29:10The Parramatta River runs virtually due west.
29:13The barge journey takes them under yet more road and rail bridges.
29:18And after 20 kilometres, it eases into the moorings at Clyde,
29:22where the covers are slid back and the unloading can begin.
29:25All this material is being recycled.
29:29It's all going on to other construction jobs around Sydney.
29:32Nothing's going to waste.
29:33One of the most significant construction jobs where this spoil is being recycled
29:39is the new international airport being built at Badgerys Creek, over 40 kilometres away.
29:48After years of indecision and debate, this major new 24-7 airport has been given the green light.
29:55And the mountains of spoil from the metro sites is being used for the foundations of the 3,700-metre runway.
30:04And how are the estimated 10 million passengers a year landing at the airport going to get around?
30:13You guessed it, a brand new metro.
30:17It's late at night, and the streets of downtown Sydney are quiet.
30:31Except at Central Station, where the construction crews are about to reassemble the northern concourse canopy.
30:38500 square metres of steel and aluminium, and weighing in at 330 tonnes,
30:46the new canopy will stretch across eight platforms.
30:49It's Greg Cook's job as operations manager to get this mega-structure rebuilt on a convoluted site.
30:56About 500 square metres, a new roof that's back in again, and it's all about 330 tonnes worth of steel.
31:02So a fair bit of steel coming all the way down from the Hunter Valley.
31:05A fleet of trucks have been doing the 180-kilometre run from Newcastle in the dead of night.
31:12Now, with the giant hockey sticks bolted together and sitting in their special cradles,
31:17the tower cranes and rigging crews are ready to take on a massive lift deep into the heart of Central.
31:25The first half of the roof is already installed, located above the excavation site.
31:29It didn't need a station shutdown, but the western side of the canopy is a whole different animal.
31:36Tonight, what we're going to be doing is the western end,
31:39sort of closest to the station master's office over there.
31:42So the guys are going to have to be onto it to make sure that we get there by the end of the possession.
31:45Possession means that Sydney trains have handed over the site to the construction crews.
31:51The gates are locked, trains are stopped and the power is off.
31:58It's site superintendent David Hudson's signature on the paperwork.
32:01Yeah, so the permits for the, when we lift over, we go across the top of the train line.
32:07So we're going to power out permits so that we can lift straight across the top.
32:10The trains will run again first thing Monday morning,
32:14meaning the main structure will need to be in and bolted down in just 48 hours.
32:18The biggest challenge is with the first lift of the hockey sticks.
32:24The complexity of the hockey sticks are its unusual shape.
32:27You can see there that a lot of the steel mass is sort of down in the base.
32:31So guys are going to have to rig it up so that it has this even balance.
32:36Because if they rig it too much one way, then they go to try and put it in, it just won't fit.
32:41So that's going to cost some precious time.
32:43So they're going to have to make sure when they lift it up, it's all level, ready to go and drops into place.
32:48The prefabricated structure has already had a test assembly up at Newcastle.
32:54But now the riggers and crane operators are under huge pressure to get the balance exactly right.
33:00There's only one or two millimeters of clearance between the bolt holes on the pylons and the 33-tonne beams.
33:07Every piece of kit from chains to shackles will play a role in making this job a success or failure.
33:13Chris is the dogman.
33:17He will be the conduit between the operator of the crane and what is happening on the ground.
33:22That's your position as a dogman.
33:24You've got to be on your game, especially with power and trains and things like that around.
33:29So everyone's just got to be on the ball and communication's the key.
33:33It's been built once, fully disassembled, then transported 180 kilometers down a freeway.
33:44Will the mega Meccano set that is the northern concourse canopy cooperate?
33:52Deep under the surface of Sydney's central business district,
33:55two tunnel boring machines are racing to the next stop on their journey.
34:01Martin Place.
34:03Despite ongoing challenges on this site,
34:06Will Freelander and his team have managed to get the cabins ready in time for TBM Nancy's arrival.
34:12Getting the site ready for the TBM to get here is always a little bit of a question.
34:18Are we going to make it?
34:19Brian Marshall has seen a few cabins in his time, but this one is special.
34:24You know, this is one of the biggest cabins I've ever built as far as a metro station's concerned.
34:28You know, I've done jobs in London and Singapore.
34:32This is a really big cabin. It's an impressive site.
34:36With the breakthrough imminent, a big crowd has come to see the event,
34:40complete with a video and light show.
34:43We're lucky to have got to this stage in this job where our full concrete lining
34:49and everything is complete and we're able to, you know, really show it off.
34:54On her journey to Martin Place, TBM Nancy has dodged underground road tunnels
35:00and foundations of iconic buildings.
35:03And after years of planning, problem solving and hard work,
35:08it's come down to this moment.
35:10I'm pretty confident that everything's going to go well,
35:12so we should have the big show in a couple of minutes.
35:14With TBM breakthroughs, even the best laid plans can come undone very quickly.
35:20Hopefully it comes out in a nice, even face.
35:25The time for talking is over. Time for action.
35:31It's good to hear the rock and the cracking and popping with the force of the machine.
35:36We had some pretty big blocks come out, which just makes for a bit more drama,
35:52makes it a bit more exciting, but everything went to plan.
35:54And I think we put on a pretty good show for the people today.
35:56But with this breakthrough at Martin Place, it's now a race to the finish line for all the TBMs.
36:03Over the next few weeks, Blue's Point will be the finish line for three of these gigantic TBMs.
36:19And on her way down to the harbour foreshore from Victoria Cross, TBM Wendy takes line honours.
36:29Smashing her way in at the bottom of the shaft.
36:33We are the first TBM to finish her job on the project, so it's a great day after the Chatswood team.
36:43Just two weeks later, TBM Nancy beats the minefield of subterranean obstacles in downtown Sydney.
36:53And just three days later, TBM Mabel pokes her cutterhead out at Blue's Point.
37:03Then TBM mum show, a 1,300 ton machine that has been navigating underground by this tiny beam of red light from the laser theodolite, makes her run straight into Barangaroo.
37:19Where the perfectly shaped wall falls with precision.
37:28Of the five tunnel boring machines, TBM Kathleen has faced the biggest technical challenges as she tunnelled under the bottom of Sydney Harbour.
37:34Now she's on the brink of a historic moment for the Metro build.
37:37And everyone is nervous, but also excited for what comes next.
37:38This is the final breakthrough for all tunnelling on this great project, amazing achievement.
37:42You know, I've been on this project for two and a half years now, and to get to where we are on this day, it's, yeah, it's goosebumps.
38:01This is the end of the line for TBM Kathleen, where she will be dismantled and lifted from the shaft.
38:11Today the breakthrough is at the base of what we call the Blue's Point Receival Shaft, and we'll be ready to punch through not long from now.
38:18The shaft is so narrow, all non-essential gear is lifted out.
38:24So, obviously, we don't have much space down there, so we're just, by precaution, taking that out.
38:30And a four-person team, including Vincent and Michele, will be lowered in.
38:35The tension is mounting. Not long now.
38:39We build the last ring, and so we have another meter to go.
38:43This will be the first and only breakthrough for the crew rostered to operate TBM Kathleen.
38:49Oh, if you go full speed, it's like, it's like punching through a wall, it just flows out.
38:53It looks spectacular, but we want it to be nice and controlled.
38:57It's time to go.
39:01Thank you very much.
39:06The crew in the basket descend slowly into the abyss.
39:18The four blokes down in the man basket, they're our spotters, and they're keeping an eye on the face itself.
39:23and making sure that the breakthrough is uniform and nothing out of the ordinary is happening.
39:28They're also keeping contact with the guys in the TBM and making sure that everything's right on the other side.
39:34From inside the cabin, the TBM crew can see a live video feed of the rock face on their phones
39:41as they advance ever closer to a place in the history books.
39:45We're about 200 off. You should be able to see the cutters soon.
39:49So breakthrough is imminent. A few bits of rock are breaking off the face now, and we're seconds away from breakthrough.
39:55Then, the last wall on the city section of the Sydney Metro crashes into the Blues Point shaft.
40:05After all challenges and setbacks, they've finally made it.
40:10You know, the feeling is one of relief to know that, you know, two and a half years of hard work,
40:16we've finally got here and, you know, got here safely with a really good...
40:20Oh, there we go.
40:21Hey! Well done.
40:23It's done.
40:34To finally get here after all this time and all this effort, it's amazing achievement for everybody.
40:44Kelly?
40:44And wherever we are around the world, we will come back to take the train.
41:05Light rain is falling at Central Station.
41:09And it's the only light thing on site.
41:11They're asking if we can get this first one in.
41:14As the mega steel structures for the northern concourse canopy are ready for reassembly,
41:20resting in special cradles, the 40 metre hockey stick girders will be lifted over the rails
41:27and into position on the western side of the central site.
41:31Operations manager Greg Cook is confident everything will go to plan.
41:36So lots of planning and effort and energy that go into it.
41:39Lots of trial runs and lots of experience from the crew.
41:42We've been there and done it before.
41:43Yeah, mate, keep coming on your righty.
41:46A specialist crew will use the 200 tonne tower crane to align the 25 millimetre bolt holes in 30
41:53metre chunks of steel, weighing 33 tonnes each.
41:57Righto, mate.
41:58Materials and equipment are being lifted in.
42:01The roof is 16 metres above the ground.
42:03So Dogman Chris hooks up an elevated work platform to crane it onto the site.
42:09Ah, mate, we're just hooking up an EWP here.
42:14The EWP is dwarfed by the roof beams as it flies into position.
42:19Shane, just give us a kick on your left, mate.
42:21The riggers attach any struts and braces to the beams before they're lifted.
42:26Everything has been carefully planned and rehearsed to deal with a crushing deadline and convoluted site.
42:32Getting the jib right up, mate.
42:34Um, we're just going to walk this pop out so we can stand it and then...
42:37Then, the lifting chains are attached to the first hockey stick.
42:41You want me to, um, see if they can change that for you, bud?
42:43With the extensions attached to the beams, the crew will need to work out a new centre of gravity.
42:50Not easy when they're 16 metres above the ground.
42:55The crane gently takes up the slack.
42:58For this lift, it's all about balance.
43:01The beam must fly perfectly straight.
43:06But even using the pre-aligned lifting points, the beam isn't sitting perfectly level.
43:13I think that popped when you remember there was a gap.
43:17Chris and the riggers shorten the chains at one end to try to get the beam level.
43:23Have to give it a shorten again, mate.
43:25And they try again.
43:28This time, the hockey stick plays ball.
43:32As we know, plans never survive the first shot of battle, but guys have adjusted,
43:36they've readjusted the rigging, made sure that it was all balanced.
43:40And you can see at the moment, I think it's looking like it's probably going to fit.
43:43What are you doing, mate? Good pace, bud.
43:45The giant beam swings out over the site, past some of Sydney's most treasured historic buildings,
43:52where all the prep work will now come into play as the beam lines up with the pylons and footings.
43:59The guys are going to have to drop them down onto the supports.
44:01And when they get them in place, hopefully all the holes line up.
44:04But if they don't line up, there'll be a few minor adjustments to try and get the few first bolts in.
44:09The centre of gravity in the beam is right at the very top.
44:13If it doesn't land squarely on the footings, the holes won't line up,
44:17the beam will be unstable, and the crew will need to start over.
44:21You see the guys up there at the moment just doing the last adjustments with the steel,
44:25trying to get the holes lined up. And what they'll be doing is trying to put the podger in,
44:29get one of the holes lined up, get a couple of bolts in there,
44:32and it'll be able to be secured at that end.
44:3516 metres above the ground, with 33 tonnes of steel hanging in the breeze,
44:40the crew battle to get the first critical bolts into the beam.
44:48An error here, and they'll be back to square one.
44:52But the two giant pieces are united at last, and the bolts are tightened down.
44:56The very first steel beam is in place, and everyone can breathe a sigh of relief.
45:07Over the next few weeks, the remaining hockey sticks are installed,
45:12and the prefabricated cassettes are hooked up one by one and craned into place.
45:19The northern concourse canopy is rapidly taking shape, but there's still a long way to go.
45:35At Central Station, operations manager Greg Cook and his excavation team have spent months digging
45:42the massive station box for the new metro. And very soon, they'll see the light at the end of the tunnel.
45:49This is the moment we've been waiting for. We're three-quarters of the way down into a 27-metre dig,
45:55and we're about to start to punch through the tunnels.
45:58Two TBMs have already passed through under Central, and now the team need to break into the tunnels
46:05they've left behind to complete the underground station box. Greg knows
46:11you only get one crack at cracking the shell on a TBM tunnel.
46:15The engineering geotack structural checks that we had to do on the tunnels to make sure
46:21that when we're breaking through, that the stability of the whole tunnel's never, ever compromised.
46:26At the moment, this small 15-centimetre-thick section of concrete stands in the way of connecting
46:33Central to the metro tunnels under it, and it's got to go.
46:36And it's come down to this moment right now, where we're going to put the jackhammer on it,
46:43ready to pierce straight through, and if all goes according to plan, we'll be able to break it apart,
46:48piece by piece.
46:49As the tunnels come apart, Greg heads topside to check on the finishing touches to the northern concourse canopy.
47:06We've only got a few little bits and pieces to do, and be all zipped up and ready, open to the public.
47:12It's hard to put into words the amount of effort and energy that the team has put into this project,
47:20all the way from the start to the finish. We've had everybody that's been part of this,
47:25has really put their heart and soul into it. But at the end of the day, the product that we've
47:29produced is just fantastic. And to sit back, look at it, and to know that you've been a part of it,
47:34with a great group of people, has been a fantastic experience.
47:37But just as the team were ready to move on to the next stage of construction,
47:42an unforeseen event, on an international scale, changes everything.
47:56We were in full swing, building at every site.
48:07Deputy Chief Executive of Sydney Metro, Rebecca McPhee.
48:11And then COVID.
48:13And Project Director, Hugh Lawson.
48:15So let's just stop.
48:17Were on the ground, when the ground fell out from under the entire world.
48:22We had to really rapidly work with our contractors to find safe ways of keeping those sites moving,
48:29and our workers turning up each day, so that we could get the bill done,
48:33but so that they could also continue to be paid.
48:35Lockdowns have come at a moment when the project was at a crossroad.
48:40The tunnels and stations are transitioning out of excavation and into construction.
48:46When we'd finished with the station excavations, for example, and we're in the process of handing over,
48:51there's a bit of time there where you're doing all the paperwork,
48:54we're making sure all those arrangements are in place.
48:55And visiting the sites then, it was kind of eerie.
48:59Even though the Metro construction has resumed, with COVID safe practices in place,
49:05many of the immense station voids and Metro tunnels are still strangely free of any of the usual activity,
49:13as the contractors wrap up and move on.
49:15I remember going to Crow's Nest.
49:18You're 25 meters below ground in this huge space around you looking up.
49:22It's just this shaft of light coming in, just cutting across this whole cavern.
49:25You think, this, this is huge.
49:30In the lead up to this moment, the work had been progressing well.
49:34The Sydney Metro city line is now a system of more than 30 kilometers of tunnels and eight stations,
49:43where once there was four million tons of rock.
49:46In another few weeks, the station contractor is going to be in.
49:50They're going to be installing platforms.
49:51They're going to be building structure.
49:53You're never going to see it like this again.
49:54These immense rock and concrete voids are visible for just a short time,
50:00as the Metro construction retools to fight COVID and restart construction.
50:06It's just a moment in time between these two parts of the project.
50:10And the next thing you know it, there's a station in there.
50:12You never see the size of the excavation again.
50:14And when passengers catch the Metro, they only see about a third of the space we built below ground.
50:21So yeah, really unique experience, but surreal.
50:23Really quite eerie to be in that space and feel so small.
50:30Next time, it's an historic moment when a new Metro train travels under the harbor for the first time.
50:38What have we just done?
50:41A 180-year-old mystery is finally put to rest.
50:45And here is an account of the discovery of a grave, which I know immediately is the grave of my great-great-great-grandfather.
50:53And a major disaster threatens to destroy years of painstaking work.
50:59Get a call. Come out of the meeting here.
51:01Be told there's a fire at Central Station.
51:05If you're craving something real, we've got you covered.
51:08Discover hidden truths and come face to face with extraordinary experiences.
51:13All that and more await you in our collection of documentaries on SBS On Demand.
51:19.
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