Concrete culverts made in regional Victoria are being installed inside the state’s North East Link tunnels to create a maintenance passage
Victoria’s largest road project, the North East Link, is currently working to create a service tunnel underneath the road surface, providing clear access for maintenance vehicles and staff when the tunnels open to traffic in 2028.
Concrete culverts that are 3-metre-high-by 3-metre-wide and each weighing 20-tonnes are currently being installed throughout the 6.5km twin tunnels from Watsonia to Bulleen to facilitate this.
Each culvert is installed once the tunnel boring machines have passed through, excavating the tunnels and lining them with more than 43,000 concrete segments made in Benalla.
- Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter to receive the latest news in the earthmoving industry
- Never miss a great deal and subscribe to our monthly magazine
- Download a free copy of our latest digital magazine to catch up on the biggest news and developments in the earthmoving industry
The culverts are then lifted into place and surrounded with additional concrete to create the service tunnel and a flat surface for road base to be laid on at a later stage.
Local concreting company Humes is making the 4,500 box culverts at its Echuca facility and delivering 14 culverts per day to the North East Link, supporting 60 jobs in the regional border town.
The facility uses a type of concrete that adds alternative material to the cement, including industrial by-products, which Victoria’s Big Build says can help reduce the environmental impact of building and infrastructure construction projects.
North East Link’s two tunnel boring machines (TBMs) – TBM Zelda and TBM Gillian – are currently making their way from Watsonia to Bulleen, with Zelda already reaching the first kilometre of its journey.