After 17 months, Dorothy worms her way into giant hole for Parramatta metro station
The breakthrough completes a section of twin rail tunnels between Sydney Olympic Park and Parramatta, which will eventually form the $25.3 billion Metro West line.
The arrival of the machine, known as Dorothy, had been delayed by more than six weeks by fears about the depth of foundations for a Telstra building near the western end of the Parramatta metro station site.
Premier Chris Minns confirmed that the delay caused by concerns about the building's foundations cost 'some money'. He did not elaborate on the amount but said it was within contingencies for the mega-project.
'The truth of the matter is, when you've got a city as old as Sydney, and you are conducting difficult, complex engineering works, you are going to meet these challenges from time to time,' he said.
Once Dorothy restarts tunnelling westwards from the Parramatta station site, the 180-metre-long boring machine will dig slightly deeper to avoid foundations of the building at 213 Church Street.
The other boring machine – Betty – arrived at the Parramatta station site early this month and, after a brief pause, has dug a further 175 metres westwards towards the last station on the line at Westmead, where a giant hole about 40 metres deep has been dug.
About 90 per cent of tunnelling for Metro West has been completed, and boring machines are due to reach either end of the planned 24-kilometre line by the end of the year.
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