The Spencer Street tunnel borer is getting ready to wrap up its 600m-long journey beneath the road, with the excavation of a nine metre shaft set to begin to allow for its retrieval and the connection of the new Spencer Street Sewer System to the existing line.
The new sewer is being built to support the rapid population growth of Melbourne’s CBD, which will see 32,000 new residents by 2050.
Project Delivery Manager City West Water, Kate Houlden, said, “Population growth in the CBD will see 14,000 new apartments for the Spencer Street sewer to service, and it’s vital our sewers have the capacity to cater for that growth.
“The retrieval of the tunnel borer and connection to the existing sewer line are critical steps in the project timeline, bringing us closer to project completion.”
Remaining works to bring the new sewer system online will be completed by early 2019.
City West Water began works on the sewer renewal in November 2017, including creating the launch shaft for the tunnel borer at the intersection of Lonsdale and Spencer streets.
In February 2018 the borer began tunnelling and has now moved almost 300m underneath Spencer Street.
At the retrieval shaft, the boring machine will have travelled just over 600m from the launch shaft at Lonsdale Street.
All pipe work has been installed at Lonsdale Street and pushed to its final location using a hydraulic jacking method at a depth of eight to 12m beneath Spencer Street.
