Tunnelling is underway on Brisbane’s Cross River Rail as excavation begins on the first part of the project’s Roma Street site. The 115-tonne roadheader tunnelling machine, which can excavate up to 50 tonnes of rock and soil per hour has started carving the station cavern.

The major project will create around 7000 jobs for Queenslanders, delivering much-needed jobs to the pandemic affected economy. The State Government also revealed Cross River Rail is pumping a critical $2.8 million into Queensland’s economy every day.

Queensland Premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, said creating jobs and congestion-busting were main priorities for the project.

“Above ground demolition has also been underway for several months at the site of the new station – but today is a huge milestone for this project as we start tunnelling for the first time,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

“Cross River Rail will create more than 7,000 local jobs.

“This is just the beginning of the underground works, with 5.9km of twin tunnels and four underground stations to be excavated in total.

“That means more jobs and more economic stability at a vital time for Queensland.”

Roma Street roadheader Fast facts (provided by Cross River Rail)

Image courtesy Cross River Rail

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