The announcement was made at an event to mark installation of the final piece of the 52.5km of track for the Sydney Metro Northwest rail project in the state of New South Wales. Services are due to start in the first half of next year.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian and minister for transport and infrastructure Andrew Constance inspected progress at Bella Vista on Stage 1 of Australia鈥檚 biggest public transport project. The last section of track was installed at Bella Vista where the skytrain 鈥渢akes to the sky鈥� above the North West.
Berejiklian said: 鈥淭he major contracts for Sydney Metro Northwest were awarded in 2013 and 2014 and the project budget was set at $8.3 billion. Project costs are constantly refined during the construction process and, through good management, we鈥檝e been able to realise significant savings 鈥� which will be used to deliver the $20 billion-plus Sydney Metro expansion.鈥�
Constance added: 鈥淪ydney鈥檚 new metro trains will be running up and down these tracks every four minutes in the peak, changing life forever for the people of the booming North West. From here, fast metro rail will be extended into the Sydney CBD [central business district] and beyond to Bankstown in 2024 鈥� all up, 31 metro stations.鈥�
Over the past 22 months, 105km of steel rail was installed in the twin 15km tunnels between Bella Vista and Epping, on the 4km skytrain between Bella Vista and Rouse Hill, and at Sydney Metro HQ at Rouse Hill. There were also 60,498 sleepers installed, 35,000t of ballast and 237,000t of concrete used in the track laying process alone. On average, a track length of 300m was laid underground each week.
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