First of Cross River Rail’s twin tunnels complete

The first of Cross River Rail’s tunnel boring machines has seen daylight for the first time in ten months. Having one of two tunnels complete is a massive milestone for the project.

The machine tunnelled 3.8 kilometres from Woolloongabba, under the Brisbane River to Albert Street and then onto Roma Street to emerge at Cross River Rail’s Northern Portal at Normanby. This huge job meant the excavation of 155,000 cubic metres of tunnel, the equivalent of 62 Olympic swimming pools.

The tunnel will service new stations being built in more convenient locations, including Brisbane’s first new CBD station in more than a century.

The investment in major infrastructure projects like this helps to create jobs, ease congestion and plan for the future of Queensland.

By unlocking the congested inner city rail network, Cross River Rail will transform how we travel throughout South East Queensland. It will take thousands of cars off the road, making it quicker and easier to commute in our river city.

Pumping more than $4 million a day into the economy, this critical project is also helping drive Queensland’s economic recovery from COVID-19 and was key to securing the 2032 Olympics.

Games goers will use these very tunnels to get to and from event precincts right across the South East.

Cross River Rail’s second mega machine will also breakthrough in coming weeks, marking an end to the project’s ‘year of tunnelling’.