Melbourne Metro Rail Project Submission By Charles McHugh B.Eng - PDF document

Melbourne Metro Rail Project Submission By Charles McHugh B.Eng (Hons), B.Sc Kensington Resident 25 years of Mining and Tunnelling Experience

Main Recommendations For Western Precinct • Choose Option B for Western Precinct • Start two Tunnel Boring Machines (TBM) from the Western Portal and head east. • Transfer all waste material from (TBM) at the South Kensington Station to rail and send waste material out by rail.

Reasons for Recommendations • Western Precinct Option B • Has less existing homes acquired • Puts the entry of the portal further away from existing houses reducing train noise. • Removes the “Kink” of Option A in the rail line in the approach to the portal. Nobody likes kinks on rail in the morning, especially when drinking coffee. • Start TBM at Western Portal finish at CBD North/South • Increases the TBM tunnelling speed by reducing the amount of proposed setups and reclamations. TBMs are designed to go fast in straight lines. Reclaiming the TBMs to re-start them will cause massive delays and more construction traffic on the roads. The Holcim Footscray batching plant provides easy access to cement to minimise contruction space.

Reasons for Recommendations cont.. • Transfer TBM and other Spoil Waste to Rail at South Kensington • By starting the TBMs in the West and transferring spoil to rail it will reduce the amount of spoil trucks on the road which in conjunction with construction of the Western Distributor Project in Footscray ($5B) will cause great disturbance to the CBD and Western suburbs during construction. • It could be possible to transport much of the waste material from the Stations’ excavations through this system so that the public see minimal construction trucks in Melbourne. This will alleviate a lot of the anxiety I have seen in the submissions with regards to the impact of spoil trucks creating noise, mud, dust, vibration, congestion, loss of parking with construction personnel because it will simply be conveyed out of the tunnel, transferred to rail and sent out of Melbourne.