THE FIRST Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) components for South Australia’s biggest infrastructure project arrived this week in Port Adelaide.
The $15.4 billion North-South Corridor, jointly funded by the federal and state governments, features a ‘non-stop’ South Road that will allow motorists to bypass 21 sets of traffic lights between the River Torrens and Darlington, according to a joint media release.
This shipment, discharged by Spliethoff’s MPP Dynamogracht, includes a TBM cutterhead delivered in five pieces, with the largest and heaviest centre section weighing around 175 tonnes and measuring 9 metres in diameter.
Once assembled, it is approximately 15 metres in diameter, roughly the height of the AFL goal posts at the Adelaide Oval.
The components will be transported on Saturday night [25 October] from Port Adelaide to the River Torrens to Darlington (T2D) Project Southern Precinct in Clovelly Park, requiring progressive road closures. They will then be reassembled and commissioned ahead of tunnelling works starting in the second half of 2026.
In total, three large-scale TBMs, each more than 100 metres long, will be used to construct the twin 4.5-kilometre Southern Tunnels and twin 2.2-kilometre Northern Tunnels.
Two TBMs will launch from the project’s Southern Precinct in Clovelly Park, while the third is set to launch from the Central North Precinct at Richmond, making the T2D Project an Australian first of three TBMs operating at the same time.
Flinders Ports expects further shipments to arrive in December, January and February.