Meet TBM Alice and TBM Hacia - Continuing a tunnelling tradition that dates back to the 1500s, the Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs) for the Suburban Rail Loop (SRL) East project have been named after inspiring women. 

Students from local primary schools selected the names of the machines, and a naming ceremony was recently held. For Webuild, as part of Terra Verde Joint Venture, the honours for the team’s two TBMs at Burwood go to:

• TBM Alice, named after Alice Ivy, the Melbourne-based music producer and performer who has taken her sound to audiences around the world.

• TBM Hacia, named after Hacia Atherton, construction industry trailblazer and founder of Empowered Women in Trades, championing a more inclusive future for women in construction.

Each TBM is an impressive 103 metres long, with a 7.25-metre-diameter cutterhead that will begin excavating twin tunnels toward the Glen Waverley station box later this year.

Webuild, as part of Terra Verde Joint Venture, is delivering the excavation of two parallel tunnels for nearly 10 kilometres between the future stations of Box Hill and Glen Waverley, the creation of 39 cross passages between them; two station boxes, two TBM launch sites, and one intervention and ventilation shaft. Learn more about the project here.

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