Webuild, leader of the Terra Verde joint-venture, has signed an AU$1.7 billion (€1 billion) contract to design and build the Tunnels North contract of Suburban Rail Loop (SRL) East, a project that will transform public transport in Melbourne amid strong population growth in the coming years. 

SRL, of which the East section is a part, will improve travel efficiency for more than 80% of Melburnians and take more than 600,000 cars off the roads every day.

Webuild is leading the joint-venture with a 33.5% stake. Its partners include GS E&C of South Korea and Bouygues Construction Australia of France’s Bouygues. 

The signing of the contract comes after the joint-venture was named preferred bidder in July.

Commissioned by Suburban Rail Loop Authority, the contract entails 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 tunnel access shafts; and one intervention and ventilation shaft. The tunnels will be excavated using tunnel-boring machines (TBMs).

Suburban Rail Loop is a 90-kilometre orbital rail line that will help transform the way Melbourne grows, delivering more public transport and more homes. The first stage, SRL East, is now under construction, with tunnelling to start in 2026 and trains taking passengers in 2035.

The contract builds on the legacy established in the city by Webuild, whose predecessor was responsible for a major part of the tunnels and stations built for the Melbourne Underground Rail Loop (MURL), a major infrastructure project opened in 1985. In Melbourne, the Group is also excavating tunnels for the North East Link, a major section of a freeway network. 

With the SRL East contract, it will once again be bringing its tunnelling leadership to the project. 

Globally, it has 63 TBMs, including those being assembled, having been ordered or set to be ordered for upcoming projects. Of the total, 16 are working on sites from Australia to the United States along with hundreds of specialists from dozens of nationalities.

Webuild ranks among the top five foreign builders in Australia, according to U.S. industry magazine Engineering News-Record (ENR). With its local subsidiary Clough, Webuild is working on projects across the country in sectors such as renewable energy, part of a series of initiatives for the energy transition. It is also expanding into new sectors.

In Sydney, it is participating in the development of the Sydney Metro line that will lead to the Western Sydney International Airport, the largest public-private partnership in the state of New South Wales. Webuild and its local subsidiary, Clough, are building Snowy 2.0, the largest renewable energy project under construction in the country. In Western Australia, they are working on one of the world’s largest urea plants for the manufacture of fertiliser, as well as an upgrade to a sludge treatment process at the state’s largest wastewater treatment facility.

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