West Gate Tunnel Project

Our temporary works team has completed over 2,500 designs across all aspects of the West Gate Tunnel Project.

The West Gate Tunnel will improve travel to and from Melbourne's west and create an alternative to the West Gate Bridge. We've been providing temporary works support since the project's inception.

Date:

March 29, 2024

Location:

Victoria

Services:

Temporary Works Design Civil and Mining Geotechnical Service

Markets:

Construction Engineering

Background

The West Gate Tunnel Project aims to provide an alternate river crossing to the existing West Gate Bridge via twin tunnels beneath Yarraville.

CPBJH JV engaged pitt&sherry as temporary works consultant from project commencement, completing over 2,500 designs across all aspects of the project including West Gate Freeway widening, Tunnel construction, new Bridge connections to Citylink, construction of Ventilation, Freeway Control and Maintenance buildings, and works at the Benalla precast yard.

What we did

At the beginning of the project, pitt&sherry provided project wide designs to allow site works to commence including:

Site Facilities
Hoardings, Fencing & Gates
Formwork and Falsework
Trench shields
Handrails, Corrals & Edge Protection
Parapet Propping
Edgeforms

We also completed Site Establishment design of the North Portal and Pivot sites, where the twin TBMs were launched. These sites required internal road design, substations, workshops, 180m long bins for TBM spoil and foundations for 500t, 250t and 40t gantry cranes.

pitt&sherry were also heavily involved with the TBM launch, setup of tunnel fit-out gantries and extraction at the completion of tunnelling.

For the West Gate Freeway widening works, pitt&sherry completed bridge jacking design for numerous new and existing bridges to facilitate installation and bearing replacement. We also assisted with pipe-jacking operations for new and diverted utilities under the existing freeway, and formwork, falsework and propping designs for new bridge elements.

At the new CityLink bridge connections, pitt&sherry completed piling and crane pad designs over soft/poor subgrades and excavation shoring/sheet pile design for foundation works. We also completed stability assessments for over 160 new piers during bridge erection and reviewed more than 100 of scaffold access arrangements.

Finally, pitt&sherry have been key to the permanent Buildings construction, designing jumpform systems, reviewing the iconic Eel Net erection and providing Reg126 Building Certification.