Suburban Rail Loop project to expand city’s sustainable mobility network

JV partners, led by Webuild, will design and build a section of line with two parallel tunnels, each nearly 10 kilometres long, and related works in city’s eastern suburbs

MILAN, July 11, 2024 – Webuild is in pole position for a new sustainable mobility project in Melbourne: the Group, as part of the Terra Verde joint-venture, has been announced as the preferred bidder for the Tunnels North contract of Suburban Rail Loop (SRL) East, a project that will not only transform public transport in the growing city, but help shape the way it grows, delivering more homes and jobs in the areas around the stations. The package includes the design and construction of two parallel tunnels, each nearly 10 kilometres long, and two station boxes in the city’s eastern suburbs. The contract is expected to be awarded later this year. Webuild is the leader of the joint-venture, whose other partners include GS Engineering & Construction of South Korea’s GS Group and Bouygues Construction Australia of France’s Bouygues. 

Commissioned by the Suburban Rail Loop Authority, the contract entails the excavation of the tunnels 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 four tunnel-boring machines (TBMs).

SRL will connect major employment, health, education and retail destinations in Melbourne’s east and southeast. The biggest infrastructure project in Victoria’s history, SRL will help shape the city and the state for future generations, ensuring Melbourne remains one of the world’s most liveable cities.

Becoming the preferred bidder for this package is the latest success obtained by Webuild in Australia, the second biggest market after Italy by backlog orders. It also builds on the legacy established in the city by Webuild, which was responsible for a major part of the tunnels and stations built for the Melbourne Underground Rail Loop (MURL), a major infrastructure project that opened in 1985 to serve the needs of commuters into the city centre.

With its local subsidiary Clough, Webuild is working on projects across Australia, and expanding into new sectors. In Melbourne, Webuild is working on excavating tunnels for the North East Link, a major section of a freeway network. 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 New South Wales. In the same state of New South Wales, Webuild and Clough are building Snowy 2.0, the largest renewable energy project under construction in the country. In the Northern Territory, they are set to start work on a shiplift facility in Darwin, the largest of its kind in the region. 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.