Good afternoon everyone,

I’ve spoken to, or emailed many of you yesterday about the works going on some 20m underground in front of the Botanica.

I thought I’d provide an update on progress, and the plan for works going forward.

Progress last night was not as good as expected as one of the excavators broke down in front of the excavation work face. As you can imagine this significantly slowed process and has caused a re-think from the program that I outlined to many of you yesterday.

Works will continue this afternoon once the excavator is repaired, but will stop at 10pm.

There will be some sections of the blinding that will need to come down during these works, as you’d be well aware these blinding sections have been causing the vibration as they hit the ground.

I’ve included a photo below to show the remaining works. You can see in the photo the smooth ceiling sections and the rougher sections around it. The rougher sections is where the blinding has yet to come down. For orientation, the corner you can see in the far right of the picture is in front of the Botanica at the Bowen Crescent end. The curtain at the end of the tunnel is the end of the station box.

The team will start works this afternoon focusing on the western tunnel closest to the Botanica, then into the evening they will move to the section furthest from the building to help reduce the vibration.

On Saturday morning we will resume during normal working hours, starting at 7am and work through until 1pm.

The program from here will become clearer once we see how much has been completed on Saturday.

For those who are interested, the critical interface in these works is the electrical connections into the tunnel. these connections power everything in the tunnel between Anzac Station and the Eastern Portal, including the lighting and cross passage works. The excavation can’t move forward until this power is disconnected and removed and once the excavation is complete, power needs to be reconnected as quickly as possible. With last night’s delay these disconnection works will happen early next week.

My apologies again for the disruption during these works, as always, If you’ve got any concerns, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

I’ll provide a further update on Monday.

Thanks, Rob