Victoria Advances $11.8 Billion North East Link Megaproject as Giant 15.6-Metre TBMs Launch 6.5km Twin Tunnel Drive in Melbourne

Closing Melbourne's Missing Freeway Link with Australia's Longest Road Tunnels

MELBOURNE, Victoria — In the single largest road infrastructure and subterranean tunneling endeavor in Victoria’s history, the Victorian State Government and Major Road Projects Victoria (MRPV) have achieved a decisive engineering breakthrough across the monumental $11.8 billion North East Link megaproject. Civil construction has officially commenced heavy mechanical tunneling beneath Melbourne's northeastern suburbs, deploying two of the largest tunnel boring machines (TBMs) ever constructed in the Southern Hemisphere to excavate 6.5 kilometres of twin three-lane road tunnels between Watsonia and Bulleen.

Delivered by the Spark Consortium—comprising international infrastructure leaders Webuild, GS Engineering & Construction, CPB Contractors, China Construction Oceania, Ventia, Capella Capital, and John Laing—the North East Link closes the long-standing missing connection between the M80 Ring Road at Greensborough and the Eastern Freeway at Bulleen. Once completed, the bypass will slash travel times between Melbourne’s north and southeast by up to 35 minutes, eliminating more than 15,000 heavy commercial freight trucks daily from congested local arterial roads such as Rosanna Road, Greensborough Road, and Manningham Road.

15.6-Metre Diameter Super-TBMs 'Zelda' and 'Gillian' Advance Subterranean Excavations

Leading the subterranean excavation are two colossal, bespoke Herrenknecht earth pressure balance (EPB) tunnel boring machines named 'Zelda' (honoring pioneering Australian aviation trailblazer Zelda D’Aprano) and 'Gillian' (honoring renowned medical researcher Dr. Gillian Triggs). Measuring an astounding 15.6 metres in cutterhead diameter, 90 metres in length, and weighing over 4,000 tonnes each, these mega-machines are bored deep through complex Silurian mudstone bedrock at depths of up to 45 metres below ground.

Operating 24 hours a day, the TBMs systematically install precast reinforced concrete tunnel lining rings manufactured at a dedicated facility in Benalla, creating a durable, watertight tunnel structure designed for a 100-year operational design life. The excavated rock and spoil are whisked out via enclosed, sound-insulated conveyor belts straight to an automated muck disposal and recycling depot, drastically mitigating construction noise and dust across residential communities in Watsonia and Macleod.

Massive Green Overpass Bridges, Parkland Restorations, and 45km of Walking Trails

To safeguard ecological corridors and community cohesion, the project design completely preserves sensitive parklands along the Yarra River floodplains, Heide Museum of Modern Art, and Banyule Flats by placing the alignment deep underground. At the surface, the project constructs extensive green land bridges and landscaped urban decks over freeway portals in Watsonia and Bulleen, creating over 100,000 square metres of brand-new public open space, indigenous walking trails, and recreational sports grounds.

The wider North East Link program includes the delivery of more than 45 kilometres of newly engineered walking and cycling trails, creating continuous, grade-separated active transport links between the Koonung Creek Trail, Main Yarra Trail, and northern metropolitan trail networks. High-efficiency acoustic sound walls engineered with recycled plastics and absorptive concrete are being installed along the entire corridor to reduce neighborhood traffic noise to the strictest standards in Victoria.

Decarbonized Infrastructure Anchoring Victoria's Big Build and Freight Efficiency

State infrastructure ministers, freight transport operators, and economic planners emphasized that North East Link serves as an indispensable pillar of Victoria's Big Build, creating more than 10,000 direct and indirect jobs throughout construction while providing apprenticeships, cadetships, and Aboriginal workforce participation programs.

In alignment with Victoria's statutory net-zero emissions targets, the North East Link tunnels incorporate state-of-the-art energy-efficient transverse ventilation systems, dynamic LED lighting, regenerative power systems, and electric vehicle charging provisions across facility depots. By eliminating stop-start bottlenecks and continuous idling across Melbourne’s northeast, the project will permanently avoid millions of tonnes of vehicle emissions, creating a world-class, resilient transport spine that will drive Victorian productivity for decades to come.