Webuild as part of Terra Verde Joint Venture, recently welcomed two tunnel boring machines to its Suburban Rail Loop (SRL) East site in Burwood and their assembly has official begun.  

Tunnelling will start later this year with the two TBMs launching from Burwood towards the Glen Waverley station box. Two additional TBMs will follow and launch from the Burwood site toward the Box Hill station box. 

Measuring in at approximately 103 metres in length with a cutterhead 7.25 metres in diameter, these mighty and innovative machines will excavate more than 10 kilometres of rock to carve out the tunnels between the future stations. 

Students from eight local primary schools across Melbourne’s east and southeast have named the eight TBMs for Suburban Rail Loop (SRL) East after inspiring Victorian women.  

The names selected for the two TBMs at our Burwood site are: 

• TBM Hacia: named after construction industry trailblazer Hacia Atherton, founder of Empowered Women in Trades that seeks to create a more inclusive future for women in construction. Webuild joined the Empowered Women in Trades (EWIT) Alliance as a Founding Member in 2024, reinforcing our commitment to fostering diversity and inclusion across the construction industry. 
• TBM Alice: named after Melbourne music producer and musician Alice Ivy, who has been nominated for numerous ARIA awards and has played more than 400 shows across the world. 

Terra Verde Joint Venture is delivering the Suburban Rail Loop (SRL) East package, commissioned by Suburban Rail Loop Authority. The contract includes 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 boring machine launch sites; and one intervention and ventilation shaft.