Working out the alignment and depth of the new metro was a complex balancing act as its tunnels passed within 1.2 metres of existing infrastructure.
As the new metro line opens under the heart of Sydney, we take a look at how it became a reality.Built directly above tunnels dug for Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs rail line, passages completed in the 1970s would become Central Station’s ghost platforms in the years that followed.
Sydney Metro chief executive Peter Regan says planners looked at using the ghost platforms at Central as a stop for the City and Southwest rail project but decided against it because it was too far east for the new line’s alignment under the CBD.Connecting the ghost platforms via tunnels to the north would also have meant the rail link would have run into building basements.
In the early days of the project, engineers weighed up digging a massive hole beneath Railway Square, on the western side of Central Station, as a site for the metro platforms. It was considered because there had been concerns about the greater cost and risk of excavating directly under Central and the major arteries of Sydney’s rail network.
Sydney Metro City and Southwest project director Hugh Lawson says designers tried to ensure as best they could that the alignment of the tunnels followed under CBD streets to avoid deep building basements.It also resulted in avoiding the need to build stations deeper below the surface, which would have led to longer walks for commuters to get to and from platforms from streets above.
While better for commuters, a shallower station can mean the gradient of the underground line is steeper for trains. The high elevation of North Sydney relative to the nearby harbour, which the line had to run under, presented major challenges for engineers designing Victoria Cross station and the railway’s route.
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