From kangaroo management to sport club relocation, the North East Link project team describe the strategic thinking required to manage all the moving parts on construction of the longest road tunnel being built in Victoria.
Story by Chloe Hava and Joseph Harding
Melbourne’s North East Link project, slated for completion in 2028, is one of Australia’s largest infrastructure projects. Spanning around 26 km, including 6.5 km twin tunnels constructed from Watsonia to Bulleen, the project also includes major upgrades to the Eastern Freeway and M80 Ring Road.
Costing over $26 billion and creating over 12,000 jobs, the sheer scale of the mega project – expected to reduce travel times, improve connectivity, and take thousands of trucks off local roads – is something to behold.
The project’s two giant tunnel boring machines (TBMs), measuring 15.6 m in diameter and 90 m in length, are tasked with drilling through silurian and sandstone to create tunnels up to 45 m deep.
An independent environmental auditor and monitoring stations along the tunnel alignment signals to the project team whether drilling is exceeding safe levels, and how the methodology should be changed to reduce the impact.
“We’re moving the TBMs around 10 m per day, so if properties [near the drilling] experience any sensation, it’s not for very long,” he said.
Creating a project of this scale within one of Australia’s largest cities was not without its challenges.
This includes the closure of 106 businesses in the Manningham Business District – comprising a diverse array of businesses from dry cleaners to fuel stations – with some relocated and others retired.
While over 2,000 site tests were conducted prior to demolition, some unexpected challenges were encountered – including localised fuel issues around an old Caltex station, said Poppy Coleman, Director of Land Planning and Environment on the project.
“There were a couple of fuel tanks we didn’t expect to be there, but we were able to take them out,” she said.
When the project winds up, the area will still be suitable for use as an industrial area.
“We have plans to rehabilitate it for future commercial use and affordable housing developments,” Waller added.
Along with established businesses, a significant number of legacy community facilities used by thousands of residents have been impacted, with many sporting and recreational venues moved to accommodate construction.
In some cases, there are around six or seven different sporting clubs that use any one oval, with different seasons of sports played on each field, Coleman said.
“We have a team of people who just look after recreation relocation,” she said. “There are a lot of planning approvals that have had to happen, including specialist considerations around the size of the holes in the ball net fencing, for example.”
While some residents weren’t keen on their local sport facilities moving, many love their new digs such as Powerful Owl Park, a sports precinct featuring three soccer fields, a pavilion with inclusive facilities for all ages and genders, and pedestrian and cycling connections to the Yarra River.
“Many of these facilities hadn’t seen any investment since the 1950s, so we’re effectively renewing the entire community,” Waller said.
As a part of North East Link’s Environmental Management Framework, a number of Environmental Performance Requirements (EPRs) must be adhered to – spanning arboriculture, to flora and fauna.
Sustainability initiatives are also central to the project. “Given the scale of North East Link, even small changes have a massive impact,” Coleman said.
Among these is a modification to the concrete mix to include more recycled materials, making a significant dent in the project’s carbon footprint.
reduction in portland cement used across the project
of waste to be diverted from landfill
There’s also 100 per cent recycled aggregate used where possible in pavement materials and shared user paths, and temporary concrete barriers made with recycled rubber tyres.
Electric construction machinery, including an electric excavator and piling rigs, along with thousands of litres of a fuel made from hydro-treated vegetable oil, are also being used on site.
“There are so many possibilities for trialling alternative fuels that are being used in other countries, because we can order enough that they’re not too cost prohibitive to use,” Coleman said.
The North East Link project has also committed to reducing waste as much as possible, with all recyclable materials being reused.
“Concrete gets crushed up and used as aggregate,” she said. “We’re also filling in some old quarries to create business park space with the tunnelling spoil to make it developable land, which is what we need in and around Melbourne.”
In addition to environmental measures, the project is focused on creating lasting social change.
“We are trying to elevate the construction industry, which has been slow to progress in some areas,” Waller said.
This includes boosting rates of female, refugee and Indigenous workers, as well as breaking the cycle of unemployment.
On North East Link, there is 2.5 per cent of the hours are to be worked by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. In an industry comprising only 12 per cent women, female workforce participation on North East Link exceeds one quarter (26.4 per cent).
There have also been 800 jobs created for people with barriers to employment on the North East Link tunnels and 100 refugee and asylum seeker workers employed since the start of the project, with 14 per cent total project labour hours worked by priority jobseekers.
“We are providing people with training and opportunities that will hopefully change their lives and lead to intergenerational change,” he said.
Throughout the project, a significant number of trees will be removed to pave the way for construction.
“There are different ways that we count trees, whether native vegetation, measured in hectares, or street trees, measured on a per tree basis,” Coleman said.
EPR measures dedicated to offsetting that impact include replacing two amenity trees for every one removed. “We expect to plant around 40,000 trees, depending on how many we retain,” Coleman said.
There’s also a requirement for net canopy gain, with plans to plant new canopy trees near the project area and further afield to restore the overall canopy lost to construction.
“We want to plant as close as possible to where trees were removed to give back to the community,” she added.
There are also management plans for fauna across the program.
“For example, we have a kangaroo management plan around keeping kangaroos out of our work site, and what we do if they end up inside it,” Coleman said.
This includes ensuring fences are an appropriate height so roos can’t hop over the fence, and considering the positioning of handrails so they can’t be used as a footing to get up and over.
The project is also set to move into existing wetlands, so there’s a fauna relocation plan in place to move land animals and aquatic fauna, including turtles and fish.
“We monitor local fauna communities, such as the flying foxes around the Yarra throughout the year,” Coleman added.
The North East Link ecology and arboriculture team, which has been working on the project for the past six years, has extensive knowledge of the site’s surrounding areas.
“So if we need to build new access to support construction, there’s a good understanding of the best place to do that to minimise impacts to the surrounding animal communities,” Coleman said.
Once construction winds up, the surrounding land rehabilitation will make it a “beautiful place to live”, Waller said.
“There will be a boulevard of trees down Greensborough Road, along with lots of parks and open space, with all the trucks going underground.”
