The Western Harbour Tunnel is a tunnel under construction in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

, Australia. The six lane, twin tunnels will run from

Cammeray Cammeray is a residential suburb on the Lower North Shore region of Northern Sydney and is part of the North Sydney Council local government area. History Aboriginal culture Cammeray takes its name from the Cammeraygal people, an Aboriginal ...

Rozelle Rozelle is a suburb in the inner west of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located 4 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Inner West Council. Location Rozelle s ...

, passing beneath

Sydney Harbour Port Jackson, commonly known as Sydney Harbour, is a ria, natural harbour on the east coast of Australia, around which Sydney was built. It consists of the waters of Sydney Harbour, Middle Harbour, North Harbour and the Lane Cove River, Lane ...

. It is scheduled for completion in 2028. The tunnel will form part of the M8 Motorway when it opens. It is expected to cost $14 billion.

Alignment

The Western Harbour Tunnel will start at the

Warringah Freeway Warringah Freeway is a divided freeway in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia that is part of the Sydney Orbital Network. The primary function of the freeway is to provide an alternative high-grade route from the Sydney Harbour Tunnel and B ...

passing beneath

North Sydney North Sydney is a suburb and commercial district on the Lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. And is the administrative centre for the local government area of North Sydney Council. History The Indigenous people on the s ...

before crossing under

between Balls Head and Birchgrove. It will then continue beneath Birchgrove and Balmain ending at the

Rozelle Interchange The Rozelle Interchange is an underground motorway interchange in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It was built as part of WestConnex and opened to traffic on 26 November 2023. The interchange includes a toll-free bypass of Victoria Road b ...

, with connections to City West Link and

WestConnex WestConnex in Sydney, Australia is the largest and longest road tunnel in Australia, with a length of 22 km. A joint project of the New South Wales and Australian Federal governments, the motorway scheme created around motorway with 6-10 lan ...

towards the M4 and M8 motorways.

History

Planning

The Western Harbour Tunnel was introduced as a single project with the

Beaches Link The Beaches Link was a proposed underground motorway scheme in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It was proposed to consist of a series of motorway tunnels running north-south between Burnt Bridge Creek Deviation at Balgowlah and the Warringa ...

, aimed at reducing the level of traffic congestion in the greater Sydney area. The

Sydney Harbour Bridge The Sydney Harbour Bridge is a steel through arch bridge in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, spanning Port Jackson, Sydney Harbour from the Sydney central business district, central business district (CBD) to the North Shore (Sydney), North ...

and

Sydney Harbour Tunnel The Sydney Harbour Tunnel is a twin-tube road tunnel in Sydney, Australia. The tunnel was completed and opened to traffic in August 1992 to provide a second vehicular crossing of Sydney Harbour to alleviate congestion on the Sydney Harbour Brid ...

corridor currently carry 80 percent of all vehicles crossing

and the

Parramatta River The Parramatta River is an intermediate tide-dominated, Ria, drowned valley estuary located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. With an average Altitude, height, and depth, depth of , the Parramatta River is the main tributary of Sydney Harbour ...

, greatly increasing traffic congestion. The

Government of New South Wales The Government of New South Wales, also known as the NSW Government, is the executive state government of New South Wales, Australia. The government comprises 11 portfolios, led by a ministerial department and supported by several agencies. Th ...

pledged $77 million in funding to evaluate the design and construction feasibility of the project. The design phase began in April 2017. Community engagement and the environment assessment for both components were undertaken during 2020 and 2021. Planning approval was received in January 2021.

Tenders

In December 2020, three potential development partners to assist with the procurement and delivery of the project were shortlisted: *

Bechtel Bechtel Corporation () is an American engineering, procurement, construction, and project management company founded in San Francisco, California in 1898, and headquartered in Reston, Virginia in the Washington metropolitan area. , the '' E ...

*Harbour West Partners, a consortium comprising Macquarie Capital,

Jacobs Jacobs may refer to: Businesses and organisations *Jacob's, a brand name for several lines of biscuits and crackers in Ireland and the UK * Jacobs (coffee), a German brand of coffee * Jacobs Solutions, an American international technical professi ...

and RPS *

Laing O'Rourke Laing O'Rourke is a multinational construction company headquartered in Dartford, England. It was founded in 1978 by Ray O'Rourke. It is the largest privately owned construction company in the United Kingdom. History The company was founded by ...

By September 2021, the search for a development partner had been scrapped. In September 2021 the design and construction contract for the Warringah Freeway upgrade was awarded to a

CPB Contractors CIMIC Group Limited (formerly Leighton Holdings) is an engineering-led construction, mining, services and public private partnerships leader working across the lifecycle of assets, infrastructure and resources projects. History Founded in 194 ...

and

Downer Group Downer Group is an integrated services company active in Australia and New Zealand. Listed on the Australian Securities Exchange and New Zealand Stock Exchange as Downer EDI (DOW), Downer is an ASX 200 company. Downer Group employs approximat ...

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...

. In January 2022, the tunnelling contract for stage one of the tunnel between Rozelle and Birchgrove was awarded to a John Holland / CPB Contractors joint venture. Three bidders were shortlisted for the stage two between Cammeray and Birchgrove: *

Acciona Acciona, S.A. () is a Spanish multinational conglomerate dedicated to the development and management of infrastructure (construction, water, industrial and services) and renewable energy. The company, via subsidiary Acciona Energía, produces 21 ...

Bouygues Bouygues S.A. () is a French engineering group headquartered in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, 8th arrondissement of Paris, France. Bouygues is listed on the Euronext, Euronext Paris exchange and is a blue chip (stock market), blue chip in the ...

/ Vinci joint venture *John Holland / CPB Contractors / UGL joint venture In December 2022, the contract was awarded to Acciona.

Construction

Early work activities commenced in March 2021, while major construction of the Warringah Freeway upgrade and the Western Harbour Tunnel began in late 2021 and 2022 respectively. Construction of stage two commenced in November 2023. Originally it was planned to sink

immersed tube An immersed tube (or immersed tunnel) is a kind of undersea tunnel composed of segments, Modular construction, constructed elsewhere and floated to the tunnel site to be sunk into place and then linked together. They are commonly used for road an ...

s into the harbour bed. In November 2022 it was decided to instead use

tunnel boring machine A tunnel boring machine (TBM), also known as a "mole" or a "worm", is a machine used to excavate tunnels. TBMs are an alternative to drilling and blasting methods and "hand mining", allowing more rapid excavation through hard rock, wet or dry so ...

s to bore out tunnels below the harbour floor. The construction of stub tunnels at the Western Harbour Tunnel portals in Cammeray reserve a future connection to

, should it be built by a future government.

Operations and maintenance

In April 2022, the state government signed a 15-year contract with

Ventia Ventia is an infrastructure services provider based in Australasia that provides a range of services to clients in both the public and private sectors. Ventia was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in North Sydney, Australia. Ventia has seconda ...

for the asset management, operations and maintenance of the

and the future Western Harbour Tunnel. Tolling arrangements of both tunnels were unrelated to the new agreement.

References

External links

Western Harbour Tunnel and Beaches Link Project Information

Transport for NSW Transport for NSW (TfNSW) is a Government of New South Wales, New South Wales Government transport services and roads List of New South Wales government agencies, agency established on 1 November 2011. The agency is a different entity to the NSW ...

Western Harbour Tunnel interactive portal
Transport for NSW {{coord missing, New South Wales Road tunnels in Australia Sydney Harbour Toll tunnels in Australia Tunnels in Sydney Undersea tunnels in Oceania