After 17 months, Dorothy worms her way into giant hole for Parramatta metro station
The breakthrough completes a section of twin rail tunnels between Sydney Olympic Park and Parramatta, which will eventually form the $25.3 billion Metro West line.
The arrival of the machine, known as Dorothy, had been delayed by more than six weeks by fears about the depth of foundations for a Telstra building near the western end of the Parramatta metro station site.
Premier Chris Minns confirmed that the delay caused by concerns about the building's foundations cost 'some money'. He did not elaborate on the amount but said it was within contingencies for the mega-project.
'The truth of the matter is, when you've got a city as old as Sydney, and you are conducting difficult, complex engineering works, you are going to meet these challenges from time to time,' he said.
Once Dorothy restarts tunnelling westwards from the Parramatta station site, the 180-metre-long boring machine will dig slightly deeper to avoid foundations of the building at 213 Church Street.
The other boring machine – Betty – arrived at the Parramatta station site early this month and, after a brief pause, has dug a further 175 metres westwards towards the last station on the line at Westmead, where a giant hole about 40 metres deep has been dug.
About 90 per cent of tunnelling for Metro West has been completed, and boring machines are due to reach either end of the planned 24-kilometre line by the end of the year.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
News.com.au
4 hours ago
- News.com.au
‘Short sighted': Unions concerned about flood resilience after latest NSW job cuts
Communities in NSW could be left without workers to support them after flood events, a union leader has warned, after another 300 state government jobs were slashed. WaterNSW, the state-owned dam manager and bulk-water supplier to Sydney Water, said it would slash the number of executives and senior managers by 30 per cent. Commencing with voluntary reductions, the cuts are the latest to hit the state workforce in recent weeks and come after renewed flooding in central NSW last week. Australian Service Union secretary Angus McFarland said the cuts 'beggar belief' with 'economists, scientists' warning the number of floods will double in 10 years. 'I'm worried this is very shortsighted,' Mr McFarland said. 'Are we going to have a situation in just a month or two where there's another flooding event, and suddenly there aren't the workers there to support the community? 'WaterNSW has a lot to answer (for), but also the government does, because at the end of the day WaterNSW is operated by the government. 'They own and operate on behalf of the people of NSW, so we are worried about impacts on the state's water security and the state's climate preparedness.' More than 20,000 homes are without power in the Hunter Valley as a result of the flooding, the latest to smash central and northern NSW in recent months. 'Terrible week' for NSW public servants NSW Premier Chris Minns campaigned prior to the 2024 state election on a 15 per cent cut to upper echelons of the public service. The cuts also come after almost 1000 senior service manager positions would be slashed at Transport for NSW, which manages the state's public transport and roads. Only days later, the NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development – the state's only dedicated regional department – said it would cut 165 jobs. Public Service Association General Secretary Stewart Little described it as a 'terrible week for the public sector'. 'It's disgraceful that you've had these cuts being implemented to regional locations, frontline jobs,' she said. 'These aren't background jobs that deal with pay and things … they're helping communities. 'Then, willy nilly, we've had 300 jobs cut and announced in this water restructure, but we've lost jobs in DPI, elsewhere, and the government haven't explained it. 'Quite frankly, the government have lost control of the fatcat bureaucrats. 'They're the ones overseeing all of this, and they're doing it to save their own speeds.' Asked during question time on Tuesday about cuts to the DPIRD, Monaro MP Steve Whan said 'no final decision had been made about the changes'. 'The department is focusing on its core business of protecting, supporting, and developing primary industries in regional economies,' he said. 'The department is proposing to implement changes that will enable it to work in a financially sustainable and responsible way, while maintaining service levels. 'All impacted staff will be appropriately supported and consultation is being undertaken.' Mr Whan acknowledged the changes would affect regionally based staff, but noted increases to staff levels in response to the Covid pandemic. 'That means that there is, over time, a need to bring them back to focus on the areas which are the core areas,' he said. Financial strife at WaterNSW Unions NSW Secretary called on the WaterNSW board to resign as a result of the planned cuts. 'They have been ineffective and been unable to manage the circumstances in which they employ people,' he said. In a statement, WaterNSW said it would be 'unable to continue delivering all its current functions in the same way' with significantly reduced funding. The reduction, they said, was a result of determinations by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal, which set the maximum price that WaterNSW can charge its customers for bulk, unfiltered water in Sydney. 'To put the size of the challenge in numbers, we now need to find a further $80m each year in cost savings,' WaterNSW said. 'We are performing a fundamental reset of WaterNSW, becoming a leaner, smaller and more focused business, with formal consultation on planned changes. 'Unfortunately, some staff will be impacted as part of this process. 'We are reducing the number of executives and senior managers by greater than 30 per cent, and we will reduce our total workforce by approximately 300 employees. 'Despite this, WaterNSW will continue to have hundreds of expert employees based across regional NSW and Greater Sydney, where we are committed to retaining a strong local presence.'
ABC News
13 hours ago
- ABC News
NSW government under pressure to fulfil toll administration fee promise
Standing before reporters in western Sydney on a drizzly morning in March 2023, then-New South Wales opposition leader Chris Minns delivered an election pledge to motorists grappling with ever-rising toll road costs. "We are going to declare war on the admin toll notices that families in New South Wales receive," he said. The future premier promised that if elected in that month's poll, his government would move to lower administration fees that toll road operators levy on drivers who fail to pay to use their roads. "Fifty million notices are deployed every single year by toll companies and the New South Wales government," he said. "It is, in effect, a toll on top of toll." John Graham, who became roads minster in the new Labor government less than a month later, was even more explicit at the press conference — promising to replicate a Queensland reform that saw multiple toll notices consolidated into a single letter with one administration fee. "We are going to act. We will consolidate these notices. We will save drivers tens of millions of dollars a year," he said. But more than two years later, the NSW government has not delivered on its promise. That is despite even toll road operator Transurban agreeing the administration fee system should be reformed. The issue of administration fees was highlighted last year by the Four Corners investigation Road Gold, which showed how the networks of private roads in Australia's largest cities were worsening the cost-of-living crisis for millions of motorists. The delay in delivering reform is adding to the financial burden on motorists like Luke Cook, who has racked up almost $5,000 in administration fees on top of $2,030 of unpaid tolls — the bulk of it since Mr Minns's election promise. "It's been extremely stressful," Mr Cook said. "When I first started getting the piles of letters and the text messages, I was losing a lot of sleep." Mr Cook accumulated most of his toll debt making regular trips from his home in the Hunter Valley to visit his mother at her Penrith nursing home over the past three years, travelling on the M7, M2 and NorthConnex. He also has unpaid tolls for trips on the Eastern Distributor, Lane Cove Tunnel and Cross City Motorway. Mr Cook says he is happy to pay the outstanding toll bill but cannot afford the administration fees. "The only way I could pay the full amount, with their admin fees as well, is to use the money that my wife and I have saved up to buy my mum an electric wheelchair," he said. Mr Cook acknowledges other motorists might have little sympathy for him, given he used the roads regularly for years without paying. But he says he is now happy to pay the outstanding toll bill, and the reason he could not afford to pay is because he has not worked full time for the past three years due to an injury. "The toll roads are extremely expensive," he said. He has called on the state government to follow through on its election pledge. "Fulfil a promise," he said. "It's really not that difficult to do." The NSW Transport Minister John Graham did not respond directly to questions about why the administration fee promise had been delayed, but in a statement said the change was "on the table as part of toll reform". "We promised to make all toll road operators issue consolidated toll notices and stop gouging motorists with excessive administration fees set at arbitrary levels, and that's exactly what we are doing," he said. Under the current system, motorists who use a toll road in NSW without a valid account, and fail to pay within 14 days, receive a toll bill in the mail that includes a $10 administration fee. If they still have not paid in another 14 days, they receive another toll bill with an additional $20 administration fee. The operator can then hand the unpaid toll and administration fee notice to Revenue NSW to be pursued as a fine, which can lead to motorists having their driver licence or registration suspended if they don't pay. No system is 100 per cent secure, but the Signal app can be used to protect your identity by using end-to-end encryption. Please read the terms and conditions of the app to work out if it is the best method of communication for you. Mr Cook has so far received and paid one fine for his outstanding tolls and is worried about his remaining debt also being converted into fines. He has asked Transurban to put him on a payment plan but is asking them to wipe the administration fee debt. "I'm telling them that I'll quite happily meet them halfway and pay the toll fees just on their own without the administration fees tacked on top," he said. He communicated his request to Transurban in June via the Tolling Customer Ombudsman — a Transurban-funded body that mediates disputes between the operator and its customers. Transurban has since contacted Mr Cook about a payment plan, and it is understood the company can wipe or reduce a driver's administration fees if they agree to sign up for a toll account. "We encourage all motorists to have an active account, which provides visibility of travel and expenses and avoids additional fees," a spokesperson for Transurban said in a statement. Transurban, which operates 11 of Sydney's 13 toll roads, told a NSW parliamentary inquiry in 2021 that it supported a move to consolidated toll notices. "Transurban proposes to consolidate toll notices, so a customer only receives one toll notice for three days of travel across the Sydney network," it said in a submission to the inquiry. "This change will be fairer for customers, reduce the confusion that comes with receiving multiple toll notices and bring NSW into line with the toll notice process in Victoria and Queensland." At the time, Transurban said it was sending about 29 million toll notices each year to motorists in NSW. The company has not responded to a request for an updated figure on the number of toll notices it sends out each year. Transurban insists it does not profit from the administration fees. Shortly after the 2023 election, the NSW government commissioned former ACCC chairman Allan Fels and economist David Cousins to conduct a review of the state's toll road network. Among the recommendations of their final report, delivered in July last year, was that the administration fees be replaced with late fees designed to incentivise drivers to pay their toll bills. Since last year, the NSW government has been locked in negotiations with Transurban about the review's other major recommendations, including the introduction of a central pricing system for Sydney's toll network. Professor Fels says that given that the NSW government and Transurban agree on the need to consolidate toll notices, they should deal with the issue outside of the broader negotiations. "They could solve the administration fee issue outside of the negotiations quite quickly," he said. "They can get on with the consumer reforms. They can be kept separate from the big financial negotiations." The NSW government has made some changes to the toll network since it took office, including a $60 weekly cap on tolls for motorists who register with a rebate scheme.
Perth Now
6 days ago
- Perth Now
More job cuts to state's public service
About 100 jobs at TAFE NSW are set to be slashed in the latest round of job cuts to rock the state's public service. Almost 1000 roles were put on the chopping block last week at Transport for NSW, and another 165 at the state's only dedicated regional department. The cuts to TAFE will not affect teaching roles, and instead reportedly include administrative staff at the digital, and product and quality divisions. A spokesperson for TAFE NSW said the teaching organisation was 'changing its model to better align' with the needs of students, industry and the community. That would include 'consolidating some roles across the organisation', the spokesperson said. The job cuts at TAFE NSW will not include teaching roles. NewsWire / Nikki Short Credit: News Corp Australia 'Last week, TAFE NSW employees were invited to participate in consultation on additional changes to the operating model, which includes the identification of approximately 100 (net) roles that may no longer be required. None of these roles will be teaching positions,' the spokesperson said. 'These proposed changes are in line with the recommendations from the 2024 NSW VET Review, and support delivery commitments in the 2025 TAFE NSW Charter. 'Until the consultation, review and placement process is complete, final positions and their locations will not be known. TAFE NSW will continue to keep all stakeholders informed as this process continues.' NSW Premier Chris Minns pledged to cut senior public servant roles by 15 per cent. NewsWire/ Gaye Gerard Credit: News Corp Australia The spokesperson said about 500 new positions had been added since 2023, 'bringing more teachers to TAFE NSW'. Internal documents seen by The Daily Telegraph reportedly state the cuts would predominantly be focused on middle management positions. Premier Chris Minns campaigned on slashing senior public servant roles by 15 per cent. The cuts to TfNSW and the Department of Primary Industry and Regional Development are understood to be part of these cuts. Addressing the media last week, Mr Minns said the cuts were not a 'nasty' surprise, and that they were not reducing the overall headcount.
