Tunneling Beneath Sydney - Mega Metro - S01 EP1 - Engineering Documentary

foreign has ever embarked on the scale of what we're  doing here in Australia Engineers are taking   on an extreme Challenge there's constant problem  solving every day there's new problems there's   new issues trying to clear suffocating  traffic congestion by building an immense   state-of-the-art Metro through the heart of  Sydney we have to get there there's no other way stinks hi they're going to take  every bit of luck you can get don't   you this is not Far and Away the biggest  public transport project in Australia's history if I'm honest I probably didn't quite  know what I was getting myself into that problem Sydney one of the most recognizable cities  in the world it's got the Opera House   the Harbor Bridge Bondi Beach and traffic endless  traffic but that's about to change now a crack   team from around the world is tackling the  problem head on battling to build a world-class   Metro without bringing the city to a standstill  they've come from the UK Mega projects gets thrown   around like confetti what makes us different  is just layers and layers and layers of Mega   fit together like a really nice McConnor project  from the US I'm here to dig tunnels I'm here to   do stations excavations you name it I love  it France it's a design for Sydney Metro is   unique it's a very Creative Design only for Sydney  Germany when we are tunneling under Sydney Harbor   there are no Second Chances and from Italy is the  future is the future of Mobility for this city   40 000 people will build this Metro most  of them Australian it's definitely the   biggest role and responsibility I've had  I'm loving it I've personally developed   and grown working on this project  and I think the whole team has   it is interesting not very often you get to  dig a big hole right in the middle of Sydney the whole James Pierce needs to dig  is in the toughest location imaginable   right in the middle of Central Station the busiest rail Hub in the entire country 99.5 of   Sydney trains travel through  this station every single day so it's a huge undertaking  we've got four pedestrian   tunnels through the middle of the station box and three of them we need  to keep open at all times   24 hours a day seven days a week 365 days a year station doesn't shut down at all James has to  remove more than half a million tons of Earth   6 000 tons a week without disturbing Central's  almost 2 million weekly passengers it's a highly   complex task but James is up for the challenge so  here we are right in the middle these platforms   all need to go to let us dig 30 meters down  into the ground and Connect into the new tunnels   which will be the Metro trackway so all these  platforms time to go pigeons out we're coming in   Lucian is simple Bridge there's no access the whole way around  Central Station 230 000 cubic meters of material   to come out every single truck movement for the  project will be in and out over that bridge one   way in one way out the largest beam is 55 meters  long James is only allowed to disrupt train   services for 12 hours so they're bringing in a  pre-fabricated bridge 400 tons of it and that's   fully sealed so then you can drop the concrete  in it will be a Race Against Time to Crane in the   gigantic steel spans right next door lines will  remain active with 1500 deadly vaults that must   be avoided abutment B is extremely close to the  live rail James backs himself and his team to get   the job done before the Monday Peak arrives it's  going to be a totally different scene on Monday   morning there's going to be a whole heap of Steel  across here and the trains will travel under the   bridge for the first time digging up the middle of  Central Station is just one of the many enormous   challenges that confronts the team from here one  line needs to run North through a Minefield of   subterranean obstacles deep under the city under  the harbor and 50 kilometers out to the northwest   running south from Central Station another line  will swing 20 kilometers out to the Southwest   next another line will leave the city and  travel 25 kilometers Due West to Parramatta   yet another metro line will then connect a new  international airport with the rest of the city   and further still more lines will create a  virtual Metro loop around Sydney more than 50 new   or renovated stations need to be built linked by  the longest railway tunnels ever dug in Australia   this project is exceptionally ambitious and it all  needs to be constructed in just a few short years   at every turn new complex dilemmas await [Music]   such dilemma Looms looms at a new station  site right in the city called Pitt Street   Bobby saying is in charge of Excavating  this station he has to carve out two giant   holes between the skyscrapers no easy feat  considering the cramped in a city location   Bobby's mission is to demolish then dig there's  a total of 12 buildings we're demolishing there's   a 14-story building here there's a pub in  the corner a number of one to three story   buildings around the rest of the site there's  also another four buildings of Pitt Street South   the access on the street surrounding  site are very limited the Harper is   actually getting that first bit of  access so you can drive trucks in   load them and then they go out that's  correct yeah 12 buildings bite the dust   but one must stay it's 41 stories high and Towers  over one of the massive holes Bobby needs to dig 76 000 tons of Earth must be extracted right  next to the building's foundations if anything   goes wrong it could be a disaster we're about  to dig down a really big hole right next to   a 41-story building there's a risk that because  that building relies on this ground for support   as we excavate it will cause movement it's no  ordinary dig as Bobby's team descends in the   skyscraper's shadow they must Shore It Up  From Below with reinforced concrete walls   up to half a meter thick they'll work slowly but  surely inch by inch to build a concrete Rampart   we can't take away the entire shaft material and  then install the wall we have to progressively   do it as we come down otherwise there is a  risk of movement of the 41 story building   to make matters worse Bobby's work  sites are surrounded by bustling   things and businesses they all need to keep  functioning while he demolishes other buildings   and then digs his super-sized holes right next  door this is fire station number one in Sydney   CBD our site is located on the back face of this  building the busiest fire brigade in the southern   hemisphere we need to ensure that we don't block  their driveways that we're clean and clear around   their site they operate 24 hours a day and  therefore they have sleeping quarters there   as well so we need to make sure that during the  sleeping times we're not creating a lot of noise   on the other side there's a pub it's  also Heritage listed so a good reason   not to demolish it but it is a beautiful  building and I'm told it has a great beard   there are places people want to enjoy a quiet  drink and places where people need to sleep   this is a hotel and so you have guests and  you need to keep them happy and also so in   our interests to keep our neighbors happy  because we have to work with them for years   on end Gloria Fernandez shares responsibility  with Bobby for trying to get this station done   keeping the neighbors happy is one of their  top priorities noise has been one of the   bigger complaints as well as dust and so really  when we put this acoustic shed up that actually   had decreased the amount of complaints in that  space you know it's not we're just doing the   work and carrying on it's about working with  the community and our surrounding Neighbors   up here this job is hard but Gloria has the right  Spirit to overcome all setbacks as a project   engineer you look after everything and that's  what I love about you know being in construction   I love project management being across safety  engineering design quality delivery what have   you and that's that's why I'm here and this in  this amazing project and in this amazing industry with a sight feared it's time to start  digging it's been going great we're about   um four four meters deep at the moment and  it's a total of 20 meters deep once we're done   his main concern Remains the 41-story building  towering right over the hole as we excavate   the Sharks and we expose what is left there  adjacent to the building it's something that   we have to look assess get a designers involved  to ensure that what is there it matches what   their assumptions were and so far so good  so can Bobby be sure the skyscraper next   door won't begin to lean in over his hole  I'm very confident and I'm very hopeful but   I'm very confident that everything will be under  control and we won't end up with a tower of Pisa the vision for Sydney's new Metro is  breathtakingly bold and far-reaching   this is the man responsible for it engineer and  transport Chief Ron Staples he is both proud and   often over awed by what he has set in motion no  one has ever embarked on the scale of what we're   doing here this is by far Far and Away the biggest  public transport project in Australia's history   if a monaster probably didn't quite know what  I was getting myself into at the start when it   goes wrong where do I go to blame someone I  can unlock myself in a room and have a good   hard chat to myself Rod is actually not the  first person to have championed a Sydney Metro   remarkably the idea was originally  suggested more than a hundred years ago   the brainchild of this man engineer John  Bradfield in 1915 Bradfield submitted a grand   plan to government to revolutionize Sydney's  transport infrastructure Bradfield wanted to   build a bridge across the harbor Electrify  the trains and create an integrated efficient   Railway system much of it underground Justice  was being done in London New York and Paris the first World War intervened  and bradfield's plan was shelved   after the war Parliament approved the plans for  the Sydney Harbor Bridge and the building of that   John Bradfield icon began by 1926 work had started  on bradfield's other vision for a Sydney Metro   some new underground city stations  were built but then work stalled beneath Sydney are almost one and  a half kilometers of Unfinished   platforms and train tunnels  remnants of bradfields Metro   during the second world war the tunnels did  prove useful as bomb shelters because these   walls weren't here originally they were put in  for the air ride shoulder not for the railway the original vision for these tunnels  however almost did become a reality so   this platform depleted nearly a hundred  years ago even to the point where the   tilings in and some of the signage is up but  never ever seen a train run through [Music]   if you took yourself back to the 1920s in Sydney  it was an unprecedented amount of construction   going on people believed in bradfield's  vision and they were getting on with it we get to the end of that decade the bridge  is finished a bit of the plan for the railways   finished and then the depression hits the  money's not there and then before we know   it World War II and that's it game over  the focus really turned to other things   fast forward to the 1950s car becomes a thing that  everyone wants and so the desire the appetite to   finish that plan disappeared I just think to  myself wow what a lost opportunity for Sydney   that really just drives me to say well let's  go back and finish the job that he started   Rod is on a mission he is determined to realize  what Bradfield could not Ron's biggest problem   was convincing his boss that a driverless Metro  was the best way forward for Sydney's future after   she had promised the community a more traditional  Railway that kind of shook me little and some bits   of it were confronting like driverless trains  was this the right way to go is it the way   of the future Rod was convinced Metro was the  way of the future convincing others was harder   transport officials including Rod said to me  we don't think it's sensible building the same   old kind of rail line you've got to go for a  metro the challenge for Rod and the team was   set but what confronts them is a city that  has changed radically in the last 100 years   in bradfield's time the population was eight  hundred thousand it's now more than 5 million the digging of Sydney's first train tunnels  was a painstakingly slow and laborious task   some were dug in the more traditional way using  drills Dynamite picks and shovels polls were   done walls built and the whole thing covered over  today train tunneling is a very different Affair   meet an extraordinary invention the tunnel Boring  Machine a TBM Sydney has ordered nine of these [Music]   a factory in Guangzhou has just about  completed the first ones for Central Sydney   these mechanical beasts were  designed in France and Germany   tvms are gargantuan intricate machines  each one will take six weeks to build   when assembled they weigh more than 900 tons a  single TBM can cost more than 15 million dollars   and can cost a million dollars a day to run  one stretches more than 150 meters end to end   this is the very front of it the cutter head  this wheel of Steel more than three stories hides   slowly rotating pushed by powerful Hydraulics  will crush and grind The Rock ahead of it   openings in the cut ahead led the  crushed rock enter the machine   conveyor belts then transport the spoil back  all along the machine out through the tunnel coming up the tunnel concrete segments a  robotic arm Picks Them Up and places them   against The Rock Wall six at a time it creates a  ring of concrete then does it all again and again as it inches forward like a giant mechanical  worm it leaves behind it a fully formed completed   tunnel it's time to test that this one works  the machine is fired up and turned up to high overseeing four weeks of tests is Martin Bell  this is just really proving that the machine's   finished the machine will do what we've asked  that's really designed to simulate Excavating the   machine without actually Excavating if you like so  we're doing a trial run of all the functionality it's basically a mobile Factory at the end of  the day once the machine is built and running   then it everything's like the Sausage Factory  is the way to describe like a performance car   this TBM has been modified to help it go faster  we've introduced TCI Cutters to The Cutting head   so they're a button cutter those Cutters allow  us to cut a lot further they're better suited   to the Sandstone conditions and minimize  the amount of color changes we need to do high quality piece of equipment I'm excited  I can't wait to put it together and put it in   the ground that's that's really what it's  all about and now it's the nervousness of   putting it on the water and hoping that it  gets off the water and gets to site but yeah   it's a pretty proud moment it's like being a  father I suppose that's one down and on its way foreign the clock is ticking James Pierce and his  team are in a Race Against Time to Crane   in the giant steel girders of the truck Bridge  he needs to get them in and balanced above the   tracks before train Services resume beneath  all around him other trains keep running so the Suburban lines are continuing to  operate this weekend the Intercity lines   are shut down for The Possession to lift in  the major steel trusses over the live rail   that has been shut we've got 48 hours between  Saturday morning and late Sunday night to do   all of our work and hand back the rail for  Monday morning to open for the customers   there are eight human ists of Steel that  need to be craned into place and maneuvering   them is very dangerous 1500 deadly vaults of  electricity is running through the nearby wires this steel girder weighs 55 tons we're very limited to what we can do we've  had to install the biggest tower crane in   the world to come in and lift over live rail  so we can lift them in in the modules there   are massive pieces of Steel this girder is more  than 50 meters long but needs to be placed with   millimeter accuracy they're landed on all  of the works which have been constructed   previously so the bridge piers and footings we  drop the steel girders on and bolted immediately   one by one and carefully the giant crane lifts the  giant girders into position there's no room for   error the space is as tight as it's been on any  job slowly the truck Bridge begins to take shape   they're doing a great job here there's one  already in another one to go so pretty good   night shift at this point and then we  come back later and do the decks on top trucks are the backbone of any major excavation  deep station boxes are being dug all around Sydney   so an extra thousand trucks a day have joined  the city's traffic snarl a thousand trucks in   and out of the city normally with trailers  causing congestion blocking intersections   to traffic lights it's just not a fun city  to drive around anymore like it used to be making sure traffic doesn't grind to a standstill  rests on the shoulders of this man Steve Jones   even for this ex-british Commando it's a daunting  task it's going to be really really hard this is   going to be a massive challenge this is going  to be collaboration on a mega scale so whether   it's the transport Management Center that you see  behind me whether it's Sydney trains whether it's   the ferries everyone is actually going to have to  come together make sure there's minimum disruption   across Sydney while we do it Steve is fighting  a constant battle to keep to keep traffic moving   in this room our 18 Specialists monitoring roads   traffic lights buses trains and ferries each  scrutinizes their piece of the transport maze   they try to unravel problems that pop up  minute by minute with military precision   in their Arsenal they have access to more than  10 000 CCTV cameras this state-of-the-art nerve   center is the largest in the southern hemisphere  this is our Apollo 11 Mission Control Center this   is where everything occurs this is the integration  and I I say to everyone for me it's like the swan   so it looks elegant and everything looks calm  around us but you know underneath there's lots   of people working really really hard to make sure  everyone gets to their destination as smoothly as   possible so can you tell us literally what's  happening now today so we just have to peek   this morning on Thursday morning which is one  of the busier mornings somewhere else from this   Command Center Steve can track the movements  of hundreds of trucks every minute of the day   Trucking and the logistics is absolutely massive  we're looking at around 1 000 trucks a day in   that CBD we do all of the planning upfront to  make sure that disruption is kept to a minimum so whether you're delivering infrastructure on  the battlefield you know it's about continuously   improving continuously testing yourself there's a  new challenge every day and it's testimony every   day Steve has to be very careful of the powder keg  of frustration already out there there's trucks   both side of the road you know they close the  roads for some time so it caused a lot of problems   I understand they've got a job to do and they  have to do it for the Metro which will make   things so much better for people in the long run  we hope it seems everyone agrees the Metro could   be a game changer I think it's the only solution  we don't have the space anymore to build roads   I'm hoping in the long run the short-term  Agni will be well worth it in the long run [Music] back at Central Station James Pierce is  in a battle of his own again racing the clock   until his truck bridge is up and running he can't Bridges finished it'll be full steam ahead  fully laden trucks passing right over the   heads of train passengers passing through  Australia's busiest station so the guys have   done a great effort getting the steel in next  step concrete so there's a thick deck to go in   here which will enable the truck bridge to carry  fully loaded trucks both in with materials and   out with spoil for the main Central Station works  for James there's one Ultimate Nightmare scenario   a truck crashing over the bridge and ending up  on the live rail probably not what we want for   this job in the middle of Central Station  a truck plummeting over the side would   Spell catastrophe so the bridge has to be  reinforced to withstand immense impacts big   thick concrete barriers up the side providing  protection for all vehicles both in and out   with the barriers completed James's battle  with the truck Bridge has nearly been won around 35 kilometers from the city of Sydney  is an area known as The Hills district to build   the Metro out here Engineers face an entirely  different set of challenges than in the city   center here the issue isn't how to connect into  an existing station but where to put the new Metro   stations beneath these Hills Rod's team will dig  the two longest rail tunnels ever dug in Australia   the length isn't the problem the hills of the  problem clawing up and then being able to stay   far enough more to get to Castle Hill was you  know a big key part of the alignment planning   whenever you're locating a station it's a real  sort of fine Balancing Act between the absolute   best customer outcome and then what the engineers  feel that they can deliver in terms of the depth   of the station the terrain and also the sort of  ground conditions and geology that's underneath   the steepest gradient these trains can climb  is about a 4.5 percent incline up or down   so the problem is in hilly country a station  cannot just be positioned anywhere if a station   was to be placed near the top of a hill for  the train to get there the platforms would   need to be very deep underground that's not  a good result for customers you just want to   be on the train you don't want to be spending  five minutes getting from the surface down to   the train so the shallower we can make the  stations the more attractive it would be   deepest station in Sydney is about 35 meters  and customers find it frustrating so for Rod   and his designers finding the right route and  placement of stations is a careful Balancing Act   they have to ensure the depth of each station  and the maximum incline trains will travel to   reach them is achievable where to put the  route and where to put the stations was a   massive challenge not just from an engineering  point of view but from a whole Community point   of view as well in this area Rod has had to  carefully manage Community expectations rail   has long been promised here but never  delivered people were crying out for it   they've been Decades of debate and argument  about building this Railway and when I first   stepped out there I think a lot of people  intuitively believe that yes this would help   but no one actually believes that it would happen  Rod is making it happen for him there's no other   option this area of Sydney has the highest  level of car ownership in all of Australia   here triple car garages are the norm a Metro here  should eliminate 14 million car trips every year   people just need to leave their cars in the garage  and instead travel beneath the hills and far away [Music] back at Central Station at last the  truck bridge is up and running but James's   real work is only just beginning it's demolition  time now three railway lines have to be dug up   and again they've only got 48 hours to get the  job done from 2 A.M Saturday to 2 A.M Monday to   allow us to build the Metro box we need to remove  three tracks 13 14 and 15. again James is racing   the clock it's a critical point with limited time  we get a 48-hour window we'll turn off the power   relocate all the wires and then we put it back in  turn the power on for commuters on Monday morning   as Darkness descends the rail gang gets into Top  Gear James first needs to remove the old tracks   and then lay new ones and new overhead power lines  that will divert trains away from the platforms to   be demolished 48 hours that's it we don't have  any more time and we need to get the tracks open   for the customers on Monday morning the clock  is ticking and the team are pressed for time   but they can't jeopardize safety there are 200  people working here surrounded by moving double   decker trains and live power lines some are just  four meters away we're dealing with live rail   we're dealing with buried services and Signal  cables we're dealing with turning the overhead   wire back on and the reinstatement of it it's  a huge piece of work compressed into 48 hours   as Saturday ticks over into Sunday there's  still an enormous amount of work to do soon   there's only 22 hours to go time is rushing by  moving the overhead lines is one thing that can't   be rushed all the surrounding lines are still  active 1500 volts courses through each of them   we actually need to relocate the track and  the overhead wiring so all of the guys here   are working together to do it safely but  we do need to recognize live power on both   sides very specific controls on both the cranes  excavators and with all the people doing the work finally the old track is gone and as  night descends again time is running out   the pressure is building if they don't finish in  time there will be nowhere for trains relying on   these three lines to go Monday peak hour will be  chaos then a strange looking machine is brought   in to speed things up it's called The Crab Walker  and it's obvious why to save time the new track is   prefabricated off-site and the crab Walker lifts  it carefully into place in large pieces the crab   machine or the pen Lem comes in and speeds it  up rather than laying every sleeper bar sleeper   the new sectional track gets picked up outside the  alignment the crab walk across drop it into place   and then we tie it in and reinstate the ballast  and tie the track in open it up and away we go   we've got about two hours to go everything's on   track no pun intended should be  right and the trains will be in   a few hours back for Monday morning peak  hour they make it with two hours to spend about 160 kilometers from Sydney  is the Port City of Newcastle it receives thousands of trade shipments  from around the world every year   and now the gigantic TBM components is  starting to arrive some of the modules of   these Monster Machines are extremely large  the cut ahead alone weighs over 100 tons this Shield weighs over 200 tons after the eight separate Hard Rock tbms are  offloaded in Newcastle these huge pieces of   Machinery will be transported by road to four  different launching sites around Sydney this part   of the delivery has been months in the planning  but will need to be executed precisely to succeed the first two tbms traveled to a site in Bella  Vista the next two will be launched at Cherry   Brook two more will travel to Chatswood and the  other two to the inner city suburb of marrickville the best way to achieve this  is with a convoy of trucks   like a military operation conducted under  the cover of Darkness the Convoy sets off one TBM equals 900 tons of  gear which equals 23 trucks   along the Route police and emergency  vehicles clear the roads ahead the route has been carefully mapped  out to avoid weaker bridges that   could be severely damaged by such heavy machinery and those that are too low  for the trucks to fit under some are cleared with little to spare the further into the Sydney suburbs they get  the harder it gets again time is running out with rush hour just a few hours away the Convoy  is under increasing pressure as the streets narrow   every meter is hard one there's danger on all  sides but safety is Paramount power lines have   to be lifted by workers parked cars Dodge it's  an obstacle course one wrong move and the whole   Convoy could come to a grinding halt luckily these  are no ordinary trucks this rig has 132 tires to navigate some of the tighter turns another  prime mover needs to steer the trailer from   behind the drivers behind the wheel highly  skilled Specialists with nerves of Steel   the convoys reach their  destination just before peak hour all the components are offloaded now they  work around the clock to get the machines   up and running so the all-important  tunneling can get underway [Applause] back at Central Station all train services are  back to normal Australia's busiest station is   again running at Full Steam in the middle  of it all James faces his next challenge   removing three train platforms they're in the  way of the cavernous station box he needs to dig   the problem is parts of the platforms have  Heritage elements he can't just bulldoze it all so the first thing to go is going to be these  Timber canopies beautiful Old Timber individually   bolted and fully truss frame not very often you  get Timber like this anymore all of the signs all   of the clocks and everything in here is Heritage  and well worth preserving we'll do our best to   look after it platforms 13 14 and 15 disappear  platforms 13 and 14 will later be rebuilt when   the new Metro has been completed below but one  platform is doomed and will never be seen again   platform 15 is gone it'll go 12 13 14 and over to  16 on the Suburban line with all train services at   Central Station now back up to speed James and his  team are again surrounded by live railway lines   from here on nothing will be switched off to  a system we've got the intercities live and   we've got the Suburbans live so we're working  with cranes excavators and pulling down pretty   big buildings as well as demolishing in the  middle of the live rail the railway isn't   Switched Off for what we're doing and we're  doing this all in a very constrained space   as the Heritage structures are pulled apart  problem after problem needs to be addressed   there's existing lead dust  train breaks over in years idea where they're running in  addition to that it's a fully   bolted truss frame so we're really  undoing 60 to 100 Years of history   in the turn of a bolt soon this part of  Central Station is consigned to history currently there are ways to cross the harbor   the bridge including rail a  road tunnel and the Ferries the new Metro will revolutionize this situation  for the first time in nearly 100 years Sydney   will have another rail crossing of the harbor  two new rail tunnels will be excavated deep   under the harbor and join with a brand new  station called barangaroo this Underground   Station needs to sit on the very edge of one  of the largest and deepest Harbors in the world   and all of it will be below sea level one of those  responsible for making this station happen and   safe is engineer and design manager Ali Shard so  this is our station that we're designing here it's   about 240 meters long and 25 meters below ground  and it's about 20 meters wide so it's a really   big station it's basically an iceberg station so  it's a lot bigger below ground than it is above   all of this is below the water level so the  harbor is just there and all this is below that   being below water level right next to the harbor  is a major challenge in designing this station   Ali is well aware of the risks see this wall  here it kind of just juts out it Kinks out   there and then it kicks out again again we have  some unique challenges in regards to the location   that we're in but also some brilliant benefits  I mean we're the only Metro station that's gonna   take passengers right to the harbor front that's  just incredible to his credit Ali is determined   to see the positives but this station's proximity  to a huge amount of water is a construction risk   not just in terms of the water in the harbor  but the water in the ground the water seeping in   through the rock the water level is basically  above whether the station's going to be the   station is going to be in a big hole in the  ground at the end of the day and so we've got   to design for the groundwater which is trying to  push to ineffect the station out of the ground   not to be too dramatic it's not going to float  away down the harbor but the buoyancy effect   would would cause the station to rise out of the  ground one solution to this buoyancy problem would   be to have a sump a low point from which all  the groundwater seeping in could be pumped out   but Ali and his team have decided they cannot rely  on this solution the problem with training the   station is of course the hardware just going to be  pumping and pumping and pumping for for the next   hundred years and also if there's any nasties in  the soil then you're gonna have to deal with them   as well to make his station completely watertight  Ali plans to wrap the entire immense station box   in plastic without a single Gap through which the  water will be able to get in it's known as tanking   but it is rarely attempted this way  and it will magnify another problem   with nowhere else to go the pressure  of the groundwater will build and build   it will eventually begin to push the  entire station box out of the ground   tanking has its benefits but what it means is  we have to lock the stitching into the ground   so to do that we've got all these what you  can see on the screen here all these permanent   anchors these are really big anchors they're  up to 20 meters long they contain 49 strands   and each strand is about the size of a double A  battery so in effect that each anchor is about   30 centimeters in diameter 20 meters deep and  that's what helps lock the station into the ground   Ali is placing his face in the power of  Steel to hold back the power of water   to make things even harder he's  not just battling a water problem   his station is very much caught between a rock and  a hard place on the one side is the iconic Harbor   and on the other side is a considerable wall and a  Heritage one at that this formidable rock face is   part of the so-called hungry mile a name bestowed  by Harborside workers during the Great Depression   last century this place was crowded daily with  hundreds of men walking from Wharf to wharf   seeking work if they found it they put food  on the table if they didn't they went hungry   so this area's got heaps of cultural and  historical significance for it and we've   got to be really careful that we don't  impact that negatively in any way so   we really want to make sure this hungry male  War doesn't fall in when we're doing our work   the highest part of the hungry mile wall is about  10 meters the station box needs to be dug right   at the foot of this wall 25 meters straight down  the end result will be a sheer drop of 35 meters needless to say the team want to be sure  the top of the wall is Rock Solid before   they turn this into a high cliff we want to  make sure that the Wall's stable and it's   already about a 10 meter high wall and we're  going to be Excavating another 25 meters down   so it's going to be 35 meters in total we want  to make sure there's a good solid sturdy wall   the Geo technicians get to work  drilling cores d into the rock face they discover it is definitely not as stable as  it should be they insert Rock anchors which should   stabilize and add strength to the wall it also  needs to be covered in mesh so rocks don't fall   on cars passing below we've done the analysis and  we know exactly what we need to do so we're going   to print some anchors some some mesh so we protect  the wall and make sure that the Cliff face is nice   and sturdy digging down can now begin except for  one small impediment we're planning to build a   station directly underneath the operational Hicks  and rope we want to keep traffic running so what   we decided to do was build a temporary bridge  deck to move the traffic over onto a bridge and   that allows us to then dig up the road and build  the station excavate completely underneath it   the new road takes just seven weeks to build  finally the station box excavation gets underway not long after work grinds to a halt yet  another predicament emerges from the mud   but we found the oldest australian-made  boat it's a pretty impressive find see   where that hole's been dug over there next  to the hull that's where we got the keel   Marine archaeologist Cosmos coronius is excited  by the fine this uh Rick is the wreck of the   earliest known Australian built ship that we  have in Australia we think it was built around   about the 1820s or 30s was probably dragged up  on what was once a beach sometime in the 1840s   and eventually covered over over the decades  and finally covered over around about the 1890s   cosmos's work proves the boat was built in  Australia based on what it was built from   it's made out of Sydney Blue Gum springy  bark and spotted gun so local Timbers and   that's what helped us conclusively say  that it's an australian-built vessel   the floor Timber it's one of the strongest  Timbers I have on the boat and what they've   done is used the natural curve of branches to  make that Timber so they were very skilled in   what they did with the little that they had  Cosmos wants to excavate the entire boat   and plans to remove every last piece so he can  study this ghost from Sydney's past in detail   we always knew there's a high likelihood of  finding something we just didn't know what   so we plan to work around it just so it doesn't  hinder our progress of the station field   the boat is a wonderful find for archeology  but risks hindering the barangaroo team   every day the archaeologists work is a  day lost Excavating the barangaroo station   Ali puts a brave face on what is for him an  unexpected situation it's a bit of a pain but   it's uh it's the right thing to do the right  thing to do perhaps but the schedule has just   gotten a lot tighter this historic Discovery  risks delaying Ali in the team's progress   work might have stalled at barangaroo but tunnel  boring machines wait for No One Time for Action   stations time to fire up the mechanical  monsters and launch the tbns all right   the high risk job of digging 61 kilometers of  tunnels is underway through sandstone and shale   and down to 58 meters at their deepest point  hundreds of tunnelers working around the clock in   giant underground mechanical factories where there  is danger at every turn tbms are only ever given   female names a long-standing tunneler convention  working in the Underworld they're a superstitious   group at every dig there's a statue of Saint  Barbara the patron saint of turnovers providing   protection well you've got to take every bit of  luck you can get don't you in this game high-risk   construction we'll take every bit we can get the  eight tbms that have launched will dig almost   60 kilometers of tunnels but not those under the  harbor the two tunnels beneath the harbor are the   shortest any of the tvms will dig it's less than  a kilometer from barangaroo to the North Shore   it may not be far in distance but it will be  by far the most challenging and most dangerous   tunneling on the entire project the team is  about to discover what really lurks beneath   the surface next time the tvm's fire up on  all cylinders where the guinea pigs really so skyscrapers in the middle of Sydney need to go the  biggest challenges for the 28th story building and   a TVM weaves its way through narrow city streets  you to get the TVM across the road let's go thank you [Music]

Channel: Banijay Science

Views: 260,406

Keywords: documentary, engineering, engineering documentary, metro, science, sydney metro, technology, train

Id: InYZw4mIWGA

Length: 51min 1sec (3061 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 21 2023