Further progress has been marked on Sydney Metro West, with two TBMs arriving at the Burwood North Metro Station site.

TBMs Beatrice and Daphne have each built 6.26km of tunnel, so far excavating a combined 1.2 million tonnes of spoil and installing around 44,100 tunnelling segments.

The 7m diameter double-shield, hard rock TBMs are more than halfway through the 11km journey to carve out a section of the alignment between The Bays and Sydney Olympic Park, via future station sites at Five Dock, Burwood North and North Strathfield.

It will take just over two weeks for the pair to traverse to the western end of the cavern where they will be relaunched to tunnel the 1.8km to the next stop at Metro’s North Strathfield station site. The 29m-deep Burwood North station box cavern is 25m wide and 194m long.

The TBMs are due to complete the journey to Sydney Olympic Park in the second half of this year.

The 165m-long TBMs are using refurbished cutterheads, front shields and gripper shields from TBMs used on the Sydney Metro City & Southwest project.

The two machines made tunnelling history in December last year when they arrived at Five Dock Station site minutes apart to achieve the first double TBM breakthrough in the southern hemisphere.

The 24km Sydney Metro West – scheduled to open in 2032 – will double rail capacity between Greater Parramatta and the Sydney CBD, linking new communities to rail services and supporting housing supply.

“Australia’s biggest public transport project is making fast progress. Daphne and Beatrice can almost see the finish line, they’re just under 5km away from their final destination, Sydney Olympic Park,” said transport minister Jo Haylen.

“These breakthroughs mean we are a step closer to delivering this once-in-a-century infrastructure investment in our city that will be a catalyst for housing growth across Sydney.”