City tunnel project completion announced.

8/9/07

Construction of the city rail tunnel and stations for the Perth to Mandurah Railway has now reached practical completion.

Planning and Infrastructure Minister Alannah MacTiernan said today that management of the city site would be handed from contractors Leighton-Kumagai Joint Venture to the Public Transport Authority on Monday, September 10.

“Delivery of this massive project, which included 1.6km of bored tunnels and two major railway stations under the CBD, is a major step towards beginning services,” Ms MacTiernan said.

“It further increases our confidence that the linking of the northern and southern suburbs line and commencement of services to the new underground platforms will occur in October.

“Completion of construction of the railway from the Narrows Bridge to Mandurah, including the signalling, remains the major outstanding issue to commencement of services, which are still on track for a pre-Christmas commencement.

“I congratulate all the engineers and workforce who have worked hard on this challenging but very important project.”

The Minister said that in total, six of the eight separate components of the $1.66billion project had now been handed from the contractor to the Government. Details are listed below: