State Inks First Suburban Rail Loop East Contract

Victoria’s most expensive infrastructure project is locked in with a $3.6-billion deal to tunnel the project’s first 16km under Melbourne’s middle suburbs signed.

The Suburban Connect consortium— CIMIC Group’s CPB Contractors, ACCIONA and Ghella—has been selected by the Victorian government to deliver the first major tunnelling package of the Suburban Rail Loop East project.

It includes construction of the first section of the project’s 26km twin tunnels, including tunnelling between Cheltenham and Glen Waverley, two new underground station boxes and construction works at the Southern Stabling Yard.

After concerns the project may not survive the Federal government’s infrastructure review, Victorian premier Jacinta Allan said it was “full steam ahead” for the city-shaping project.

A separate contact will be signed in 2024 for the second stage of the line, between Glen Waverley and Box Hill.

▲ A render of the SRL East station at Box Hill.

There will be further contracts to build trains for the line as well as a signalling system, while a deal to operate and maintain the network is due to be settled in 2025.

“We are full steam ahead with the Suburban Rail Loop—by 2026, tunnel-boring machines will be in the ground and Victorians will be hard at work delivering a project that will slash travel times and transform our transport system,” Allan said.

The SRL East is the first stage of a 90km loop around Melbourne proposed by the ALP in the run-up to the 2018 state election.

The cost of the project has been a subject of much heated debate with estimates of between $125 billion and $200 billion made.

Victoria has committed around $9.3bn for the project, and the Federal government will tip in $2.2 billion.

This month the government shared its vision for precincts surrounding stations on the line after extensive community consultation.

Affordable housing options, jobs, transport, healthcare and education are all included in the precinct concept plans after three years of consulting with the community—migration and the need for housing were identified as a key concern.