The largest formwork arch in the Southern Hemisphere has been manoeuvred into place inside the Westmead metro station cavern.
The latest construction milestone comes as the Minns Labor Government today reveals a budget review of metro projects has exposed funding blackholes and delivery bungles of the former Liberal-National government.
At Westmead, an 82-hour operation saw work crews jack and winched the temporary arch into position with millimetres to spare.
Once the structure was in place, the team completed a 1,941-tonne concrete pour to create the cavern's 2.5-metre-thick walls.
It took almost 12 months of careful planning to get the 21-metre arch in place.
Metro funding review
The Minns Labor Government is injecting an additional $2.4 billion into the Sydney Metro build, with a record investment of $60 billion delivering 25 new stations and three new lines.
Building three metros at the same time, instead of consecutively, has placed additional pressure on costs, and makes projects compete with each other.
The additional investment is also necessary after construction cost escalations, scope changes, design changes and significant cost pressures.
A major budget baseline review has found the Liberals failed to properly budget for metros, including:
- Tunnelling packages awarded to private contractors that blew out by $500 million but were not disclosed to the NSW public.
- $540 million of enabling works for over-station developments left unbudgeted despite being part of the original scope of works as announced.
- A redirection of $110 million from the Metro West budget to pay for the Eastern Creek Speedway that left an unfilled funding gap.
As a result of the new budget baseline, Metro West is now estimated to cost $27-$29 billion to complete to its 2032 timeframe.
The Metro Southwest conversion is now expected to cost $22-$23 billion while Western Sydney Airport Metro faces legal claims from its private sector delivery partner Parklife which may increase total costs by more than $1 billion.
The protracted dispute may push out the timeline for the opening date. When we have an announcement about an opening date we will update the public.
The Minns Labor Government is committed to delivering three metros and 25 new stations - on top of the 21 stations delivered by the former government.
Sydney Metro is Australia's biggest public transport project, a program of more than $60 billion investment in new metro rail. These city-shaping Metro projects are vital infrastructure for Sydney but managing them responsibly within budgets and timeframes is essential to their viability.
After inheriting the largest debt ever handed from one government to another, we're limited by what we can afford, what taxpayers can afford, but we will not privatise government assets.
Minister for Transport John Graham said:
"Delivering major projects must be backed up with real money, not false promises like the ones left behind by the former government.
"Our detailed review has identified cost overruns, budget blackholes and the infrastructure equivalent of robbing Peter to pay Paul - or in this case draining a rail construction budget to build a speedway.
"When it comes to delivering metros, any budget announced by the Liberals needs to be doubled to be believed. They must now explain how building five more metros at the same time as they have promised will not lead to the same result.
"Labor is delivering the largest ever metro program - 25 new stations across three new lines - all without more asset sales and privatisation.
