Imagine creating a 50,000 piece jigsaw puzzle. That’s what it will be like to build the two eight-kilometre Forrestfield-Airport Link tunnels.

Local workers are ramping up to produce the six unique concrete segments that will fit together to form a single, waterproof ring. In total about 9,000 rings are needed for the twin rail tunnels. 

A warehouse near the tunnelling site in Forrestfield was transformed into the pre-cast facility so up to 132 concrete segments a day could be made locally. 

Concrete is produced at the facility, cast into segments, set and then taken about two kilometres down the road to the site of the future Forrestfield Station. 

The concrete segments are fed into the tunnel boring machines, which use vacuum lifters to fit the pieces in to place as it bores through the earth. 

TBM Grace, named after a local schoolgirl, was launched to much fanfare in July 2017, while TBM Sandy will start its underground journey in October. 

Meanwhile, construction of the Airport Central and Belmont train stations along the new rail route is well under way. 

More information is available on the Forrestfield-Airport Link website.