Australian metro under budget

A metro project in Sydney, Australia, is reported to be on target to be delivered at least AU$500m under its AU$8.3 billion (US$6.3 billion) budget.

The announcement was made at an event to mark the installation of the final piece of the 52km of track for the Sydney Metro Northwest rail project. Services are due to start in the first half of 2019.

The rail project is Australia’s biggest public transport project currently in development. Over the past 22 months, 105km of steel rail was installed in the twin 15km tunnels between Bella Vista and Epping, on the 4km skytrain between Bella Vista and Rouse Hill, and at Sydney Metro HQ at Rouse Hill.

There were also 60,498 sleepers installed and 35,000 tonnes of ballast and 237,000 tonnes of concrete used in the track laying process alone.