GS Engineering & Construction completes TBM tunnel boring for Melbourne's North East Link project

GS Engineering & Construction announced Tuesday that it has successfully completed tunnel boring machine (TBM) excavation on the tunneling section of the North East Link (NEL) road project in Melbourne, Australia, which spans a total length of 6.5 kilometers.

With the completion of TBM excavation, two large boring machines — each measuring 15.6 meters in diameter — finished drilling their respective sections and reached their target endpoints.

The NEL project connects the M80 Ring Road in northeastern Melbourne with the Eastern Freeway, marking GS Engineering & Construction's first entry into the Australian infrastructure market. The company is participating as an equity investor in the Spark consortium and as a member of the design-and-construct joint venture. It signed a public-private partnership contract with the Victorian state government in 2021.

The total project cost for the package was approximately 10.1 trillion won ($6.89 billion) at the time of the contract award, of which GS Engineering & Construction's construction equity share amounts to about 2.8 trillion won. That makes it the second-largest single overseas project the company has undertaken, after a plant project in the UAE in 2009.

Following the excavation milestone, GS Engineering & Construction plans to press ahead with remaining work — including installation of road structures inside the tunnels, electrical, lighting and safety systems, and road connection works — targeting an opening by the end of 2028.

"The completion of TBM excavation is a key milestone for the NEL project and a demonstration of GS Engineering & Construction's capability in large-scale overseas tunnel construction," a company official said. "We will complete the remaining work to the highest standards of quality and safety."

Meanwhile, GS Engineering & Construction CEO Heo Yun-hong visited Australia in February to inspect the site and meet with key figures, as the company steps up efforts to strengthen local partnerships and expand its presence in the Australian power infrastructure market.