Mr O’Farrell joined transport minister Gladys Berejiklian at the project’s Bella Vista construction site today to announce the boring machine would be in the ground by October to commence the twin 15km tunnels to Cherrybrook, which will take about two years to complete.

“The $8.3 billion North West Rail Link is on budget and moving forward rapidly,” Mr O’Farrell said.

“This project is no longer just a glossy brochure and lines on a map. Construction is underway, jobs are being created, the first of the four massive tunnel boring machines will be in ground ahead of our end of year commitment and the people of NSW can be sure this vital piece of infrastructure will be delivered.”

Ms Berejiklian said this stage of the project would see the creation of 900 jobs.

“It’s also great news for the local community that this part of the project will mean 900 jobs will be created,” Ms Berejiklian said.

“We will be sourcing most of those jobs from the local community, from the north west and from western Sydney. I’m really looking forward for this site taking shape in the next few months.”

Ms Berejiklian said tunnelling consortium Thiess John Holland Dragados is targeting Western Sydney in its recruitment of workers and had started a massive recruitment operation to source the construction workforce to join the project over the coming months,” she said.

The workforce includes trades such as boilermakers, carpenters/formworkers, TBM operators, road header operators, tunnellers, electrical and mechanical trades, steel fixers, concreters, riggers, general labourers, scaffolders, traffic controllers, shotcreters, tunnel lining builders and truck/special vehicle operators.

Source: Hills News by Vanessa Watson. Original article.