Tunnel boring machine reaches conclusion on Eglinton Crosstown West Extension
One of the two tunnel boring machines that are excavating the tunnels for the western underground segment of the Eglinton Crosstown West Extension in Toronto has reached its destination.
Metrolinx announced the milestone on April 26.
The 750-tonne, 131-metre long machine has broken through the final wall and emerged from the tunnel at the Scarlett Road extraction shaft, where the tunnel boring machines will be disassembled and removed from the ground.
Nicknamed Rexy, the machine has spent the last two years carefully excavating one of two 6.3-kilometre tunnels that stretches from Renforth Drive to Scarlett Road, where the future line will come to the surface and transition to an above-ground section.
The Eglinton Crosstown West Extension will bring future Eglinton Crosstown LRT service farther west through York, Etobicoke, and into Mississauga. The project includes seven new stations along a route of 9.2 kilometres.
A second machine, dubbed Renny, is not far behind and will arrive at the extraction shaft in the weeks to come.
Once crews take the machines apart in the extraction shaft, they will lift them from the ground piece by piece.
Although the machines will be retired from work on the project, Metrolinx says there’s still more tunnelling work to come.
Work will continue at the extraction shaft to lay the foundations and form the structure of the future tunnel portal. Work has also started to prepare construction sites for the eastern underground segment of the line that will run from east of Jane Street to Mount Dennis Station.