Tunnel-boring machine breaks through at future Vancouver Oak-VGH Station
Posted October 13, 2023 12:03 pm.
Last Updated October 13, 2023 12:04 pm.
The first of two tunnel-boring machines excavating Vancouver’s Broadway Subway Project has broken through at the future Oak-VGH Station.
The B.C. government shared the news on Friday, noting that the 150-metre-long machine named “Phyllis” has reached the fourth of six underground stations in the project. Phyllis will now undergo some scheduled maintenance before making its way to the future South Granville Station.
As part of its latest journey, the province says the machine passed underneath the Canada Line at about 22 metres underground after departing from the Broadway-City Hall Station.
The province says a second tunnel-boring machine, “Elsie,” will arrive at Oak-VGH Station later this fall.
Since the subway project began last fall, Phyllis has excavated more than two kilometres of tunnel and installed over 1,300 concrete tunnel liner rings, the province explains.
The Broadway Subway Project is a nearly six-kilometre extension of the Millennium Line from VCC-Clark Station to West Broadway and Arbutus Street in the city’s Kitsilano neighbourhood. The province says it will improve transit along B.C.’s second-largest jobs centre, also home to growing residential neighbourhoods.
Once completed, the government says it will take 11 minutes to travel from VCC-Clark and Arbutus stations, saving commuters an average of nearly 30 minutes a day on transit.
