Ambitious plans have been proposed by a consortium led by National Australia Bank to bury a 4km section of Melbourne’s Glen Waverley railway line in tunnel as part of a wider US$3bn redevelopment scheme.
Other members of the group include Macquarie Bank, Thiess, the leading Australian contractor, consulting engineer Sinclair Knight Merz and British architect Nicholas Grimshaw. The venture has submitted a detailed proposal, dubbed Operation Double Fault, to the Victoria state government.
Aside from building a new rail tunnel, the scheme also includes the construction of four underground stations to replace existing at-grade stations at Heyington, Gardiner, Kooyong and Tooronga.
The state government is adopting a cautious approach to the scheme, although other sectors of the community including local residents, have welcomed the plan. State premier Steve Bracks said the project “will be assessed, like every other private sector project submitted to government, on its merits to see if it is something that is to the public benefit more broadly and something to the benefit of both residents and also commuters”. One local legislator Steve Stefanopoulos said: “I fully support placing the rail line underground.”
