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World-renowned architecture practice Foster + Partners has won the right to design seven new stations along the planned stage two extension of the Sydney Metro, which will lay rail from the northwest beneath Sydney Harbour and through the central business district towards Bankstown. The London-based firm will design stations at Crows Nest, Victoria Cross, Barangaroo, Martin Place, Pitt Street, and Waterloo in Central Sydney along the Chatswood to Sydenham leg of the line.
The firm is collaborating with Architectus, consultants Arcadis, Mott McDonald, WT Partnership and McKenzie Group Consulting, along with engineers Robert Bird Group, to see the project through to completion. The twin railway tunnels between Chatswood and Sydenham will be dug using five tunnel boring machines — a specialized machine will be dispatched under Sydney Harbour due to prevailing rock conditions. The first tunnel boring machine is set to be placed underground before the end of 2018.
The project signifies Australia's first foray into underground rapid transit. Many of the country's cities, including Sydney and Melbourne, are serviced by a suburban-commuter railway network characterized by frequent service in the core. Despite detailed plans for a rapid transit network, funding and privatization concerns would guarantee that a full-fledged underground metro eluded Australia's most populous city for decades. But with the design details now being worked out, excitement is ramping up over the 31-station, 66-kilometre line, which is scheduled for operation by 2024. Construction work on the stations is expected to commence in 2021.
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