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Eastern Tunnelling Package

Project Information

APG delivered foundation king piles up to 2100mm in diameter and 45m deep through Class 1 sandstone, within the constrained CBD environments of Hunter Street and Pyrmont, for one of Australia’s largest transport infrastructure developments.

The Brief

Australian Piling Group (APG) was engaged to deliver the foundation king piles for the Eastern Tunnelling Package of Sydney Metro West, covering the Hunter Street and Pyrmont precincts.

Sydney Metro West is one of Australia’s largest transport infrastructure developments, improving connectivity across Greater Sydney. APG’s scope demanded complex piling and foundation solutions within highly constrained CBD environments, executed alongside major excavation, shoring, and tunnelling operations across multiple work fronts.

Phase A | Foundation King Piles

Piles were exposed up to 30 metres on completion, with APG achieving exceptional verticality and positional tolerances despite the significant exposed heights. Installation was completed alongside major excavation, shoring and tunnelling operations across multiple active work fronts.

Plant & Resources

Specialised piling rigs exceeding 120 tonnes were deployed alongside heavy-lift cranes exceeding 100 tonnes to lift and splice large reinforcement cages. Rigs were craned into the excavation sites directly from street level in live Sydney CBD conditions, requiring extensive planning, specialised crane methodologies, and close coordination with surrounding project interfaces.

Hard Ground Conditions

The primary technical challenge was drilling through extremely hard Class 1 and stronger sandstone, encountered from the top of the pile profile through to depth. APG utilised specialised rock tooling, high-capacity piling rigs and experienced crews to maintain programme, quality, and pile tolerance requirements throughout.

Constrained Urban Environment

Work was completed within restricted-access CBD environments at Hunter Street and Pyrmont, requiring detailed work staging, traffic management, and constant coordination with adjacent contractors. Every movement on site was choreographed against the backdrop of the live operating environment of central Sydney.

Major Rig Cranage Operations

Due to the highly constrained city locations, APG craned piling rigs weighing over 120 tonnes into the excavation sites directly from street level under live Sydney CBD conditions. These complex lifting operations required extensive planning, specialised cranage methodologies and close coordination with surrounding project interfaces, all within active traffic and pedestrian environments.

High Tolerance Requirements

With piles exposed up to 30 metres at completion, maintaining strict verticality and positional tolerances was critical to the project’s integrity. APG achieved exceptional results across the entire pile schedule despite difficult ground conditions and significant exposed heights, a benchmark outcome for the scale of the work involved.