Sydney Metro

Increasing efficiency of tunnelling muck away on Australia’s biggest public transport project.

ContractorJohn Holland CPB Ghella

LocationCrows Nest Station, Sydney

The Project

Sydney Metro is Australia’s biggest public transport project. It will transform Sydney, delivering more trains and faster services for customers across the network.

Sydney Metro City & Southwest extends the new metro network from the end of Sydney Metro Northwest at Chatswood, under Sydney Harbour, through CBD stations, and south west to Bankstown.

John Holland CPB Ghella (JHCPBG) is building the 15.5-kilometre twin railway tunnels between Chatswood and Sydenham and excavating six new metro stations.

The Challenge

This infrastructure project is being delivered alongside ‘live’ road and rail networks. Many of the construction sites have confined operating space. As a result, JHCPBG needed to maximise available space on the site of the future Crows Nest station.

Solution

Conquip contacted JHCPBG during the tender phase and proposed the BulkX system which provides direct-to-truck spoil discharge. They could see the cost and site efficiency advantages from not stockpiling spoil on site.

Our design team partnered with the JHCPBG project team to come up with a best practice excavation solution. We considered vehicle movements, truck capacities and available space around the shaft opening.

We agreed on a solution which was a BulkX free-standing gantry system with an 8m³ and a 13m³ BulkX skip. The 8m³ skip was used for loading the truck while the 13m³ one was used for loading the dog trailer. Using the two gantry cranes within the excavation’s acoustic enclosure, the truck and the dog could be loaded almost simultaneously. This enabled JHCPBG to have a full truck leaving site at least every 10 minutes, equating to approximately 50 trucks loaded each day.

“We chose the BulkX for our spoil load out operations, because it could load directly into trucks. This improved our site logistics by eliminating the stockpile from our yard. We worked closely with Conquip to size the bins to match our truck combinations, optimise the discharge frame configuration and model the cycle times. Early engagement with the Conquip design team meant the equipment was able to be installed and in operation quickly after it arrived.”

Gene O’Sullivan | Project Manager, John Holland CPB Ghella

MORE PROJECTS

 object(WP_Post)#30682 (24) {
  ["ID"]=>
  int(13243)
  ["post_author"]=>
  string(2) "39"
  ["post_date"]=>
  string(19) "2025-04-09 08:25:21"
  ["post_date_gmt"]=>
  string(19) "2025-04-09 07:25:21"
  ["post_content"]=>
  string(3064) "https://vimeo.com/1072142096/c3dc7ab4d9
The Project
The Potomac River Tunnel (PRT) is the next major phase of the DC Clean Rivers Project. The project consists of a large-diameter deep sewer tunnel, diversion facilities, drop shafts, and support structures to capture flows from existing combined sewer overflows (CSOs) along the Potomac River and convey them to the Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant for treatment.
The Challenge
The project team was excavating to create eight shafts, which will be formed into outfall locations on the river. They needed to excavate large amounts of muck and spoil at a depth of around 20 metres, before further excavating a layer of hard rock below that.

The project team needed to efficiently remove the material from the bottom of each shaft surface as they dug down in each phase, lift it vertically out with a crane, move it into muck away zones and remove from site with a series of truck movements each day.
The Solution
Conquip manufactured two, 12,000-litre capacity BulkX along with a customised gantry for the muck to be discharged directly into waiting trucks to take away.

The solution has given this project a large capacity, reliable, robust muck away method. The BulkX has increased the rate of excavation and removal of materials from the project site, while improving safety and removing people-plant interface risks.

[modula id="33629"]
Results
Each BulkX was filled with muck by the excavator operator, then lifted up from the bottom of the shaft at a depth of around 20 metres, up to the ground level and then that cycle was repeated. Around 14m3 of material was filled every 6-7mins, which equates to around 9 trucks per hour.

Conquip’s BulkX sped up the excavation process and reduced project dig times significantly.

[modula id="33634"]
Project feedback
"The biggest benefit of working with Conquip’s BulkX system is they've been hands-on in helping us develop and really bring the efficiency to the system - and we've also bought things to the table and shown them that has helped with the efficiency too. So it’s been a good collaboration.” 
“We actually have the advantage of live loading the truck instead of using the muck bins. So instead of having to drop the material into the muck bin and then reload it with another piece of equipment, we actually cut down on how much staffing we need for that and we get to live load the truck and send them straight away from the job site. The spoil doesn't have to be double handled - it just saves us so much time and hassle.
“I would always recommend the BulkX system for mucking away. Conquip are very straightforward, trying to engineer for efficiency and make it better once it’s there."
Tyler Wilt | Site Manager, CBNA"
  ["post_title"]=>
  string(20) "Potomac River Tunnel"
  ["post_excerpt"]=>
  string(0) ""
  ["post_status"]=>
  string(7) "publish"
  ["comment_status"]=>
  string(6) "closed"
  ["ping_status"]=>
  string(6) "closed"
  ["post_password"]=>
  string(0) ""
  ["post_name"]=>
  string(28) "potomac-river-tunnel-project"
  ["to_ping"]=>
  string(0) ""
  ["pinged"]=>
  string(0) ""
  ["post_modified"]=>
  string(19) "2025-05-12 15:36:40"
  ["post_modified_gmt"]=>
  string(19) "2025-05-12 14:36:40"
  ["post_content_filtered"]=>
  string(0) ""
  ["post_parent"]=>
  int(0)
  ["guid"]=>
  string(80) "https://conquip-stg.profound.works/nz/case-studies/potomac-river-tunnel-project/"
  ["menu_order"]=>
  int(1)
  ["post_type"]=>
  string(12) "case_studies"
  ["post_mime_type"]=>
  string(0) ""
  ["comment_count"]=>
  string(1) "0"
  ["filter"]=>
  string(3) "raw"
}

Potomac River Tunnel

CBNA (Civil Building North America) JV for DC Water

Potomac River Tunnel

Washington DC, USA

Washington DC, Potomac River Tunnel project achieves productivity gains with Conquip’s BulkX.

 object(WP_Post)#30244 (24) {
  ["ID"]=>
  int(13220)
  ["post_author"]=>
  string(2) "39"
  ["post_date"]=>
  string(19) "2024-07-12 16:14:54"
  ["post_date_gmt"]=>
  string(19) "2024-07-12 15:14:54"
  ["post_content"]=>
  string(3889) "The Project
The TRU East Alliance in the UK is responsible for delivering the Transpennine route upgrade, a modern high speed railway for greener, more reliable train services between York, Leeds and Manchester.

Partial electrification, replacement of over/under bridges, pedestrian foot bridges, improved sidings, platform upgrades and drainage work, including tunnel boring works carried out beneath the line, were all carried out.

Rail re-alignment, replacement track points, and signal gantries were just some of the highly complex packages of work involved.

In May 2024, on one section of the railway beside the village of Barkston Ash, the contractor had a complex and time-sensitive challenge to replace an end-of-life brick arch over bridge, which was spanning the A162, a main access route into York. The bridge carried trains on the CFM line linking the Northern cities of Leeds and York. The project was planned for months in advance, including allowing for a rail diversion route so that passengers could still travel by rail between the two cities.

 

https://vimeo.com/984338036/83e5809df3
The Challenge
The works were planned within a 101-hour working window in a four-day blockade and the works were serviced from a compound with no direct access onto the track for machinery from road level.

The removal of track ballast, spoil and the replacement of new bulk material was fully dependent on 700t Ainscough and Conquip lifting accessories. The team needed to remove the brick arch and abutments approximately 14m long and made up 650 tonnes of brick and stone material, lift and shift this back to the compound with the Conquip Smart-Release BulkX, before the replacement could begin with 45t PCC sills and 65t Steel U becks providing a basis of a modern and stronger metal structure.

Excavators and cranes were in-use and on-site to support the contractor teams working day and night to complete the rail replacement.
The Solution
Conquip provided the Smart-Release BulkX skip with a capacity of 16,000 litres, the largest size that is available, to carry out large volumes of excavation and movement of material.

The solution, which is remote operated and fully electric to provide the highest operational uptime possible, increases the rate of excavation and removal of materials from and to a range of locations on any site, while improving safety and removing people-plant interface risks.

[modula id="27610"]
Results
The highly engineered Smart-Release BulkX provided a reliable and flexible method for the team to move materials from the lower compound up onto track. The provision and use of two skips meant that there was always the availability of one full of the required materials, with no downtime in the delivery of materials to the team at the working face.

"The delivery was on time and to a high health and safety standard and the product has been well received on site, with training offered and arranged. The follow up meetings after returning the product shows that Conquip never stop wanting to improve the system."

John Joyce | Construction Manager, Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU East Alliance)
Project feedback
"Having managed the works since 2023 and well into 2024, it’s been a pleasure to work with the Conquip team. The customer service has been sharp and client-focused, so while we worked 24hr possessions, the out of hours support they provided was excellent."

John Joyce | Construction Manager, Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU East Alliance)"
  ["post_title"]=>
  string(26) "Transpennine Route upgrade"
  ["post_excerpt"]=>
  string(0) ""
  ["post_status"]=>
  string(7) "publish"
  ["comment_status"]=>
  string(6) "closed"
  ["ping_status"]=>
  string(6) "closed"
  ["post_password"]=>
  string(0) ""
  ["post_name"]=>
  string(37) "transpennine-route-upgrade-case-study"
  ["to_ping"]=>
  string(0) ""
  ["pinged"]=>
  string(0) ""
  ["post_modified"]=>
  string(19) "2025-05-09 12:00:43"
  ["post_modified_gmt"]=>
  string(19) "2025-05-09 11:00:43"
  ["post_content_filtered"]=>
  string(0) ""
  ["post_parent"]=>
  int(0)
  ["guid"]=>
  string(89) "https://conquip-stg.profound.works/nz/case-studies/transpennine-route-upgrade-case-study/"
  ["menu_order"]=>
  int(1)
  ["post_type"]=>
  string(12) "case_studies"
  ["post_mime_type"]=>
  string(0) ""
  ["comment_count"]=>
  string(1) "0"
  ["filter"]=>
  string(3) "raw"
}

Transpennine Route upgrade

TRU East Alliance (Network Rail, J. Murphy & Sons, VolkerRail, Siemens & Systra) with Ainscough Crane Hire

Transpennine Route upgrade

North England, UK

Fully-electric Smart-Release BulkX used on replacement railway bridge project

Title_1 Title_2

My Quote

Sydney Metro

The Project

The Challenge

Solution

Potomac River Tunnel

Potomac River Tunnel

Transpennine Route upgrade

Transpennine Route upgrade

DON’T MISS OUT!