Blue chip global development
Forrestfield-Airport Link, Perth
The Forrestfield Airport Link is a railway line that connects the eastern suburbs of Perth with the suburban rail network and the airport. It was completed in October 2022 and generated 20,000 passenger trips daily, reducing travel times and road traffic to the city center by 50%.
Blue Chip Global Development (BCGD) and its partners worked together to construct this project consisting of three stations, twin-bored tunnels, three emergency egress shafts, and parking spaces for the stations.
An 8.5-kilometer-long rail line, created with an investment of AU$1.86 billion, has the potential to take 15,000 vehicles off the roads every day, which could diminish up to 2,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions annually.
The tunnels are 8 km long, with an internal diameter of 6.17 m and an excavation diameter of 7 m, through the two Tunnel Boring Machines (TBM). It was a challenging task to build the underground works due to the hydro-geological characteristics of the subsoil, running beneath already existing lines and crossing Perth’s airport lanes and Swan River, where the maximum depth reaches 26m.
The project aims for the highest possible rating under the Infrastructure Sustainability (IS) rating scheme of the Infrastructure Council of Australia (ISCA), which evaluates the environmental, social, and economic impacts of infrastructure projects.
In 2019, this project was awarded the Concrete Institute of Australia (WA) Award for their contribution to designing and producing concrete prefabricated segments, which were utilized in the Forrestfield Airport Link tunnels. In addition, the Airport Central Station in Western Australia won the Award for Public Architecture in 2023, given by the Australian Institute of Architects to recognize outstanding design and architecture for sustainable mobility.