LS Precast has completed more than 22,000 concrete segments for the North East Link project.
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Victoria’s largest precast concrete manufacturing facility, which is located in Benalla, has reached the halfway point in producing Victoria’s biggest ever road project — North East Link.
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State Member for Northern Victoria Jaclyn Symes said LS Precast had completed more than 22,000 concrete segments, with a total of almost 43,000 segments needed for two giant tunnel boring machines to build the North East Link tunnel walls.
“Benalla is helping drive North East Link, which is Victoria’s biggest ever road project — and has created 140 jobs locally,” she said.
“Benalla’s manufacturing facility has become the backbone of some of Victoria’s largest transport infrastructure projects, which is a big boost for the local economy.”
It’s a significant milestone for the facility, which is making 90 segments per day, and has created jobs for 140 locals, providing a massive boost to the local economy.
Each segment weighs more than 14 tonnes and is customised for a specific place in the tunnel wall.
After they’re cast, the segments are loaded on to trucks and transported to Watsonia where they are temporarily stored in a large purpose-built shed on site.
The segments are then placed in the back of the tunnel boring machine with a specialised vehicle, and installed in their individual place.
LS Precast employs 140 people in the Benalla area.
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The massive manufacturing facility is also making duct panels for the North East Link tunnels and previously supplied 49,000 concrete products for the West Gate Tunnel Project, including 28,000 segments to line the twin West Gate Tunnels.
It’s part of the huge amount of work under way on the North East Link road project, with two massive tunnel boring machines — TBM Zelda and TBM Gillian — on their journey from Watsonia to Bulleen.
Road headers are digging another part of the tunnel, and work is well under way on the Yarra Link green bridge in Bulleen.
Major Road Projects Victoria chief executive Duncan Elliott said North East Link was a significant employer for Victoria, creating 12,000 jobs for Victorians over the life of the project.
“The expertise of Benalla’s LS Precast is playing a crucial role on the project,” he said.
“This is a fantastic milestone for LS Precast and for North East Link and shows we are well and truly under way on tunnelling for Victoria’s biggest road project.”
The North East Link tunnels, the Eastern Freeway upgrades and the M80 ring road completion will be complete in 2028, slashing travel times by up to 35 minutes, and taking 15,000 trucks off local roads. North East Link is jointly funded by the Australian and Victorian governments.
