• Production under way to create components for Forrestfield-Airport Link
• Pre-cast concrete plant created 60 local jobs and more through the supply chain
• Facility to produce more than 50,000 segments for the rail tunnels 

Local workers are ramping up production of the concrete segments that will form the walls of the eight-kilometre Forrestfield-Airport Link tunnels.

A warehouse near the tunnelling site was transformed into the pre-cast facility so the concrete tunnel components could be made locally, creating jobs across the supply chain in Western Australia.

The Forrestfield-Airport Link's pre-cast concrete facility opened in June, and 60 workers will soon be producing up to 132 concrete segments a day.  

There will be six unique segments produced at the plant, which fit together to form a single, waterproof ring.

About 9,000 of the rings will be needed to build the twin rail tunnels that will eventually link the eastern foothills with the Perth central business district.

Concrete is produced at the facility, cast into segments, set and then taken about two kilometres down the road to the site of the future Forrestfield Station.

The concrete segments are fed into the tunnel boring machines, which use hydraulic lifters to fit the pieces in to place as it bores through the earth.

TBM Grace, named after a local schoolgirl, was launched to much fanfare last month, while TBM Sandy will start its underground journey in September.

Meanwhile, construction of the Airport Central and Belmont train stations along the new rail route is well under way.

The Forrestfield-Airport Link project is jointly funded by the State ($1.37 billion) and Federal ($490 million) Governments.

More information is available at http://www.forrestfieldairportlink.wa.gov.au