Cross passages

The Cross River Rail project is a 10.2 kilometre rail line from Dutton Park to Bowen Hills. It includes the excavation of twin 5.9km long tunnels between Dutton Park and Spring Hill, as well as the construction of four new underground stations at Roma Street, Albert Street, Woolloongabba and Boggo Road.

3D image of tunnel boring machine with major components labelled
A cross passage is a short tunnel that connects the two parallel Cross River Rail tunnels located every 240 metres along the tunnel alignment. Cross passages are an important safety feature that allow people to move from one tunnel to the other in the unlikely event of an emergency during the operational phase of Cross River Rail.

Construction of cross passages will occur below ground within the mainline tunnels after the roadheaders or tunnel boring machines have passed through the area.

Cross passage tunnelling (including excavation and permanent works) will occur 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for approximately one month at a time. General construction activities include:

  • Excavation works – cross passages will be excavated with traditional mining techniques including use of excavators, rock hammers and splitters, drilling & blasting, shotcreting and rock bolting. Drill and blast is being selected as the preferred excavation method within the TBM tunnels as this will reduce the overall construction duration. In the event that blasting is not deemed feasible in a cross passage, manual excavation with a rock hammer will occur. Blasting will be carried out between 7:30am and 4:30pm, Monday to Saturday. Blasts will not take place on Sundays or public holidays.
  • Permanent works – installation of tunnel waterproofing, concrete lining and mechanical and electrical equipment.

 

Location of cross passages

There are 16 permanent cross passages plus additional temporary cross passages along the Cross River Rail alignment.

Cross passages 1-3 are located between the Woolloongabba site and the Boggo Road site, with the remaining 13 located between the Woolloongabba site and Northern Portal.

Each cross passage is approximately 5.8 metres wide, 5.8 metres high and 6 metres long. Temporary passages are required to facilitate in-tunnel access during construction.

Status of cross passage construction

  • Cross Passage #1: Completed
  • Cross Passage #2: Completed
  • Cross Passage #3: Completed
  • Cross Passage #4: Completed
  • Cross Passage #5: Completed
  • Cross Passage #6: Completed
  • Cross Passage #7: Completed
  • Cross Passage #8: Completed
  • Cross Passage #9: Completed
  • Cross Passage #10: Completed
  • Cross Passage #11: Completed
  • Cross Passage #12: Completed
  • Cross Passage #13: Completed
  • Cross Passage #14: Completed
  • Cross Passage #15: Completed
  • Cross Passage #16: Completed

Cross River Rail alignment showing cross passages 1 to 16. Does not include temporary cross passages

If you want to know more, all of this information is available in PDF form: