ABSTRACT
Sydney Metro West is a new 24km metro line with nine underground stations connecting Greater Paramatta and Sydney Central Business District (CBD). Sydney CBD’s heavily urbanised environment requires a solution developed to higher levels of maturity at Concept Design than usual. This paper describes the planning process for two underground metro station caverns highlighting the challenges, opportunities, and constraints for the accurate positioning of the double-height caverns during the Concept Design stage. The paper also presents the methods adopted to assist the planning process, including the streamlined coordination work to determine the preferred location, visualisation of interfaces using Building Information Modelling (BIM), assessing the tunnelling impact by numerical modelling, developing a concept level design to inform the cost, schedule and aid the early contractor involvement. The decision process to determine the optimum configuration of the station caverns is outlined by highlighting the balance between the spaceproofing, constructability and external interfaces.
