The project welcomed new team members to the site in March to commence the installation of ‘offline’ rail equipment (laid next to the existing rail corridor without requiring a rail line closure).

Works progressed well and from Monday 1 April, the project had installed 2400 tonnes of ballast, 1586 concrete sleepers and 975 metres of track.

From early April, two new machines were on site. The tamping machine was used to align the rail and compact the ballast around the sleepers to hold the track in place. The regulator machine was used to profile the ballast shape and clean the ballast off of the rail.

The machines completed 300m of work per hour and generated a loud rumbling sound. They were used again during the April/May 2019 connection works, when more ballast, sleepers and track was installed.

During the connection works, road rail vehicles were also used. As the name suggests, these vehicles travel on road or rail!

The vehicles are fitted with rail wheels enabling them to work on track or off track, as normal plant will not be able to travel over the sleepers and rail. They were used during the rail occupation to install track and overhead line equipment components.