Amelia Rose has finally landed

TUNNELLING THROUGH: The $10 million tunnel boring machine Amelia Rose is unveiled for the start of the main tunnelling works for North Shore City Council's $116 million Rosedale tunnel and marine outfall project.

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Amelia Rose has arrived and she’s up and ready for the big dig happening on the North Shore.

The $10 million tunnel boring machine that will burrow through the longest tunnel on the Shore was unveiled by city officials on Tuesday.

The machine was shipped from Canada in time for the scheduled start later this month of the main tunnel works for the $116m Rosedale tunnel and marine outfall project.

An open day on Sunday from 10am to 2pm will give people a chance to see the massive machine before it disappears from public view.

After its work is finished the machine will remain underground because there is no way of getting it out.

Engineers have built a 45-metre deep access shaft for the tunnelling machine that will grind a 2.6km tunnel route from the Rosedale wastewater treatment plant to Mairangi Bay.

Once complete, the outfall will discharge high-quality treated effluent through another 2.8km of high density polyethylene pipe buried in the seabed and out into the Rangitoto Channel.

The tunnel will be at least 25 metres underground to ensure no noise or vibrations will be experienced above ground.

The machine was named after the three-year-old daughter of the tunnel project manager Matt Dowler from contractor McConnell Dowell.

Mr Dowler says the tunnel into Mairangi Bay will take 10 months to finish, with the whole project completed by June 2010.

At nine revolutions per minute, the state-of-the-art machine is capable of punching a metre through solid rock in 15 to 30 minutes.

An estimated 65,000 tonnes of excavated materials will be spread into a four-hectare area within the plant to meet the Auckland Regional Council’s sediment control standards.

- © Fairfax NZ News