First boring machine for Broadway Subway reaches end of tunnel at Arbutus

Tunnel boring machine Phyllis arrived at the Millennium Line pit of Broadway-City Hall Station on May 26, 2023. (Government of BC)

The first of two tunnel boring machines building the Broadway Subway has made its final breakthrough in its journey at Cypress Street, reaching the pit of Arbutus Station.

Through the Broadway Subway Project Office, the provincial government quietly announced that the tunnel boring machine named Phyllis arrived at the Arbutus Station pit on Wednesday, March 20, 2024.

This represents the completion of the tunnel boring process for SkyTrain Millennium Line’s Broadway Extension’s westbound tunnel.

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Phyllis began boring her last segment between stations on February 2, 2024, when she resumed her dig from the Granville Street wall of South Granville Station. It took her 50 days to travel the four city block segment from Granville Street to Cypress Street.

The Arbutus Station pit is two blocks long between Cypress Street and Arbutus Street, with the eastern block between Cypress Street and Maple Street used for a major track switch enabling trains to turn around from the terminus station, and the western block between Maple Street and Arbutus Street used for the subway station structure itself.

Elsie, the other tunnel boring machine, responsible for building the eastbound tunnel, is also now closing in to break through the wall at Cypress Street.

Elsie resumed her dig from South Granville Street on March 5, 2024 — 17 days ago, as of today. If she is able to dig at a similar pace as Phyllis, she could reach Cypress Street by the end of April 2024.

When Elsie makes her final breakthrough later this spring, this will represent the conclusion of the Broadway Subway’s tunnel boring process by Italian tunnelling company Ghella, which partnered with Acciona Infrastructure Canada to build the project.

From Cypress Street, both tunnel boring machines will be disassembled and extracted.

Ministry photo shows Broadway Subway’s eastbound tunnel from Broadway-City Hall Station looking east towards Mount Pleasant Station.

The tunnel’s upward curve is from the 20-metre depth of Broadway-City Hall, deeper than Mount Pleasant. #SkyTrain #vanre https://t.co/bWIIsYcFtg pic.twitter.com/Tw8cAUiTBb

— Kenneth Chan (@iamkennethchan) March 3, 2024

Both tunnel boring machines first began their journey with a staggered launch weeks apart in Fall 2022 from the tunnel boring staging pit at the intersection of Thornton Street and Great Northern Way, which doubles as the pit for Great Northern Way-Emily Carr Station.

Tunnel boring was originally scheduled to reach completion in late 2023 to maintain the project’s schedule of reaching completion and opening in early 2026.

It remains to be seen how the delay of approximately at least four months will impact the project’s timing. In October 2023, the provincial government told Daily Hive Urbanized the project team will have more clarity on the timing of the remaining construction activities and overall project schedule once tunnel boring is complete.

It is known that the remaining work on the project cannot fully advance until tunnel boring reaches completion, including the construction of the subway station structures, and tracks and equipment within the lengths of tunnel.

Broadway Subway tunnel boring progress, May 2023. (Government of BC)

skytrain broadway subway tunnel boring machine october 3 2022

Early October 2022: assembly process for Broadway Subway tunnel boring machines, Elsie and Phyllis. (Government of BC)

The extension was originally scheduled to open by late 2025, but it was announced in November 2022 that this timeline was delayed by a few weeks into early 2026 due to the Spring 2022 labour dispute of Lower Mainland concrete workers, which postponed the start of tunnel boring from Summer 2022 to Fall 2022.

Elsie was originally the lead tunnel boring machine, before being passed by Phyllis at around the mid-way digging point at Broadway-City Hall Station towards the middle of 2023.

Compared to other station pit pass-throughs, both machines also experienced a much longer maintenance dormancy and boring pace at Broadway-City Hall Station in the late spring and early summer of 2023. Extra precautions were put in place before boring beneath the Canada Line tunnel underneath Cambie Street.

Upon opening, Broadway-City Hall Station will become one of the region’s busiest SkyTrain stations, as it will be transformed into a seamless interchange hub between the Millennium Line and Canada Line.

broadway subway broadway-city hall station february 2024

February 2024 construction progress: A mined tunnel at Broadway-City Hall Station to create the underground footpaths enabling passengers to transfer directly between the platforms of the Millennium Line and Canada Line. (Government of BC)

Diagram showing the interchange hub between the Millennium Line and Canada Line at Broadway-City Hall Station. (Government of BC)

The $2.8 billion, 5.7-km-long extension of the Millennium Line will add six subway stations to the SkyTrain network. A length of five km is underground, but there is also a 700-metre-long elevated segment between the existing VCC-Clark Station and the tunnel portal just before Great Northern Way-Emily Carr Station.

In Summer 2024, the new infill Capstan Station on SkyTrain Canada Line will finally open roughly midway between Bridgeport and Aberdeen stations. Capstan Station was originally supposed to reach completion in Summer 2023.

Later in 2024, major construction work will also begin on the 16-km-long, eight-station Surrey-Langley Extension of SkyTrain Expo Line, which is scheduled to reach completion by late 2028 at a cost of $4 billion. The Broadway Extension and Surrey-Langley Extension will mark the first time the major construction work timelines of two SkyTrain extension projects overlap. With the Broadway Extension and Surrey-Langley Extension, the SkyTrain network will reach a milestone length of over 100 km.

broadway subway skytrain millennium line station map names

September 2020 updated map with the final station names of the Millennium Line Broadway Extension. (Government of BC)

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