Students name Forrestfield-Airport Link TBMs

The names of the two tunnel boring machines (TBMs) to be used on Perth’s Forrestfield-Airport Link have been announced.

Five local children have won the competition to name and decorate the TBMs, which will dig the tunnels for the $1.86 billion project.

The first TBM has been named Grace, in honour of pre-primary student Grace McPhee, who was nominated by her classmates at Edney Primary School in High Wycombe. The students said Grace, who is undergoing treatment for leukaemia, was the toughest person they knew – a toughness the TBM would need to bore through the earth.

This TBM is decorated with artwork by Year 6 Walliston Primary School student Georgia Fields.

The second TBM, will be named Sandy – suggested by High Wycombe Primary School Year 4 student Sarah Spratt. Sarah was inspired after finding a sandgroper in her backyard, as the local insect (which is also a colloquial name for Western Australians) is ‘excellent at tunnelling, just like the TBM’.

This TBM will be decorated with artwork by Rossmoyne Primary School Year 5 students Faith Brand and Jood Al Jashammi.

The TBMs will each dig eight kilometres of seven-metre diameter tunnels – including under Perth Airport and the Swan River.

The machines will take two years to make the journey underground to Bayswater, where the rail link will spur off the Midland Line. First trains are due on the line in late 2020.