Snowy 2.0 Continues On Several Work Fronts

THE Snowy 2.0 project within Kosciuszko National Park continues to progress on several main fronts and deploys a large workforce. Three trunnel boring machines are in various stages of their individual tasks, work on intake and adits at both Talbingo Dam and Tantangara and underway plus the surge shaft at Marica. As stated in the media recently, the tunnel boring machine (TBM) Florence that was launched in March 2022 at Tantangara is currently paused as ground is assessed. Snowy Hydro executives, including newly appointed CEO Dennis Barnes also fronted a senate estimates committee. As much as these aspects of the project draw negative headlines, there is a huge scope of others works continuing.

TBM Kirsten has almost completed excavating the 11-metre diameter 2.9 kilometre emergency, cable and ventilation tunnel (ECVT). The TBM has passed the location of the underground power station and has installed 13,200 locallymanufactured concrete segments to line this tunnel.

The TBM Kirsten has now been modified for its next task, a complex excavation on the 25 degree angle to create the inclined shaft, which links to the headrace tunnel from Tantangara Reservoir. Extensive modifications of the TBM included installing a screw conveyor (or auger) to extract excavated rock from the cutterhead to a sandwich conveyor system, alterations to the conveyor belt system and converting all walkways into steps and ladderways.

The ECVT will also have a monorail and manrider installed in the top of the tunnel for workers to access the TBM, along with a station platform to access the manrider. A rack and pinion system (similar to the Perisher Skitube) will also be installed to pull the multipurpose special vehicles up the tunnel.

At the Talbingo intake, excavation continues with almost one third complete and 190,000 cubic metres of rock removed so far. At the Talbingo adit, the enormous 150-tonne main drive and the front and middle shields have been lifted into the TBM cradle as the reassembly of TBM Lady Eileen Hudson continues with the addition of some new components. Lady

Eileen Hudson had recently completed the first main access tunnel (MAT) down to the underground power station location and will commence the tailrace tunnel excavation later this year.

At Tantangara Dam, work on the intake extends below the water level and is about 70% complete with an expected finish later in 2023. The excavation of the gate shaft will start shortly.

Drill and blasting will commence soon on the underground power station cavern, the location for the six generating units that will provide an additional 2,000 megawatts of dispatchable, on-demand generating capacity and approximately 350,000 megawatt hours of large-scale storage to the National Electricity Market. Snowy Hydro have updated their target commercial use date to 30 December 2027.

There are more than 2,200 people directly employed on Snowy 2.0 and more than $100 million has been spent with local businesses so far. The services and supply chain benefits locally are also considerable.

Workers are housed in various camps with over 1700 beds available and complete. Lobs Hole has accommodation for 1124, there are 350 beds at Tantangara, 100 at Marica and 126 at Joule Ridge in Cooma. The Marica works are most visible o the Snowy Mountains Highway near Kiandra.

Snowy 2.0 is the largest committed renewable energy project in Australia. The Snowy Hydro website has visual flyovers of the camps and work areas, plus detailed information on the Snowy 2.0 project. You can also sign up to their newsletter via www.snowyhydro.com.au.