To help mark a major milestone in the $15.4 billion delivery of a non-stop South Rd, a public competition has been launched to name the River Torrens to Darlington's (T2D) tunnel boring machines (TBMs).
The machines will be given female names, in line with a tradition dating back to the 1500s, when miners prayed to Saint Barbara, the patron saint of tunnellers, for protection underground.
Our state has plenty of remarkable women to draw upon for inspiration, and South Australians will have until Sunday 30 November at 5pm to nominate a name, with a short description of why they would be a fitting choice.
Need motivation? Think about inspiring women from South Australian history, local heroes who have made a difference or cultural icons who capture the spirit of SA.
Details on how to enter are available on the T2D website – t2d.sa.gov.au (external site).
The competition launch comes as the largest individual component of the first TBM is successfully transferred to the T2D project's Southern Precinct site at Clovelly Park.
The centrepiece of the cutterhead - itself a massive 9m in diameter - was transported from Port Adelaide on Saturday night, using a specialised truck and trailer combination.
The 25km journey took more than two hours and required progressive road closures with nine sets of traffic lights temporarily removed, then later reinstalled, because the cutterhead was too wide to fit through the intersection.
The remaining components of the first TBM are expected to arrive by the end of 2025.
This is the first of two TBMs that will ultimately launch from the Southern Precinct to construct the twin 4.5km southern tunnels, while a third TBM will launch from the Central North Precinct at Richmond to construct the twin 2.2km northern tunnels.
The three TBMs being used on the T2D Project have been purchased from world-leading tunnelling manufacturer Herrenknecht.
Each T2D TBM will be approximately 100m in length and 15m in diameter – roughly the height of the Thebarton Theatre or the goalposts at Adelaide Oval.
The procurement of three TBMs means both the northern and southern tunnels can be constructed concurrently meaning the project will be delivered by 2031.
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