Getting creative with jobs support

Getting creative with jobs support

The Metro Tunnel Project will provide a huge boost to the Victorian arts community in the coming months, with more than $150,000 of new commissions announced for local artists. 

The funding package offered over the next few months will help local artists and other creative professionals affected by the coronavirus pandemic by providing additional opportunities for work. 

The largest commission is to design and paint two walls of the City Square acoustic shed, facing Swanston St and Flinders Lane, in the heart of the CBD. The 90-metre long and over 20-metre wide temporary acoustic shed is minimising noise, light and dust created during the 24-hour construction works as the new Town Hall Station is built. 

Arts industry workers including artists, poets, writers, musicians and performers and more have been invited to register for an artist pool. Artists will then be selected from the pool to apply for the commissions. 

The works will be displayed on the Metro Tunnel’s construction hoardings and other structures later this year, bringing colour and life to Melbourne’s streets as the community and economy recovers from the coronavirus disruption. 

The new artwork commissions are part of the Metro Tunnel Creative Program, which offers opportunities for local artists and creative practitioners to keep Melbourne vibrant and attractive while major construction is underway.

Professional creatives can visit metrotunnel.vic.gov.au to find out how to apply.

Tunnelling in full swing

All four of the Metro Tunnel Project’s tunnel boring machines (TBMs) are now building the project’s twin nine-kilometre rail tunnels across Melbourne, as tunnelling kicks into full gear.

From the site of the new Anzac Station, 22 metres below St Kilda Rd, two TBMs named Millie and Alice are now tunnelling 1.7km towards the eastern tunnel entrance in South Yarra. 

At North Melbourne, TBMs Joan and Meg have also been launched from the site of the new Arden Station to carve out the 1.4km twin tunnels towards Parkville. This is the first time all four TBMs have been operating at the same time.

TBMs Joan and Meg completed the first 1.2km section of tunnels from Arden to the western tunnel entrance in Kensington earlier this year •

Since Labor has been in power …

Since Labor has been in power …

March 20th, 2024 - Evan Mulholland
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