Rexy, one of two of Metrolinx’s twin tunnel boring machines (TBM) excavating the tunnels for the western underground segment of the Eglinton Crosstown West Extension, has reached its destination.
The 750-ton, 131-meter (429.8-foot) long machine has broken through the final wall and emerged from the tunnel at the Scarlett Road extraction shaft, where the TBM’s will be disassembled and removed from the ground.
Rexy has spent the past two years carefully excavating one of two 6.3-kilometer (3.9-mile) tunnels that stretches from Renforth Drive to Scarlett Road, where the future line will come to the surface and transition to an above-ground section.
The Eglinton Crosstown West Extension will bring future Eglinton Crosstown light-rail transit service farther west through York, Etobicoke and into Mississauga, Ontario. The project includes seven new stations along a route of 9.2 kilometers (5.7 miles).
Metrolinx says Rexy’s twin – Renny – is not far behind and will arrive at the extraction shaft in the weeks to come. Once crews take the TBMs apart in the extraction shaft, they will lift them from the ground piece by piece. At that point, Rexy and Renny will be retired from work on the project but work will continue at the extraction shaft to lay the foundations and form the structure of the future tunnel portal. Work has also started to prepare construction sites for the eastern underground segment of the line that will run from east of Jane Street to Mount Dennis Station.
