A fresh crisis has hit the beleaguered Snowy 2.0 hydropower project, with part of a tunnel collapsing and boring machine 'Florence' once again struggling to progress through difficult geological terrain.
There has been a partial tunnel collapse at the main Snowy 2.0 construction site due to "drill and blast" operations in an adjacent tunnel.
The collapse raises questions about the safety procedures for tunnelling and why blasting for one tunnel was happening so close to another. One person involved in the construction project said at the time of the collapse, the sections subject to active drilling and blasting were larger than normal to speed up the excavation.Snowy Hydro did not answer specific questions about this allegation.Other safety concerns have been raised about the handling of high-pressure water equipment at another worksite in the Snowy 2.0 project.
"The health, safety and wellbeing of people is paramount to Snowy Hydro. We continue to work actively with Future Generation and our safety regulators to protect the health and safety of all workers and visitors on the Snowy 2.0 sites.""This is just another f*** up … it's comical how bad are," they said.
In February, Snowy Hydro CEO Dennis Barnes said a decision would be made "in the next month or two" about whether to purchase another tunnel boring machine to start tunnelling from the other end. A "drill and blast" approach from the other end was also under consideration."Snowy Hydro has been investigating options to de-risk the headrace tunnel construction by excavating from the other end. This work remains ongoing," the Snowy Hydro statement reads.
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