A day after Infrastructure Australia lambasted the business case for a metro rail link between Western Sydney Airport and St Marys, the media were invited to check out the progress of earthworks to level the site at Badgerys Creek.
Paul Fletcher, the minister responsible for construction of the airport, took the media on a tour of the site early this morning.
The reason for the viewing: a major milestone – half the earthworks done and dusted.
“Hundreds of workers are already being employed on site to prepare the land for airport construction, with more than half of these jobs held by Western Sydney locals,” Mr Fletcher said.
“Using 260 pieces of earthmoving equipment, these workers have put in more than 1.5 million hours and moved 13 million cubic metres of earth across the site – equivalent to over 5,000 Olympic swimming pools worth of earth.
“We’re running hard to get Western Sydney Airport built and open, so it’s great to reach this important milestone.”
The finance minister, Simon Birmingham, said local jobs and economic activity would be boosted as further works get under way, with construction of the passenger terminal due to begin by the end of the year.
“Constructing an international airport from the ground up is providing Australia the runway for a world-class airport that not only will be a gateway for international visitors in the future but a hub of domestic economic activity for Western Sydney,” he said.
“With the airport expected to support almost 28,000 direct and indirect jobs by 2031, this project continues to deliver local job opportunities and ongoing stimulus by attracting business and industry to the region.”
Western Sydney Airport CEO Simon Hickey said the earthworks were one of the biggest earthmoving projects in Australian history.
“Hundreds of skilled workers, more than half of them from Western Sydney, are working on site to support the 260 pieces of earthmoving equipment at work to prepare the site for airport construction,’’ he said.
“The scrapers, excavators, dump trucks and dozers on this site are some of the biggest in the world, the kind you expect to see on mega mining projects.
“It won’t be long before construction of our terminal, runway, and other facilities are under way, when we’ll have thousands of people employed by the project.”
