Almost half of Glenroy’s ‘big dig’ is complete as works ramp up this month to remove the dangerous and congested level crossing by lowering the Craigieburn line underneath Glenroy Road.

Around 19,000 vehicles pass through the level crossing each day, with the boom gates down for up to 52 minutes during the morning peak.

Construction teams are in the final days of a two-week sprint, which so far has seen around 10 Olympic sized swimming pools worth of rock and soil removed from alongside the rail line. To get on with the job, crews are working an extra two Sunday shifts, including this Sunday where there will be additional excavators, trucks and specialist machinery moving throughout the area.

The rail corridor is built on top of the Western Victorian Volcanic Plain – the third largest rock formation of its type in the world – making the work tougher and louder than normal.

As well as removing the level crossing, the project is delivering a brand-new Glenroy Station and station precinct including improved local connections, dedicated shared use paths and new landscaping by the end of 2022.

Several massive beams each weighing up to 37 tonnes have been trucked into site as work on the foundations for the new Glenroy Station building ramp up, all while 150 Metro and V/Line trains run per day on the busy rail line right next to the works.

Known as Super-T beams, they measure around 24 metres in length and were lifted into place using a 500-tonne crane. Other smaller concrete planks and floor panels have also recently been lifted in, with all concrete segments made locally at pre-cast yards in Melton, Sunshine and Laverton.

Meanwhile, parts of the Glenroy Station building are being prefabricated off site in Seaford – minimising disruption for passengers – and will be trucked in pieces to Glenroy over coming months and put together on the ground.

When the station concourse and building are completed next year, the project will connect two sides of Glenroy, previously separated by the rail line. Pedestrians will be able to walk from Dowd Place on the western side of the rail line across to Hartington Street in the east, without being held up by boom gates or traffic lights.

This is all part of our work to cut travel times and run more trains more often in the north and north east. An investment of more than $20 billion will make it easier to get to work school and health services through projects such as the North East Link, Suburban Rail Loop and the Hurstbridge Line Duplication.