The Broadway Subway Project in Vancouver hit a new milestone with the first of two tunnel-boring machines (TBMs) breaking through to the future Mount Pleasant Station site.

The custom-built 150-metre-long tunnel boring machine, named Elsie after B.C. born aircraft designer Elizabeth MacGill, bored a six-metre-wide hole in the station’s east wall.

The Broadway Subway Project will extend the Millennium Line 5.7 kilometres from VCC-Clark Station to West Broadway and Arbutus Street, providing people with fast, convenient SkyTrain service along the Broadway corridor. The corridor is home to B.C.’s second-largest jobs centre, world-class health-care services, an emerging innovation and research hub, and growing residential communities.

The project will result in faster travel, better access and fewer cars on the road in this heavily used corridor. Once in service, the trip from VCC-Clark to Arbutus Station will take 11 minutes, saving the average transit commuter almost 30 minutes a day and relieving congestion along Broadway.

Progress continues to be made on the project. The second TBM, named Phyllis after well-known B.C. naturalist and mountain climber Phyllis Munday, began excavating on Nov. 29, 2022. Phyllis is expected to arrive at Mount Pleasant Station this spring. Each machine will take approximately one year to journey from Great Northern Way-Emily Carr Station to Cypress Street near the future Arbutus Station.

On other parts of the project, the 21 columns for the guideway between VCC-Clark Station and the future Great Northern Way-Emily Carr Station are nearing completion. Installation of girders for the track will begin this spring. Excavation and construction of the station foundations continue at the Broadway-City Hall, Oak-VGH, South Granville and Arbutus station sites in preparation for TBM arrivals.

The line is scheduled to open in 2026. Acciona and Ghella are delivering the Broadway Subway Project.