Geotechnical drilling work has started on the Yarra River as part of the A$11bn ($7.6bn) Melbourne Metro Rail Project in Victoria, Australia.

Victoria’s acting premier James Merlino joined acting minister for public transport Luke Donnellan to announce the start of works on a temporary floating barge, from which the Melbourne Metro Rail Authority will gather information from deep under the Yarra.

The barge has been stationed under the Princes Bridge, which will drill 12 35m-deep holes into the riverbed over the next six weeks to provide critical information about ground conditions.

"The Melbourne Metro Rail Project is designed to create space for 20,000 additional passengers during peak hours and offer future expansion of Victoria’s rail network."

The secured information will help determine the exact technical specifications of the twin tunnels, which will be built below the river.

The tunnels will be excavated using tunnel boring machines (TBMs) and sit around 7m below the riverbed.

TBMs are currently being used to build New York’s Second Avenue Subway and London’s CrossRail projects in the US and UK respectively, and will reduce both the environmental impact on the river and inconvenience for locals, visitors and businesses.

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The geotechnical investigations will be carried out at various points on the river, ahead of enabling works next year and the start of major construction in 2018.

The Melbourne Metro Rail Project is designed to create space for 20,000 additional passengers during peak hours and offer future expansion of Victoria’s rail network.

For this project, the Victoria government has already committed A$4.5bn to Melbourne Metro Rail and last November, it announced that the first package of works on the rail project is scheduled to start next year.

According to Merlino, discussions will continue with the Turnbull government about them providing Victorians a fair share towards this project.

The project includes the construction of two 9km rail tunnels and five underground stations. The tunnels will be built from South Kensington to South Yarra as part of a new Sunbury to Cranbourne and Pakenham line.