Half down, half to go on Western Sydney International Airport earthworks

12th March 2021:

Work to build Western Sydney International (Nancy-Bird Walton) Airport has reached a major milestone today, with half the earthworks now complete.

Western Sydney Airport CEO Simon Hickey said this was a significant milestone for one of the biggest earthmoving projects in Australian history.

“We’ve now moved more than 13 million cubic metres of earth across the massive 1,780 hectare site,” Mr Hickey said.

“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.

“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.

“Since early earthworks began in September 2018, more than 1.5 million hours have been worked on the project, but earthworks are only the beginning.

“It won’t be long before construction of our terminal, runway, and other facilities are underway, when we’ll have thousands of people employed by the project.”

Mr Hickey said the scale of the project was appropriate to the ambitious vision.

“We’ll open the first stage of Western Sydney International in 2026 with capacity for 10 million passengers per year, but the airport will grow, in stages over decades, to eventually become the biggest gateway to Australia,” he said.

“We’re designing a modern airport from the ground up that will offer passengers, airlines and air cargo operators a vastly improved experience compared to older airports – fast, easy and reliable.”

The initial earthworks phase began in September 2018, with major earthworks starting in March 2020 and is on track for completion in 2022.

Construction of Western Sydney International’s passenger terminal is due to begin at the end of 2021, with runway and taxiway construction kicking off in mid-2022.

Western Sydney International is on track to open for international, domestic and air cargo flights in late 2026.