Melbourne's Metro Rail Tunnel project will create almost 7,000 jobs, including hundreds for apprentices and trainees, in what Premier Daniel Andrews has called a "profound investment in skills" for Victoria.
Preliminary works on the $11 billion project have already begun, and will eventually see a new 9-kilometre train tunnel under Melbourne's inner city and five new underground stations.
Major construction will begin next year and is expected to be completed by 2026.
The Andrews Government today revealed the breakdown of jobs for the project, saying nearly 7,000 new positions would be created. Of those, 500 will go to apprentices, trainees and engineering cadets.
Premier Daniel Andrews said more than 1,000 people had already been employed.
"This is the biggest project that our state has seen for a very long time, perhaps ever, it is Infrastructure Australia's number one priority for all the public transport benefits it will deliver, but along the way so many thousands of families are going to benefit through employment, through skills," he said.
"And they're not jobs for a month or six months, they're jobs for a long period of time, this is such a big project, so it's a long pipeline of work as well."
Melburnians have been warned to expect significant disruptions in the coming years due to construction, but authorities have said the benefits will far outweigh the short-term pain.
Project will exceed local content targets: Premier
The Government said it would also exceed local content targets, with more than 88 per cent of materials used sourced locally and more than half of the project delivered by small and medium businesses.
"All of these targets and this thoughtful approach, common sense approach I might say, is not so much a cost as a profound investment in skills and jobs for Victorians," Mr Andrews said.
A new factory in Melbourne's west will produce pre-cast concrete segments, which the Government said would help ex-automotive workers from Geelong and Ballarat.
There will also be a boost to employment in the Latrobe Valley through fabrication work.
