Another delay: Work stopped at all Snowy 2.0 tunnels over safety worries

Work has stopped again on the controversial Snowy 2.0 pumped hydro project, this time after workers raised concerns that crucial underground life support chambers are not up to standard.

The refuge chambers are container-sized boxes within a tunnel that give trapped workers basic life support until they can be rescued or safely leave the area.

But, despite the project now being into its eight year, the Australian Workers Union says people working in the tunnels haven’t been taught how to use the chambers or how to deal with underground emergencies, and no evacuation drills have been done “for months”.

AWU NSW Secretary Tony Callinan says the union has been raising safety concerns about the project for years.

“Health and safety representatives have been raising their concerns on site for months, but their concerns have fallen on deaf ears,” Callinan said in a statement.

“The workforce has decided enough is enough and out of frustration and genuine concern for their safety decided they had no option but to stop working underground until their concerns are appropriately addressed.”

Callinan was scathing about the latest problem, saying that while the project is difficult and complex, “management can’t seem to even get the basics right”.

In a statement to the Renew Economy, Snowy Hydro said work should restart soon once the current worries are resolved, and assured that it has addressed previous safety concerns.

“Some underground work at Snowy 2.0 has temporarily stopped while principal contractor Future Generation Joint Venture (FGJV) takes steps to ensure a back-up safety system meets strict safety requirements,” a supplied statement said.

“Refuge chambers have been the subject of discussions with unions in the past. There has been an increased emphasis on safety performance in the revised Ministerial Statement of Expectations issued to Snowy Hydro.

“Snowy Hydro expects FGJV to maintain the highest safety standards and requires the contractor to resolve matters relating to certification, management plans and additional training requirements, before underground work in these two areas can begin again.”

The Florence and Kirsten tunnel borers have been out of action since Tuesday, and Renew Economy understands from the AWU that now work with the Lady Eileen Hudson has also halted.

Snowy Hydro however says some underground work is continuing, as is all work on the surface.

Long, difficult history

The now-$12 billion Snowy 2.0 project has been plagued by cost blowouts and delays, as the difficult geography in the Kosciuszko National Park in the Snowy Mountains crashed into political promises around cost and speed. 

Snowy 2.0 will pump water from the Talbingo Reservoir up to the higher Tantangara Reservoir, providing up to 2.2 gigawatts of power to the grid.

The original project was pitched by then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in 2017 as a $2 billion renewable energy game changer that would be ready for action in 2021. Within months the feasibility study costings were released and the project price had doubled. 

Delays have been a problem for the first machine on the site, Florence, which was stuck from September 2022 to December 2023 after hitting soft earth, and then again last year after running into hard rock.

That machine still needs to excavate 14.9 km of the 17 km headrace tunnel that carries water from the reservoir to the powerhouse. 

Late in 2024 Snowy Hydro said it would buy a fourth machine to try to meet its 2028 completion deadline, and it is due later this year.

But Snowy Hydro and the former Coalition federal government have also been reluctant to reveal the extent of the challenges it’s facing.

The full bill of the delays and higher costs of the publicly funded project were only laid out for all to see by a 2023 Senate Estimates committee hearing which discovered just how much the budget had exploded and how complete the project truly was.