Chengdu: Mounting costs associated with the Suburban Rail Loop are fast taking the project to a point of no return, after the Victorian government ordered delivery of four more tunnel boring machines from China.

Premier Jacinta Allan will visit a construction site outside the panda capital of Chengdu on Friday to announce the new order, which doubles the number of machines being assembled and freighted to Melbourne to help build Victoria’s largest, and largely unfunded, infrastructure project.

The additional machines, which are scheduled to arrive next year and be in the ground before the November 2026 state election, will bore twin tunnels between Glen Waverley and Box Hill. Two each will dig in opposite directions from the Burwood launch site.

The $130 million cost of the machines ar

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