Since the start of the project more than 250 unknown utility services have been found underneath the roadway. Gas mains, water pipes, fibre-optic telecommunication cables and high-voltage electrical wires create a spider's web of utilities beneath the light rail route.

Over the next five months, work will involve mapping and excavating the area, and removing items such as rail sleepers before major work on underground utilities can begin. For 24 consecutive weekends, workers on Sydney's $2.1 billion light rail line will follow a routine of ripping up the same stretch of roadway before re-laying asphalt and painting road markings less than two days later. They plan to rip up the road on Saturday and rebuild it on Sunday so motorists can use it on Monday. They will repeat this process for almost half a year. This has to happen because east-west traffic flow needs to be maintained through the city on weekdays.

Construction crews will take it in turns to ensure work was continuous for 56 hours. Echo Barrier have been contracted to provide noise barriers to frame the site, reducing some of the impact of the roadway breaking-up on local people who are living and working in the area.

Peter Wilson, technical director at Echo Barrier said: "This is a fantastic project for us to be part of and we're thrilled to be able to work with the team to provide a noise reduction solution for the project. We hear often how construction noise affects people on both their commute and their working day as well as their homelife, and Echo Barriers can reduce this effect, making the site free of the excessive noise which has been proven to be detrimental to the health of local people."

Glenn Bentley, the chief executive of the light rail project consortium ALTRAC, said: "We always knew it was going to be complex and delicate. This is probably one of the most important phases – clearing the way so we can put down the slabs for the light rail line." "As we expected, building light rail down one of the oldest streets in Australia's biggest city has presented some challenges, and will continue to do so throughout construction, but Transport for NSW remains satisfied with ALTRAC's progress given this challenging environment," a Transport for NSW spokesman said. Echo Barrier Australia are thrilled to be able to supply noise reduction solutions to this major infrastructure project on one of Sydney’s oldest and most prominent roads.