Light rail: no compensation for businesses

Businesses along George Street affected by the Light Rail construction in Sydney's CBD won't be financially compensated, with Transport Minister Andrew Constance saying people need to consider the "bigger picture".

The minister joined NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Monday to inspect the breakthrough of a tunnel set to link the George Street light rail to the eastern suburbs at Moore Park.

Construction on George Street began in 2015 with the rail link expected to open in early 2019.

Ten kilometres of track have been laid down as of Saturday night.

Mr Constance said the state government would work with a number of businesses directly affected to give a "little bit of assistance" for rent but that was where it would stop.

"We're not providing compensation because we've got a massive program across the state and everyone is going to enjoy enormous uplift when this infrastructure is complete," he told reporters.

"What I would say also is at the end of the day everyone must remember the bigger picture here, this is going to be a transformation of our global city that we've never seen before."

Mr Constance said work on George Street had faced challenges associated with the discovery of "hundreds of utilities" underground but said construction in the CBD should be complete by the first half of 2018.