CRL Connection - December 2018

CRL Connection

December 2018

Thank you and Merry Christmas – from the City Rail Link team It’s been a year of great progress on the City Rail Link (CRL), with some important milestones reached.

City Rail Link Limited (CRLL) chief executive, Dr Sean Sweeney, says building 3.45km twin tunnels and new stations up to 42 metres underground in the middle of a built-up city, is no small task, but he is delighted with the progress made so far.

“When building infrastructure of this size and scale in a busy urban environment, it’s impossible not to impact people in some way,” he says.

“We work hard to minimise the more negative aspects of our construction works but inevitably we do impact on people’s lives, whether they’re dealing with construction noise or having to take a detour around our worksite.

“On behalf of the CRL project team, I’d like to thank everyone for their support, patience and

understanding as we work to complete the biggest transport infrastructure project ever to be undertaken in this country.

“When CRL opens in 2024, Aucklanders will have new world-class stations and a modern rail service that will benefit the entire transport network for decades to come. It will be worth the wait.”

Japanese

もし、 このファクトシートを理解する必要があれば、 下記のメール経由で我々にご連絡ください。

Russian

Если Вам необходима помощь в разъяснении содержимого в данном бюллетене, просим адресовать Ваши вопросы на нижеуказанную электронную почту.

Simplified Chinese Korean

본 자료표에 관한 더 많은 정보를 원하시면 하단의 이메일 주소로 연락 주시기 바랍니다.

Arabic ‫ةرشنلا اذه مهف يف ةدعاسم ىلإ ةجاحب تنك اذإ‬، ‫هاندأ ينورتكلإلا ديربلا ناونع ربع انب لاصتالا ىجري‬.

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Some of the 2018 milestones we celebrated

The Minister of Transport Hon. Phil Twyford, Mayor of Auckland Phil Goff, Finance Minister Hon. Grant Robertson and Deputy Mayor Bill Cashmore visiting CRL’s Albert Street trench.

January: The final concrete pour for the 64th and final diaphragm wall to support the CRL tunnel excavation under Britomart Station’s Chief Post Office (CPO) building.

February: Construction of the first of 29 tunnel box sections started in Albert Street.

April: CRL works gets underway in Mt Eden for the first time with commencement of works to divert a major stormwater line.

May: The first area of Britomart’s heritage-protected CPO building is load-transferred onto structural steel underpinning frames.

July: Tunnel excavation starts under the Customs Street intersection and first concrete pour for the Albert Street twin-tunnel roof takes place.

October: Backfilling of the Albert Street trench began and the load transfer of the 106-year-old CPO building is completed.

November: The CRL project wins both the Efficiency Champion category and the Supreme Award at the NZI Sustainable Business Network Awards.

December: The CRL marks the breakthrough from its Albert St tunnels to those built across the Commercial Bay site, connecting under the Customs Street intersection. The micro tunnel boring machine that will divert the Mt Eden stormwater main away from the future CRL tunnels at Mt Eden, is lowered into its launch shaft at Water Street.

Click here for more milestones

August: CRL sponsors – the NZ Government and Auckland Council – agree to increase their investment in the project to cater for larger-thanexpected growth in rail patronage. Work also begins on excavating the 14-metre-deep trench that will contain CRL’s tunnels under Britomart Station and Lower Queen Street.

September: The Request for Proposal (RFP) was issued to the two shortlisted tenderers for CRL’s major stations and tunnels contract and CRL releases new video fly-throughs of the future CRL stations.

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A trench is underway in Lower Queen St to contain CRL’s twin rail tunnels

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Event celebrates CRL tunnel break-through

Left: Mayor Phil Goff with CRLL chief executive Dr Sean Sweeney at the tunnel breakthrough Above: The grand tunnel reveal

CRL celebrated a major milestone this month with the breakthrough from the Albert Street trench to CRL tunnels built under the neighbouring Commercial Bay development site in downtown Auckland.

The breakthrough itself was a gradual process requiring a staged approach to excavation, construction of shotcrete (sprayed concrete) support between piles and the demolition of temporary concrete piles separating the two sites.

The tunnels between the two sites meet under the Customs Street traffic deck, which was built last year to keep traffic moving while the work is carried out underneath.

CRL’s CEO, Dr Sean Sweeney, added that the nature of this project makes the milestone even more significant.

“This is the largest transport project ever undertaken in New Zealand and building it within the middle of a built-up city is no small task,” he says.

“The nature of the excavation, the tight confines and the location all make building this project extremely complex and I’m delighted with the progress we have made to date.”

“When complete, it will carry more than 50,000 passengers during peak hours and completely transform how we move about our city,” he said.

CRL contractor Connectus (the McConnell Dowell and Downer Joint Venture) can now complete the construction of the remaining third of the Albert Street tunnel box. The backfilling of the trench will continue until it is completely covered – sometime in mid-2019.

“This project continues to progress and take shape at pace and we’re thrilled that Aucklanders are starting to see the outputs of all the hard work that is going on right underneath their city,” says Dr Sweeney.

A snapshot of the Albert Street Trench in numbers: • 846,000 hours worked to date • 360 piles installed • 155 steel struts • 250 services relocated • 50,000m3 of backfill to complete the trench • 10,000m3 of tunnel box concrete

Mayor Phil Goff said completion of the Albert Street trench excavation brings delivery of Auckland’s first underground rail line one step closer.

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CRL wins supreme sustainability award

The proud City Rail Link team on the awards night

CRL has been recognised for changing the way infrastructure projects are designed and delivered in New Zealand.

The project won both the Efficiency Champion category and the Supreme NZI Transforming New Zealand Award at this year’s NZI Sustainable Business Network Awards.

The judges said CRL has “proven the infrastructure industry can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and its environmental impact while developing Auckland’s much-needed public transport infrastructure. This will result in ongoing reduction in both congestion and carbon.”

CRL’s Chief Executive, Dr Sean Sweeney, says the awards reflect the commitment of the project team, designers and contractors to delivering the CRL sustainably.

“We’re providing an efficient, low carbon transport option for Auckland but we’re mindful of the significant resources that go into constructing such large-scale infrastructure and aim to minimise resource use as much as possible,” he says.

“The attitude and commitment to making sustainability an integral part of building the CRL is already making a real difference to saving money

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and resources and together we’re always looking for more opportunities as construction progresses.”

Rachel Brown, CEO Sustainable Business Network, says: “The CRL will be a tremendous part of Auckland’s public transport infrastructure. It will help demonstrate how New Zealand can move to a low carbon, circular and more accessible city. City Rail Link exhibits best practice that provides an excellent model for other businesses to follow.”

The CRL project is using the Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia (ISCA) rating tool to measure and independently verify its sustainability performance and has so far been awarded two ‘Leading’ sustainability ratings from ISCA; one for its Britomart Station works and the other for its Albert Street works.

The project is on track to reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with energy and material use during construction by over 4,000 tCO2e – the equivalent emissions of around 4,500 flights between Auckland and London - and has thus far diverted 97% of construction and demolition waste from landfill.

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More CRL tunnel breakthroughs early next year Early next year, the CRL tunnel trench being excavated from Britomart Station’s Chief Post Office (CPO) building and Lower Queen Street will connect to the underground rail tunnels that have been built across the Commercial Bay site.

This will provide a complete tunnel section from Britomart through to the Albert/Wyndham Street intersection.

Excavation of all tunnel areas under the CPO building and Lower Queen Street will continue over the Christmas/New Year period and concrete tunnel construction is expected to start in this location in January 2019.

Within the CPO building, contractor Downer Soletanche Bachy JV continues back-of-house preparations before the tunnels break through to Britomart Station early next year.

Top right: The northern tunnel excavation under Britomart’s CPO building Bottom right: The Lower Queen Street excavation, ready to cut through the secant pile wall into the Commercial Bay site

Changes to Albert Street layout in the New Year Some significant changes will be made to the layout of Albert Street in the New Year.

At the southern end of the Albert Street site, work will begin on reinstating the Wyndham Street intersection. At that location, the struts (horizontal support beams) will be removed, the trench backfilled and the road surface reinstated by about March 2019.

the existing construction traffic deck, to enable the public realm reinstatement works to begin.

Connectus JV will remove the pile capping beams before completing the backfilling of the trench and reinstating the road with tree pits, stormwater catchpits and new kerb lines.

CRL’s Albert Street tunnel box is expected to be completed by about August 2019.

From March, Albert Street’s northbound traffic lane will move closer to the centre of street, onto

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Jeffie the TBM starts Mt Eden pipe-jack next month ‘Jeffie’ – the micro tunnel boring machine that will install a 420-metre section of replacement stormwater main through Mt Eden – is expected to start her pipe-jack journey in early January.

The existing stormwater main lies in the path of the future CRL tunnels at Mt Eden, so must be diverted before work can begin on building the new station and twin tunnels in the area.

On Wednesday this week, Jeffie was lowered into the 17-metredeep launch shaft on Water Street, where her final preparations are being made. She will simultaneously tunnel and install new concrete pipe segments and is expected to arrive at CRL’s reception shaft on Nikau Street by April next year.

Completing the stormwater realignment contract will bring Auckland a step closer to a better connected and more efficient public transport network. And for the Mt Eden area, it will mean the opportunity for urban revitalisation, through integrated residential and commercial development around a modern new rail station.

Jeffie is lowered into the Water St launch shaft

Ground investigation works to begin in Mt Eden Geotechnical investigations will be undertaken in the rail corridor at Mt Eden over the Christmas break.

The work involves drilling boreholes and undertaking cone penetration testing to better understand ground conditions. The results will assist CRL engineers with the design of the physical structures that are needed to connect the new CRL line with the existing Western Line track at Mt Eden.

The daytime works are scheduled to take place from 27 December to 5 January to coincide with KiwiRail’s Christmas/New Year maintenance schedule, when the rail line is closed to trains and overhead electrified wires turned off.

The investigations are taking place at various locations, from just east of the Normanby Road rail crossing to the Mt Eden Station side of Porters Avenue.

Aspects of the work have potential to create noise. However, the crew will only be working at each location for a short period of time and the noise generated is not expected to cause much disturbance to surrounding properties. Access, traffic and parking will not be affected.

Further ground investigations, including ‘pot-holing’ to confirm the exact locations of underground utility services, are also being planned for next year.

The exact timing of these works has yet to be confirmed but may take place between mid-January and the end of February.

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This compact drilling rig will be one of the machines used for geotechnical investigations in Mt Eden

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St Barbara’s Day ceremony for Jeffie and workers A special ceremony was held for Jeffie on 4 December – also known as Saint Barbara’s Day. St Barbara is the patron saint of miners and tunnellers – so it was an auspicious day to hold the event.

A statuette of St Barbara was carried by March Bessac Joint Venture (MBJV) tunnel supervisor Laurent LeCalvez into the Water Street, where Jeffie will start her pipe-jacking work.

It’s traditional when a new project starts for a small shrine to St Barbara to be set up at the tunnel entrance, followed by a dedication and an invocation to St Barbara for protection of the workers.

Jeffie, a German-built Herrenknecht AVN machine from France, was named in a hugely popular naming competition on CRL’s Facebook page that engaged more than 37,000 people from around the world.

Right: Tunnel supervisor Laurent LeCalvez taking the statuette of St Barbara down into the Water St shaft.

Centre: The statuette of St Barbara Bottom: MBJV workers with Jeffie

Thousands voted for the name ‘Jeff’ but tradition dictated that a female name was required, so ‘Jeffie’ - a popular girls name in the early 1900s - was chosen.

Naming digging equipment after women is said to be a tradition that dates to the 1500s when miners prayed to St. Barbara to keep them safe underground.

Watch the video

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CRL moves to single Alliance to deliver stations, tunnels and rail systems CRLL has announced that it intends to proceed with a single alliance to deliver the stations, tunnels and rail systems – including the C7 Rail Systems contract.

Chief Executive Dr Sean Sweeney says that a single alliance will deliver positive outcomes and significant opportunities for the project.

The decision follows the announcement that RCR Tomlinson and more recently RCR infrastructure (NZ) had gone into voluntary administration. RCR Infrastructure (NZ) Ltd forms part of the Systems Alliance (C7 consortium) that has been awarded the Interim Project Alliance Agreement (IPAA) that is currently delivering the design for the C7 Systems Contract.

“We were notified on 21 November that RCR Tomlinson was in voluntary administration with administrators undertaking a trade sale of profitable parts of the business – including RCR Infrastructure NZ. Since then we have worked hard to understand the impacts on the project and identify the best way forward to complete the C7 works.

“We have determined that the best-possible response is for the current C7 consortium to continue to deliver the design elements for the C7 systems. However, they will no longer submit a tender for the C7 construction works which will instead be incorporated into the C3 Main Station and Tunnels Alliance - due to start construction mid-next year.”

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The C3 contract is currently in the final stages of a tender process with two shortlisted tenderers and the contract is expected to be awarded by the end of April next year and the successful tenderer will now deliver the stations, tunnels and the rail systems for the CRL project.

Dr Sweeney says that delivering City Rail Link on schedule is a key priority and was a critical factor in deciding to go with a single alliance.

“By shifting to a single alliance model now, we are ensuring no time is lost on the procurement programme as a result of the RCR administration process. It also removes the need for major interface coordination, which means less risk, and it reduces demands on resources across our delivery partners.”

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