CRL Connection Newsletter February 2019

CRL Connection

February 2019

Auckland Mayor Phil Goff and CRLL CEO Sean Sweeney celebrate the Albert Street breakthrough.

City Rail Link ready for big and exciting year The year ahead promises to be a “pretty exciting one” for the project, says City Rail Link Ltd’s chief executive, Dr Sean Sweeney.

It will be dominated by a number of significant milestones to deliver New Zealand’s largest-ever transport infrastructure project.

Dr Sweeney says his project team is starting the meticulous process of evaluating two bids from New Zealand and international companies to design and construct the 3.45km-long underground project – a contract known as C3.

“Given the size and complexity of C3, it will be some time before we’re finally in a position to name the successful bidder. Before then, my team has got a lot of painstaking and detailed work ahead of it reviewing the two bids,” he says.

“When we know who the successful bidder is, we’ll also know what the project, including the two

underground stations, will look like, how they will be constructed, and how much the project will cost.

We expect the successful bidder to start the main construction works by the end of the year.”

Dr Sweeney assures residents and business affected by the project, and others with a stake in CRL’s outcomes, that they will be kept informed as work ramps up during the year.

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Continued from page 1 “I and my team appreciate and welcome the support we already have from the community, and we are committed to strengthening that relationship during 2019 and beyond.”

• C 1 and C2 will hit some major milestones this year with tunnel breakthroughs, completion of tunnel box construction on Albert St and the start of road reinstatement.

Alongside the appointment of the successful bidder, 2019 includes many other important developments in CRL’s programme of works:

• P rep work will get underway at Aotea, Karangahape and Mt Eden locations ahead of station construction.

• C ompletion of a project-related Strand rail upgrade in Parnell.

“When you add all that up it’s clear that 2019 is going to be a big, big year for CRL,” Dr Sweeney says.

• Completion of the stormwater realignment project in Mt Eden.

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City Rail Link takes to the streets

CRL is using some snappy street art to tell the project’s story to a wider audience of Aucklanders.

New construction hoardings installed around Lower Queen Street and Britomart give people a visual snapshot of the project. They highlight the benefits the project will deliver when it opens in 2024, and also include maps of the CRL route and artist impressions of what the new stations could look like.

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They can be found in eye-catching locations for people using Britomart, nearby bus stops and ferry services. Since their installation, the hoardings have been turning many heads with positive feedback about their clear information on the benefits of the project, such as traveling between Britomart and Mt Eden in under 10 minutes.

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More tunnel breakthroughs coming up

In mid-February, there will be a significant breakthrough of the wall separating Lower Queen Street and the CRL tunnels that have been built across the Commercial Bay site.

At Lower Queen Street work continues on the breakthrough to the southern tunnel. built across the neighbouring Commercial Bay development.

This is expected to be followed soon after by the breakthrough to the Britomart Station side.

At this point, a physical connection will be established from Britomart, all the way up Albert Street to Wyndham Street.

CRL contractor Downer Soletanche Bachy has now poured the first section of CRL tunnel floor inside the old post office building. This tunnel will form the CRL line coming down from Mt Eden to Britomart.

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Albert Street canopy removals Work will begin mid-February to remove the canopies from four buildings - Auckland Council, SkyCity, Manhattan apartments and AA - located along the western side of Albert Street between Wellesley and Victoria Streets.

The canopies are being removed to provide enough room for piling machinery to work along Albert Street. Piles up to 20 metres in length will help support excavation for the future Aotea station.

Initial works include the relocation of signs, CCTV cameras, sprinklers and power connections. Removal of any glass panels and the cutting and dismantling of the canopy structures will follow.

CRL’s contractor, Connectus Joint Venture, will keep any disruption to pedestrians and drivers to a minimum.

Albert Street has been reduced to one lane in each direction between Victoria Street and Wellesley Street. North-bound vehicles on Albert Street are now unable to make right-hand turns into the Crowne Plaza and south-bound vehicles are unable to make right-hand turns into the SkyCity carpark.

Pedestrian access to all buildings will be maintained, but walkways will be relocated away from the

building and will be delineated by traffic barriers and hoardings.

While there will be some noise associated with this work, it is not expected to be particularly loud or disruptive. The work is targeted to be complete by October 2019.

Jeffie makes her underground move One of the more unusual members of the CRL team is now busy at work on a critical section of the project.

A micro tunnel boring machine known as Jeffie is responsible for installing a replacement 420-metre section of stormwater main under Mt Eden.

The existing stormwater main lies in the path of the new CRL tunnels and must be diverted before work can start on the Mt Eden station redevelopment and tunnel works.

Clever Jeffie not only excavates dirt as she crawls under Auckland, but also installs new concrete pipe segments two metres in diameter as she goes.

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The tunnel boring machine started her journey from a 17-metre-deep launch shaft on Water Street.

She has excavated her first 100 metres, and her important journey through to Nikau Street is due to finish in April 2019.

By tradition, machines that work underground have a woman’s name to commemorate St Barbara, the patron saint of miners and underground workers (she had escaped underground to escape persecutors after converting to Christianity). Jeffie was a popular woman’s name in France a hundred years or so ago – and our tunnel boring machine originated in France.

Read more about the stormwater works.

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Strand railway crossover ready

At the Strand in Parnell, a new track cross-over point has been constructed to give trains easier access to their stabling yard and enable the rail network to run more efficiently once the CRL is operational in 2024.

KiwiRail says completion of the works is an important milestone. It is the first construction project to be completed from a wider suite of contracts for the CRL, and it is also the first collaborative delivery between KiwiRail and CRL on the wider network.

morning peak service trains terminating in the city are ‘stabled’ before they return to service in the evening.

Over the past five months, KiwiRail has installed a new track cross-over point, modified the track, overhead lines and signal equipment and relocated all of the underground services through the construction area. Trains now have easier access to the ‘stabling yard’ in Parnell. This is the area where

KiwiRail project manager, Dave Brierley, says works were carefully co-ordinated to make the most of access to the area while trains were not running, to reduce the impact on neighbours and commuters.

More than 300 trains a day run along this section of the line.

Click here to watch a video of the cross-over project.

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Backfilling of Albert Street trench continues Under Albert Street, 20 of 29 CRL tunnel box sections have been completed between Wyndham Street and the Stamford Hotel.

Below Albert Street, we’re continuing to backfill the space above the tunnel box and to provide a strong base for reinstating the road above.

As we progress towards Customs Street, we have now started backfilling on top of the CRL tunnel box from just north of Swanson Street.

Fifty thousand cubic metres of aggregate is being used for the job – enough to fill 20 Olympicsized swimming pools. While that’s a truckload of aggregate, it falls short of the 78,000 m3 of dirt that was excavated under Albert Street in the first place

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to make room for the concrete tunnel box that will house the two CRL rail tracks.

In parallel with backfilling, work continues to complete the final section of the Albert Street tunnel boxes.

From March, northbound traffic along Albert Street will be moved closer to the centre of the road, on to the existing construction traffic deck.

This will allow our C2 contractor, Connectus JV, to remove pile capping beams, complete backfilling and reinstate the road with tree pits, stormwater catch pits and footpaths.