CRL Connection Newsletter - March 2019

CRL Connection

March 2019

Sean Sweeney, Chief Executive, City Rail Link Ltd

CRL Chief’s view of “Red Hot City” One thing took my breath away when I returned home from Australia last year to lead the City Rail Link team - the number of cranes crowding Auckland’s skyline.

Latest counts put more than 90 of them at work – that’s certainly more than any city in North America and probably only bettered anywhere else by Sydney and Melbourne.

was $230B – an increase in 18 months or of $180 Billion. The construction market is red hot.

City Rail Link Ltd is currently assessing two bids to build our tunnels and stations against that Continued on page 2 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。

It’s a far cry from my time as an engineering student at Auckland Uni when I struggled to count 3 or 4 of them.

Russian

Let me convert crane numbers into dollars and cents.

Towards the end of 2017 the value of work in the infrastructure pipeline in Australasia was $80 Billion, a year later it was $180 Billion, and of last month it

Korean

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

Simplified Chinese

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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Continued from page 1

background of breath-taking growth relentless in scale, pace and intensity.

The impact is huge. There’s less competition for contracts – companies can pick and choose the ones they want; costs are affected by this “seller’s market” and companies are more cautious about choosing risky projects; labour markets are stretched with fewer qualified people for hire; financial difficulties in the New Zealand contracting industry – together with the loss of Fletchers and RCR from our tender process – means we’ve had to change. Add to the pressure, the lower value of the New Zealand and the knock-on effect of that on prices.

It’s the same on both sides of the Tasman – we’re competing in a pretty aggressive environment and you can only spread the vegemite so thinly.

City Rail Link Ltd has adapted to better manage those challenges.

One decision was to opt for the alliance model for our tunnels and stations.

An alliance is used for complex projects like the Waterview road tunnel. Companies in an alliance use their various skills to work as a flexible and integrated team to design, construct and deliver.

Opting for the alliance model has attracted the two goods bids from New Zealand and international companies.

Join us on social media We’ve got some big things happening in 2019.

Be the first to know. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube.

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Given the complexity of the project, it will take some time before we name the successful bidder.

When we do, we will have a clearer picture of what the project, particularly the stations, will look like, how everything will be built, and the price envelope. The competitive environment will have a big influence on the final outcome.

A second important step was to combine several contracts into one large or grand one. Feedback from the industry says we’ve done the right thing.

For a start, one contract reduces the risk that several could pose.

Nevertheless, there are uncertainties and unknowns ahead.

I can’t guarantee that it won’t ‘rain’ somewhere during the life of this project. Building something this big does not have the same certainty as building an extension to your house. We will be excavating tunnels 40 metres below ground and drilling under volcanoes. It’s the first time we’ve done it in New Zealand on this scale before.

There is one thing I am certain of, however. When we finish our work in 2024, the City Rail Link will allow Auckland to grow up and remodel itself as a city that is proudly international.

Sean Sweeney, Chief Executive, City Rail Link Ltd

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Turning off the tap – nearly!

Water treatment plant beside Britomart Station

A water treatment plant is making a significant contribution to City Rail Link Ltd’s Contract 1 construction partner Downer-Soletanche Bachy’s (DSBJV) efforts to conserve water at their Britomart and Lower Queen St site.

Water is an essential tool on Contract 1, used for some construction work, cleaning machinery and keeping dust down, says Nick Braxton, City Rail Link Ltd’s Sustainability Advisor.

“It’s a valuable resource and we have a responsibility to the environment, mana whenua and the wider Auckland community to use it with care,” Nick says.

It is a requirement to treat all water – including rainwater and ground water that has seeped In to the site - before it is discharged to the sewer or stormwater system, but DSBJV have gone one step further, installing pumps and piping to allow treated water to be re-used on site rather than discharged.

The benefits of re-using water were apparent almost immediately after the system was installed.

system was set up that has dropped to an average of only 6,000 litres a month, with 99.7 percent of all site water now re-used water pumped from the treatment plant.

“Measured in dollars and cents the cost savings may not be big, but it is a valuable example of the project minimising resource use,” says Sarah Sutherland, DSBJV’s Environment and Sustainability Manager.

“Our treatment plant and re-use system means we’ve almost been able to turn off the tap during a very dry summer in terms of drawing fresh water from sources like the Waitakere ranges and the Waikato River. At the same time, we’ve been able to reduce the amount of water that we discharge, reducing the burden on the stormwater and sewer systems,” Sarah says.

Click here for more information.

Prior to installation the site used 120,000-150,000 litres of fresh water each month, but since the re-use

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Green island sprouts on CRL land

Join the team for the CLIMATE CHANGE READY RIDE on Friday 22nd March Click here for more details

Left: Aerial view of the Organic Market Garden, Upper Symonds St Above: Organic Market Garden, central Auckland’s green oasis

City Rail Link is helping transform a section of its unused land in to a green oasis in central Auckland.

The patch of sloping land at the Eden Terrace end of Symonds St had originally been set aside for a City Rail Link station. Plans for the station have been abandoned and the land has now sprouted into new life known as the Organic Market Garden (OMG).

City Rail Link has loaned the land to OMG and pitched in with some financial support for the gardening group.

Green-fingered residents, local businesses, gardeners and artists have teamed up to plant a field of fresh crops in what they describe as Auckland’s first urban farming hub.

“City Rail’s support is creating urban agriculture opportunities that can help with the greening of Auckland,” says Sarah Smuts-Kennedy from OMG. “We have spent a long time getting the OMG project across the line, and it’s finally happened.

The team now have the CRL funding to go ahead and create magic on what was an unused piece of land waiting for construction.”

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Sarah sees OMG as a research and teaching site where she hopes to learn the capacity of regenerative urban agriculture within one year.

This will help cities become climate change ready.

257 Symonds St’s future as a market garden is a busy one. OMG is a model for what the team hope to be rolled out in cities in New Zealand over the next three years. They are already working with local cafés and restaurants to supply them with organic produce. Other plans include its use as a learning centre to teach people about composting, using it for Auckland University research into soil conditions, and as an “incubator” to foster similar gardens in Auckland. There are even plans for the garden to be part of city’s tourist trail as a destination for walking and cycling tours.

As CRL continues to reduce Aucklands carbon footprint, the OMG aim is to attend to carbon sequestration; helping us become climate change ready.

You can find out more about OMG at: https://www.facebook.com/omgAKL

CityRailLink.co.nz

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Long concrete pour ends Pouring the final base slab under Albert Street

One of the key programmes of work on Albert St has ended, almost exactly 12 months after the work started below ground.

Contractors have poured the last base slab – the concrete floor of the tunnel boxes – underneath the intersection of Albert St and Customs St West.

The base slab is the last of 29 to be built – a year-long journey under Albert St involving more than 3000 cubic metres of concrete delivered by 620 trucks.

“Base slab 29 seemed a very long way away when we started out a year ago, but the team has worked well in that time to get the job finished as efficiently as possible and complete an important milestone,” says City Rail Link’s Construction Manager Lucas Nikkel.

Completing the work now means a continuous track of concrete runs under Albert St to join up with the tunnel base slab installed under the Commercial Bay development.

A lot of construction activity continues in Albert St.

Building the tunnel boxes is 86 percent complete – 60 metres of wall and 108 metres of roof remain to be built. City Rail Link Ltd’s contractor, Connectus, is due to finish construction of all the tunnel walls and roofs in July/August.

The backfill programme is 40 percent completed and will finish in September.

Strut removal is 58 percent done, and the removal of capping beams has just started.

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Plan your journey

Panoramic view of Albert St near the Wyndham St intersection

There will be several traffic changes in the Albert St area during the next few weeks because of City Rail Link works. Road users and pedestrians are asked to take care when using the following sections of road: Wolfe St will be closed during the day from 7am to 6pm until 11 March. A traffic lane will be re-opened at night. No parking will be permitted in Wolfe St at all times. The close is necessary so that our site compound can be relocated into Wolfe St prior to the start of reinstatement work along lower Albert St. Traffic controllers will be on site during the day to assist local shop owners with deliveries.

The Haines Tower driveway will be maintained.

Albert St (between Wyndham and Swanson Sts): a traffic controller will operate a stop-go system while trucks use the southbound traffic lane to load construction panels from the construction deck.

Delays are expected to be minimal. Fences will be installed on the footpath on the western side of the road ahead of work due to start in late May to reinstate this section of Albert St. Albert St (between Mills Lane and Swanson St): backfilling of the trench continues.

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Albert St (between Wellesley and Victoria Sts): the installation of hoardings continues. The main scaffold works will start inside our site prior to the start of canopy removal from buildings on the western side of Albert St. Swanson St East: Access will be restricted to left turn in only from Albert St, with all vehicles required to exit via Mills Lane until the end of March while removal of the hoarding on Albert St are undertaken.

Click here for more informations on CRL work in the upper Albert Street area.

CityRailLink.co.nz

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Plenty to celebrate Construction continues at pace at Britomart and Lower Queen St, with this section of the City Rail Link project celebrating several milestones.

Working under the Chief Post Office building

• Work has the continued on the northbound tunnel box under the Chief Post Office building with the second base slab having been constructed.

• Waterproofing has been installed beneath the first base slab for the southbound tunnel box.

• The breakthrough from Lower Queen St into the tunnels under the Commercial Bay development is complete.

• Bulk excavation work in Lower Queen St has been completed. A blinding layer of concrete is currently being installed to provide a stable working platform for tunnel box construction.

• Within Britomart station, foundation strengthening to support any future development has finished.

“There have been a lot of challenges along the way, particularly working beneath the Chief Post Office with its heritage listing, but progress is good and it’s very satisfying to see things taking shape within this stage of the project,” says City Rail Link Ltd Construction Manager, Nick Adams.

Tunnel vision A scene you are unlikely to see again – a view inside the new stormwater main being excavated under Mt Eden as part of the City Rail Link project.

The feeder pipes and cables along the walls help operate Jeffie, the micro boring machine building the tunnel. They will be stripped out when Jeffie comes to the end of her 420-metre-long journey between Water and Nikau Sts mid-March.

The existing stormwater main lies in the path of the rail tunnels and needs to be diverted.

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Strand Rail Network Celebration

Ngàti Whàtua Oràkei elder Mike Maihi greets City Rail Link Ltd Chief Executive, Sean Sweeney

City Rail Link Ltd (CRLL) and KiwiRail, supported by elders from Ngàti Whàtua Oràkei elders, have celebrated the completion of the first set of wider network improvements required for the City Rail Link.

KiwiRail, on behalf of CRLL, has installed a new track cross-over point and other upgrades in The Strand area of the Auckland network, one busiest sections of rail in the city. Over five months, KiwiRail installed the cross-over, and modified the track and overhead lines and signal equipment.

A new track layout was required to simplify access to The Strand stabling yard - the area where morning peak services are ‘stabled’ before they come back into service for the evening peak.

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Over 300 trains travel through this area daily.

CRLL’s Chief Executive, Sean Sweeney, says the Strand is the first construction project to be completed from a huge programme of work for the City Rail Link.

“Just as significantly, it is also the first collaborative piece of work undertaken by KiwiRail and City Rail Link Ltd. We look forward to continuing this relationship on further network improvements at Otahuhu later this year,” he says.

Read more about the Strand celebrations here.