CRL Connection
September 2018
Deputy Mayor Bill Cashmore, Transport Minister Phil Twyford, Mayor Phil Goff and Finance Minister Grant Robertson at CRL’s Albert Street construction site
Ministers and Mayors go underground Last week, the Transport Minister Phil Twyford, Finance Minister Grant Robertson, Auckland Mayor Phil Goff and Deputy Mayor Bill Cashmore went underground, 18 metres below Albert Street, for their first joint visit to the City Rail Link (CRL) project site. During the visit, Phil Twyford said the project would “transform” the lives of Aucklanders, doubling the existing rail network capacity and providing modern high-frequency transport access for people living throughout the city. Mayor Goff said CRL was a project Auckland could not cope without. He commented on the tens of thousands of people working, studying and living in the city who would benefit from this modern underground metro, as well as people living south and west of Auckland who will benefit from faster and more frequent rail transport.
Currently the rail network in and out of the city terminates at Britomart. The CRL changes Britomart to a through station, allowing trains to continue underground up Albert Street to new inner-city stations (one mid-town between Wellesley and Victoria Streets and one just off Karangahape Road) and then on to a redeveloped Mt Eden Station. Last week, Auckland was ranked higher than Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane in an international ranking of cities measuring planning and response to future challenges. CRL’s direct influence on addressing current transport and congestion problems – including the extension of the project scope to cater for ninecar trains to address future transport demand - was mentioned as a factor in the ranking.
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Major milestone for CRL’s main stations and tunnels contract The CRL project reached a major milestone this week with the Request for Proposal (RFP) issued to two short-listed tenderers for its main ‘C3’ stations and tunnels contract. The two tenderers are made up of the following consortia: • Downer New Zealand Limited, Vinci Construction Grands Projets S.A.S, Soletanche Bachy International NZ Limited, AECOM, Tonkin & Taylor and WSP Opus • CPB Contractors Pty Limited, UGL (NZ) Limited, Beca, McMillen Jacobs Limited and Jacobs New Zealand Limited City Rail Link Limited’s chief executive Sean Sweeney says these consortia represent world-class firms that have a wealth of experience delivering major infrastructure projects both here and overseas. “We can be confident that we will have the very best in capability to deliver the largest of our construction packages when the time comes,” he says.
Proposals will be evaluated in early 2019 and CRL expects to be able to award the contract to the successful tenderer by April next year.
New 19th century artefacts found on CRL site Fourteen historical artefacts have been recovered during CRL excavations under Lower Queen Street and Britomart’s Chief Post Office (CPO) building. A French stoneware ink bottle (top left) was found four metres beneath the ground within the footprint of CRL’s northern tunnel alignment under the CPO. A cache of other artefacts, comprising stoneware, glass, metal and leather, were also found in reclamation fill about three to four metres under Lower Queen Street in front of the CPO. The French bottle, produced by Antoine & Sons, was a particularly exciting find. The Paris-based House of Antoine manufactured writing inks from 1840. They were best known as makers of copying ink. An advertisement in the Southern Cross newspaper on 14 July 1874 states that 12 cases of various inks, including ‘Antoine’s Violette Noire French Copying Ink’, had just arrived in New Zealand. Other interesting finds included an intact blacking jar for leather polish, a blue Hogben patent aerated water bottle and a man’s leather shoe. 2
Read more about our archaeological finds.
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CRL works to start at The Strand The first of CRL’s work to deliver wider rail network improvements begins this month at The Strand stabling yard in Parnell. The improvements will simplify train access to the stabling facility by realigning tracks and adding a new track cross-over point, creating a more reliable and resilient rail network and enabling timetabling improvements once the CRL opens in 2024. To be delivered by KiwiRail over the next five months, The Strand works also include overhead line and signalling equipment, relocating underground utilities and constructing a new retaining wall and drainage infrastructure. Most of the work will be done during daytime hours but some will need to be done at night when trains are not running and electrified power lines are switched off. Other network improvements are planned at Otahuhu Station in 2019/2020. These will provide a new platform on a loop track off the main line that enables a new service to west Auckland which
An example of a crossover track
doesn’t need to go through the city centre) and additional track to accommodate any train needing repair without holding up other services. Click here for more information on CRL’s wider network improvements.
CRL release virtual tours of its stations CRL has released new video fly-throughs of its two city train stations (Aotea and Karangahape) and the redeveloped Mt Eden and Britomart stations. Each station has an even balance of functional design requirements, sustainability, engineering demands, performance objectives and cost, while reflecting the local culture, context and future city aspirations. Each station is designed with a unique ‘personality’ – an identity developed from entrances through to platforms. CRL’s design partnership with Mana Whenua has resulted in the incorporation of many cultural narratives in the architecture of the stations. Each station entrance emphasises, through the architecture and choice of materials, the relationship between solid earth on the ground and the sky above.
Inside the Karangahape Station
The stations are also designed to integrate with their surroundings and reinforce a collective desire for more pedestrian-focused environments.
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CRL wins major sustainability award
The City Rail Link team at the 2018 Deloitte Energy Excellence Awards
CRL has been judged the leader in delivering sustainable infrastructure – winning the 2018 Deloitte Energy Excellence Award’s Large Energy User Initiative of the Year. This award is for delivering outstanding energy-related initiatives that have delivered significant benefits. The project has established a carbon foot-printing programme on its first two contract packages to identify opportunities and actions for reducing energy emissions. City Rail Link Limited (CRLL) has been working in collaboration with its construction partners Downer NZ and Soletanche Bachy and Connectus Joint Venture (McConnell Dowell and Downer) to deliver significant carbon savings. From replacing diesel generators with gridconnected transformers to training haulage drivers in fuel-efficient techniques, CRL’s initiatives are
expected to reduce energy emissions by over 2,000 tonnes – a 29% reduction. The project is on target to achieve its goals, while also reducing costs and saving time. CRLL’s chief executive, Dr Sean Sweeney, says sustainability is a cornerstone of CRL thinking, where the aim of everyone involved is to build the project without using unnecessary resources. “The CRL will ultimately deliver a sustainable transport option and we want to make sure we are sustainable during its delivery,” he said. “Our sustainability story also includes social outcome initiatives, like providing employment and training opportunities for young people not already in jobs and addressing the construction skills shortage.”
Ground support work starts on Ruru Street site Ground support work has begun at CRL’s Ruru St site in Eden Terrace. Posts are being installed before construction of a 15m-deep shaft that will receive the mini tunnel-boring machine (TBM) that will lay a replacement stormwater pipe from Water St. The existing stormwater main lies in the path of the future CRL tunnels at Mt Eden, so must be diverted 4
before CRL’s station and tunnel works can begin in the area. Contractor March Bessac JV is also completing piling works at the Water Street site in preparation for the 17m-deep shaft that will launch the TBM on her 400-metre journey.
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Albert Street trench 90 percent complete More than 90 percent of the Albert Street trench excavation is now complete. The CRL tunnel box being built inside the trench is also progressing, with 204 metres of floor, 156 metres of walls and 72 metres of roof completed so far. Once the full 350-metre length of tunnel box is completed, the trench will be back-filled and Albert Street reinstated. Excavation is also continuing under the Albert/ Customs Street intersection, with the installation of supports for the trench walls and the removal of an old stormwater pump chamber. This work paves the way for construction of the tunnel box sections that will eventually link the Albert Street trench to the CRL tunnels being built under the neighbouring Commercial Bay development. Construction of the tunnel structure under the intersection is expected to start later this year, with a full connection being made to Commercial Bay by mid-2019. The northern end of the Albert St trench, looking south
Above: Excavation under the Albert/Customs Street intersection
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Old pedestrian underpass demolished on Lower Queen Street Demolition of the old pedestrian underpass under Lower Queen Street and Britomart’s Chief Post Office (CPO) building will continue for another three weeks. The underpass is being cleared to make way for construction of the southern CRL tunnel, which will take trains out of Britomart once it becomes a two-way through station in 2024. Demolition has also commenced in the northern trench under the CPO to link it to the trench being excavated in Lower Queen Street. The northern trench is currently four metres deep. Top: Breaking out the old pedestrian underpass in southern tunnel Below: Excavation within the CPO, linking to the excavation in Lower Queen St
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