Kia ora neighbours,

Well it's been an incredibly busy month here on site!

Over the past month we celebrated International Women's Day featuring some of the amazing women on site (see above), hit 50% completion of the station's diaphragm walls (foundations), finished piling on Kingston Street and turned it back into a temporary road, deconstructed the heritage bluestone wall, and lots more! We also held a community workshop to discuss the upcoming intersection closure switch that takes place mid-year - thank you all who attended and for your feedback.

As we look ahead, we are now completing work so that we can start to excavate and begin the underground phase of the project later in April.

As always, if you need to contact us you can email us at: aotea@linkalliance.co.nz or call 0800 CRL TALK (0800 275 8255 and press option 3) to speak to us. 

Ngā mihi nui,
The Aotea Station team

Construction update

In the north zone of site (Wyndham to Victoria Streets) we have completed piling in Kingston Street, have deconstructed and removed the bluestone wall, and have continued work on the retaining walls and roof slabs.

In the central zone of site (Victoria to Wellesley Streets) we completed a series of significant concrete pours outside of Auckland Council's building for the roof of the station, have continued our work on utility upgrades, and relocated diaphragm (d-wall) construction operations to near the Huawei Tower on Albert Street.

In the south zone of site (Mayoral Drive area), we are preparing to move works underground with foundations work now being completed, beginning initial works on Mayoral Drive to prepare for the arrival of the tunnel boring machine later this year, and are continuing with utility upgrades. 

Overall, the station construction is well underway, with more than 80% or bore pile foundations completed and over 50% of diaphragm wall foundations complete. Utilities upgrades and relocations are now well over half completed.

Video: Learn about the bluestone wall

The heritage feature bluestone wall on Durham Street was constructed in 1881 and the wall’s underground public toilet was one of the city’s first. The wrought iron railings, piers and the ornamental arch over the stairs on the side of the wall are some of Auckland’s last remaining examples of street furniture dating back to the Victorian age.

The wall is made up of approximately 1800 blocks, and each have had to be numbered and carefully removed by stonemasons for the Aotea Station construction to go ahead. Once construction is near completion, the wall will be re-constructed in 2023, 1.5m to the east to allow for the size of the new station build. 

Click here to watch the video

Development above Aotea Station will add homes, commercial and retail spaces

New homes and space for business will be created at the heart of Auckland’s public transport network as a key city centre site above Aotea Station is destined to become a new mixed-use development.

Panuku Development Auckland is partnering with international property developer Malaysian Resources Corporation Berhad (MRCB) who, with experienced local development and project management company RCP, will deliver the urban regeneration of the site above the Wellesley Street entrance building to Aotea Station. 

The over-station development by MRCB, known as Aotea Central, will be designed to revitalise the city centre's midtown area, immediately above and alongside what is expected to be Auckland’s busiest train station.

The new development will be a 21-storey building with a mixture of retail, commercial and residential space. Early concepts show a striking design with terraced planting being a key feature. As well as integrated access to Aotea Station, the development will connect to the surrounding area with laneways, offering places for people to meet and spend time.

New public artwork installed on Albert Street

We have just installed a new public artwork outside the District Court, by internationally acclaimed artist Simone Rosenbauer. Bold, quintessentially summertime and elegant, the photographic series Like Ice in the Sunshine captures a melancholy reality: bitter or sweet, all memories eventually melt into the flow of life.

Find out more information about Simone's work here.

Art installations around the construction site can help to transform the public space for visitors and provide opportunities for local artists to showcase their work. With the significant construction required to build Aotea Station, the curation of public art around the site helps to ensure the areas are still an attractive and vibrant place to visit and spend time in. 

Jargon Buster: Formwork

Each month Link Alliance is going to look at some of the more technical terms from the construction and ‘translate’ them into more easy to understand terms. This month we look at the term ‘formwork’.

Formwork is the term used for the process of creating a temporary mould into which concrete is poured and formed. Traditional formwork is fabricated using timber, but it can also be constructed from steel, glass fibre reinforced plastics and other materials.