Kia ora koutou

It's hard to believe how close we are to the end of the year! Challenging as it has been, 2020 has been a good reminder that what is most important in life to many of us is people.

People are an integral part of this project - the people who will benefit from using the City Rail Link, the people we work alongside as we build the stations and tunnels, and the people who come together each day to deliver the project. 

If you have any questions about what we are doing at Aotea Station or would just like to learn more, please email us at aotea@linkalliance.co.nz or call 0800 CRL TALK (275 8255) and press option 3.

Also don't forget we run regular public tours around the site. Sign up and secure your place here. 

Ngā mihi

The Aotea Station team

Bluestone wall deconstruction begins

Block by block, we are carefully removing Auckland's historic 139-year-old bluestone wall on Albert Street so it can be reconstructed once the station build is complete.

“While we’re building for Auckland’s future, we’re also determined to preserve its past,” says Matt Sinclair, Aotea Station Manager.

Each of the stones is labelled and will be put into storage as construction works progress. The blocks will then go back together in their original places once we have build the station tunnel box, thus restoring a significant part of Auckland’s heritage.

The wall will take around three months to dismantle, with around 1800 blocks in total. 

The wall was originally constructed in 1881 and is scheduled to be rebuilt in 2023.

Aotea Station's cutest recruits!

This month, we had the pleasure of having Grey Lynn School students visit us on site.

Puriri 4 is a wonderful class consisting of five and six year old children.  The site visit started with a briefing about the station build and a health and safety talk.  Students were then personally escorted around the site by everyone’s favourite Site Superintendent, Andrew Davidson.

The children learnt more about the role of George, our tower crane, as well as the hydrofraise rig and clamshell "grab" crane, which were both in full swing building diaphragm walls during the site visit.

Aotea Station encourages all schools interested in a site visit to email aotea@linkalliance.co.nz in the first instance. For general public tour information and dates click here.

Jon Tootil hoarding art on display 

As more long-term hoardings go up across the site, so does beautiful art alongside project and local business information. 

Our latest hoardings feature the art of Jon Tootill. Tootill is a painter of Ngāi Tahu and British ancestry - his visual vocabulary, most especially paintings of recent years, can be seen as being informed by graphic design and his background as a commercial artist.

The title of the artwork on the hoarding in front of Sierra Cafe hear the Huawei Centre, is Kākāpo, or Night Parrot.  This suggests a playfulness with the colour and patterns that have their genesis in raranga (weaving/plating), tukutuku (wall panel weaving) and whakairo (carving). It's well worth a visit in person, so please come check it our and grab a coffee from Sierra Cafe. 

Rural local boards visit Aotea Station

Without the CRL, higher frequency services wouldn't be possible as the number of trains is limited by the dead-end terminus at Britomart. The CRL also widens passengers' options of where to catch and alight from a train, with the new Aotea and Karangahape Stations. 

Link Alliance's tunnel boring machine wins "best name" 

Aotea Station's tower crane also has a name - meet George