Kia Ora

This month saw the return of our Dame Whina Cooper Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) to Karanga a Hape Station (Karangahape) on her second and final journey for the project.

There will be plenty of activity happening above ground around our construction sites but more on these events further down in this month’s issue.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns we can help you with, please don’t hesitate to contact us via email at Karangahape@linkalliance.co.nz or call 0800 CRL TALK (0800 275 8255) and press option 4.

Ngā mihi,

The Karanga a Hape Station team

Break on through to the other side!

A major project milestone was achieved at Karanga a Hape Station this month as our Dame Whina Cooper Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) broke through into the mined tunnels for the second and final time.

The journey from Maungawhau Station (Mt Eden) to Karanga a Hape took the TBM just three months, a couple of months quicker than last year’s lockdown affected journey.

This graphic shows where the TBM broke through into the mined tunnels for both of its drives from Maungawhau Station (Mt Eden) to Te Wai Horotiu Station (Aotea).

The teams at Karanga a Hape witnessed the TBM’s grand entrance into the mined tunnels, 27-metres below the street level, and you can too by watching the short video below.

Please read on to find out more about the TBM’s next steps and the intricate cross-team collaboration that is required to keep the TBM moving towards its final destination.

To find out all you need to know about our Dame Whina Cooper TBM, as well as track its progress, head to www.digCRL.co.nz.

Deep collaboration

During the TBM’s journey to bore the City Rail Link tunnels, a lot of focus is placed on the breakthrough moments but it’s the smaller details which often indicate success.

After the TBM’s most recent breakthrough at Karanga a Hape Station, the mega-machine needed to move through the 215-metre tunnel cavern to reach its relaunch point at Beresford Square. With an abundance of tight spaces ahead, some detail-focused people took centre stage.

Within the tunnel cavern, there is as little as one centimetre of clearance for the TBM. Before the breakthrough, special rails were installed to facilitate the move and, considering the tight spaces, had to be installed in the perfect place to guarantee success. To facilitate this, our Building Information Management (BIM) and survey teams collaborated with our TBM and Karanga a Hape construction teams to guarantee that our measurements and drawings used were accurate.

It was like the old builder’s adage ‘measure twice, cut once’, just at a larger scale.

Soon to be on its way to Te Wai Horotiu (Aotea), preparations are well underway to ensure the TBM’s accurate breakthrough position and swift dismantling ahead of its return to Guangzhou, China later this year. The countdown is officially on!

A whirlwind of words is coming to Beresford Square

On 26 August, as part of Auckland Writers’ Festival Waihuhi O Tāmaki, eight locations around Beresford Square and Samoa House Lane will play host to more than 50 brilliant writers and musicians, all free of charge!
 
As part of the STREETSIDE: BERESFORD programme, you can hear a range of writers at the Northern Line reveal their dream destinations or put your creative juices to work at GILT by making a found poem from cut-ups. You can even drop into the pop-up Festival bookshop at our Karanga a Hape Information Hub to buy the books of the writers on the programme.
 
How it works is there will be 4 x 15-minute simultaneous sessions taking place in bespoke locations at 6.15-6.30pm, 6.40-6.55pm, 7.05-7.20pm, 7.30-7.45pm. A 10-minute break between sessions will allow enough time for people to race off to the next venue.
 
Head to the STREETSIDE: BERESFORD page to find out what’s happening and where, and you can download the event map and print out ahead of the evening kicks off.

Works update - Mercury Lane

As the steel superstructure takes shape above ground at Mercury Lane, work continues underground on building the permanent walls, floors and columns for the station.

The image above shows work underway both above and below ground with the steel superstructure taking shape in the right of the picture (north-east corner of site). A large concrete pump can be seen in the centre-left of the picture (white with legs), pumping concrete underground for the floors and walls.

A big focus for the team throughout July was preparing the Mercury Lane station box for the arrival of the TBM. The picture above shows scaffolding inside the station box with the mined tunnels on either side. The TBM pushed itself more than 200-metres through this tunnel on temporary tracks (under construction in this image).

Above: The final pour for the B3 slab

As well as preparation for the TBM arrival the team completed the B3 slab, which is the first level to be completed using the ‘bottom up’ construction methodology. This ‘mini floor’ shown in brown below, will be home to ventilation, fire suppression and other back of house equipment.

Meet the faces of CRL

Starting this month and running through until the end of the year, City Rail Link (CRL) have produced a series of videos introducing team members working across all of our construction sites.

These short videos showcase our workers as they share more about themselves, where they’re from, their work on the project as well as what they enjoy about their job.

The campaign is kicking off here at Karanga a Hape Station with Mercury Lane Site Supervisor, Jake Baaua.

As we’re making introductions... meet Kate Gullery, Environmental Advisor

What does your job at the Link Alliance entail?

I am the environmental advisor for the site which means I manage the environmental effects of our works to ensure compliance with the council designations and consents for the project. These include things like noise & vibration, water, waste. I also get to work with a fantastic and diverse range of people across the site to drive environmental performance.

Where did you grow up?

I grew up in central New South Wales in Australia, moved to London and then on to New Zealand about 20 years ago.

Where were you working prior to this?

Before joining the Karanga a Hape Station team, I was working on the DSB (Downer/Soletanche Bachy) Joint Venture at the Waitematā Station (Britomart) for C1 until it finished in September last year.

What do you do when you are not working?

I love hiking and weekends away. Long lunches with friends are a favourite way to spend a day! I'm also a mum of three kids so they keep me busy going on lots of adventures.

Any fun facts about yourself you want to share?

Love cooking and trying new places to eat. Anything to do with food and wine, I'm there.

Works update - Beresford Square

The deepest floor at Beresford Square, B7, has now been poured and in the picture above, you can see the steelwork involved in preparation for the pour. The archway at the top of the picture above will be the main access point to the trains from Beresford Square; a 40-metre-long escalator will land at this point to take people to and from the platforms.

Work is progressing for the northern perimeter wall, from B7 to B4, as shown above. Adit 5 can just be seen behind the scaffolding in the centre of the picture. This adit will eventually house a control room and provide maintenance access to the tunnels. Work on the southern perimeter wall will start in August.

The image above shows formwork for the ‘derailment wall’ at the western end of the station box. The reinforced wall separates the station box from trains as they exit the station heading north.

Block work, as shown in the image above, continues from level B1 to B3 creating utility rooms and accessways. From next month, blockwork will commence at B4.

The tables will soon be turning at the Pocket Park

We’re changing it up for August’s edition of First Thursdays with an all-vinyl evening with some of Auckland’s finest collectors and Turntablists taking over the Pocket Park.

On Thursday 4 August from 4:30pm, expect a mix of big beats, Japanese Boogie, Afrobeat, Japanese Boogie, classic R & B vibes and much more to get your groove on to.

Don’t forget to meander along the south side of Beresford Square through the funky and eclectic Karangahape Night Market.

For the latest announcements for this great event, only possible with the help of Alpha Markets and the Karangahape Business Association, head to the First Thursdays Facebook page.

Works update - Mined Tunnels

As mentioned at the start of the newsletter, the big news from the mined tunnels is the TBM breakthrough.

The Dame Whina Cooper TBM has now pushed herself through the northbound tunnel and sits beneath Beresford Square, undergoing maintenance in preparation for the final drive to Te Wai Horotiu Station in August.

In preparation for the TBM’s arrival, the tunnel crew focused on completing the permanent lining of the northbound tunnel. The full 215-metre length of this tunnel is now lined, with a permanent concrete layer poured over a temporary shotcrete layer and PVC waterproofing.

Complex steel reinforcement work continues at the adit junctions. The picture above is looking west from the southbound tunnel into the northbound tunnel. The archway to the right of the picture is the main thoroughfare to the Beresford Square entrance.

With the TBM having completed the journey from Maungawhau to Karanga a Hape, the crew can continue to work on the emergency cross passages between the stations, as shown above. There are two cross passages between Maungawhau and Karanga a Hape, and another two between Karanga a Hape and Te Wai Horotiu.

Did you know?

The CRL project is a world first to integrate mana whenua values into its design. These values are expressed in the collective design philosophy and architectural treatment of the stations themselves – following the narrative of the Māori creation myth of Ranginui (the sky father) and Papatūānuku (the earth mother).

In the beginning, Ranginui and Papatūānuku were joined together, and their children were born between them in darkness. The children decided to separate their parents, to allow light into the world. After this, the children became gods of various parts of the natural world.

The design of each station reflects the creation story, representing the initial separation of Ranginui and Papatūānuku by one of their children, Tāne. Ranginui, is shown above the station canopy and made up of coloured aluminium blades or ‘fins’. Papatūānuku, is represented as a solid mass grounding the building, of either precast coloured textured concrete representing local Waitematā sandstone or basalt in the case of Maungawhau Station. Click here to find out more.

Screw conveyor

The TBM chews up and breaks down a lot of material as it bores through the earth but where does all of it go? Well, that’s where the Screw Conveyor comes in. Situated behind the cutterhead, the Screw Conveyor lifts excavated material from the excavation chamber up to the TBM conveyor.

The Screw Conveyor also enables operation of an earth pressure balance system used for excavating soft material. Essentially, it maintains the ground support and controls the excavated material transfer.