Kia Ora

The project reached another major milestone this month with our Dame Whina Cooper tunnel boring machine (TBM) officially starting its second and final drive.

The TBM’s first stop will be at Karangahape Station when it breaks through at Mercury Lane in the middle of this year before churning onto Aotea Station to complete its journey.

Back at Karangahape Road, the further relaxation of Covid-19 restrictions means more people are returning to our neighbourhood and hopefully business is booming once more for the area.

Going forward, we will be combining our monthly works update with our newsletter to provide you with one place to read about what we’re up to on our sites, in our tunnels as well as in the community.

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 Karangahape Station Team

High level training, literally

Being prepared is a huge part of keeping safe. This month, Link Alliance ran a high-wire training exercise with our neighbours, Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) at Karangahape Station’s Mercury Lane site.

Our regular onsite training dummy, ‘Bruce’ was lifted to the top of the 40-metre tower crane where he put in a very convincing performance as an unresponsive crane operator. The scenario simulates incidents overseas where operators have needed rescuing following a medical event.

FENZ’s High Ropes Rescue team transferred Bruce into a stretcher and safely accompanied him to the ground, a slow and steady journey of seven minutes.

A big thanks to FENZ and St John for their help with the exercise.

A new month, a new First Thursday!

It’s nearly that time of month again with the next First Thursdays event less than a week away.

Taking place on 5 May, the second edition for 2022 will feature another packed line-up of live music at the Pocket Park from 4:30-9pm.

You can explore the night market along the south side of Beresford Square from 5-9pm. Check out the First Thursdays Facebook page for latest announcements.

Once again, this great event is only possible with the help of Alpha Markets and the Karangahape Business Association.

Works update - Mined Tunnels

In the northbound mined tunnel, MC20, the crew are continuing to focus on pouring the permanent tunnel lining, with 46 metres of the tunnel having been poured to date. The shape of the permanent lining – with a raised crown – allows for services, ducts and a small accessway to be placed within the roof at the top of the tunnel, as shown below. A concrete slab will be poured between the sides to hide this cavity, creating a flattened ceiling.

Excellent progress is also being made on the cross passages within the stations. Karangahape Station has five connecting passages, or adits, which connect between the tunnels and / or station entrances. Four out of the five adits have been waterproofed and await the permanent concrete lining, with one adit fully complete.

Room to Grow - an upcoming exhibition

On 7 May the opening of Room to Grow will be held at the Mercury Plaza Gallery from 4-7pm.

The exhibition will showcase the street photography of local Kirk Lafferty in conjunction with the ceramic works of Jo Raill.

Lafferty’s photography uses multiple exposed photos layered on top of each other to create striking works.

The show, which was postponed due to Covid-19 last November, will display a vast selection from his catalogue of works, including some pieces that showcase photos of Karangahape Road.

The exhibition runs from 7-21 May, Monday to Saturday.

Autumnal Auckland awash with colour

From 6-22 May, City of Colour will transform Auckland’s city centre and the Karangahape Road area into a canvas for art, colour and light.

There will be over 50 installations and artworks in laneways, squares, streets, trees and even our Beresford Square site.

At our two site entrances we have an installation of ‘Shish-Ka-Buoys’ by internationally recognised lighting artist, Angus Muir. The works, which have been exhibited previously in Singapore and London, bring an extra injection of everchanging colour to the square at night.

Works update - Beresford Square

Excavation is nearing completion at the Beresford Square entrance, which means the amount of rocks and material being lifted out and emptied into trucks has lessened. We’d like to thank our neighbours for their patience with this activity; as we excavated deeper the rocks became much harder, which meant some additional clanging when they were emptied into a truck.

The bulk excavation here saw the removal of approximately 30,000 cubic metres of sandstone – enough to fill 12 Olympic-sized swimming pools – over just 14 months.

While excavation nears completion, the team are also working on the installation of drainage at the B7 level. The drainage system collects all the groundwater in the station area and pumps it back to the surface for disposal.

Another focus at the Beresford Square entrance has been on constructing the internal walls for the station. Blockwork is ongoing on levels B1, B2 and B3 and so far, 1000m2 of block walls have been constructed. These walls are built to create passages for fire exits and spaces for back of house equipment.

At the western end of the station box work has begun on the perimeter walls, which are load-bearing reinforced concrete walls.

From May, with the ‘top-down’ construction methodology complete, the team will move to a ‘bottom up’ construction approach building floors as they go.

Meet...Dave Smith, Supervisor, Mercury Lane

What does your job at the Link Alliance entail?
I am currently a supervisor for the Mercury Lane station box as part of a great team overseeing the construction of the underground station and the above ground superstructure.

Where did you grow up?
I was born in the south of England where I lived for 29 years. I then lived in Southern Ireland for 12 years, followed by 9 years in central France and I have now lived in New Zealand for nearly 3 years.

Where were you working prior to this?
Prior to this job I was superintendent on the downtown project in Auckland harbour installing all the new infrastructure and berths to accommodate Auckland Transport’s Ferry services in the harbour along Queens Wharf.

What do you do when you are not working?
I have motorcycle trials coming up so I’m trying to spend as much time as I can practicing.

Any fun facts about yourself you want to share?
I don’t like celery, tofu or couscous but I do like coffee flavoured fudge, lime milkshakes and New Zealand!

Works update - Mercury Lane

At Mercury Lane the team continue to build the internal walls for the station. These walls will replace the temporary steel plunge columns shown in the picture below.

The station’s perimeter walls currently under construction (shown below) will form the permanent rock support and waterproofing to the station.

Now that the team have moved to the ‘bottom up’ construction methodology a significant amount of scaffolding is required. This provides access to build the internal walls and station floors. This work will be ongoing for the next few months.

Why not make it Fish & Chip Friday?

As the colder days are creeping in, why not warm yourself up with some hearty fish & chips from K-Road’s Salt & Batter.

Situated at 264 Karangahape Road, Salt & Batter offer a delicious range of fish, cooked how you like it, as well as a number of deals. These include a number of family sized deals for a great price as well as a couple of workerman’s feast.

There’s more than just fish and chips on offer though, with burgers, ice creams and milkshakes all available to either takeaway or enjoy in store.

Site tours return in May

After re-opening the Hub in April, we’re excited to announce that public site tours will resume next month.

We will re-start the monthly tours of our Karangahape Station sites later in May, so keep an eye out on our social channels over the coming weeks for further details and how to book a spot on a tour.

Don’t forget that our Info Hub is open every Wednesday from 9am-1pm. Please note that we will be open on Tuesday 3 May instead of Wednesday 4 May.

Couplers

Couplers are used for joining rebar, or reinforcing steel. The ends of bars to be joined are provided with threads, and the bars are joined using a coupler sleeve that transfers the force on the rebar across the connection.
 
At Karangahape the station's floors are connected to the walls with rebar screwed into couplers that have been cast into the walls. Concrete is then poured over the steel to create reinforced concrete.