Kia Ora
We hope that you are keeping safe and well following the Prime Minister’s announcement that Auckland is back in COVID-19 alert level 3.
As stated in our Covid notification, construction activity continues during Level 3. We spent the afternoon of Wednesday 12 reimplementing the strict health and hygiene protocols we used when previously working during alert level 3, including physical distancing and PPE such as masks. Our immediate priority is ensuring the safety of our people and the wider community.
During this alert level we cannot meet face-to-face but the communications team is never far away should something urgent come up.
Of course we have a number of channels to communicate with us. If you wish to contact us please call 0800 CRL TALK (0800 275 8255 and press option 4) or email Karangahape@linkalliance.co.nz.
Please note our work hours are from 7 am to 10 pm Monday-to-Friday, and 7 am to 7 pm Saturday.
Furthermore, and especially in these complicated times, we would like to thank everyone for their continued patience, understanding and interest in the project and works. As some may have noticed we have a new information Hub on Beresford Square. We will reopen it and restart our site tours once it is safe to do so in Level 1.
Ngā mihi
The Karangahape Station Team
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Mayoral Visit
On 26 July Auckland’s Mayor, Phil Goff and Councillor Pippa Coom paid a quick visit to site as part of a walk around the Karangahape Road area.
After popping into local businesses, they were taken to the top of the Wilson Car Park on Cross Street to get a view of our Mercury Lane construction site.
This vantage point provides a bird's eye view of the temporary shaft, D-wall construction and noise enclosure. The timing was excellent as the noise enclosure roof now obscures the view of the 20-metre shaft beneath.
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What happens next in Beresford Square?
We would like to thank everyone for their continued patience and understanding with the ongoing utility and guide wall works in Beresford Square.
As the utility diversion works reduce, the footprint of the station entrance works will start to take shape with installation of hoarding and guide walls.
Within the hoarding, construction of the plunge columns that will support the station structure as we excavate underground will begin. The specifics of the next stage will be communicated in a separate works notice.
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August - October 2020: Installation of plunge columns, providing temporary support for floors and super structure.
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October 2020 - January 2021: Installation of diaphragm walls (green), the station’s external walls.
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Engage with the project and represent your community
The Karangahape Community Liaison Group (CLG) is currently looking to grow its membership. CLG meetings, held quarterly, are our formal engagement mechanism with our community and are a great way to learn more about what is going on and why and provide the opportunity to ask questions directly to project leads.
Group membership represents a cross-section of the community including residents, property owners, businesses and interest groups in each area. This group’s focus is on the wider Karangahape Station area from Pitt Street and Beresford Square to Karangahape Road, Mercury Lane, Cross Street and East Street.
The groups meet regularly and are:
- an avenue for local community representatives to understand and share what’s happening in their area during construction
- monitor and give feedback on the effects of construction on their community
- provide input into the preparation of a variety of different management plans designed to help manage the impacts of construction.
Download the Charter to understand the purpose and requirements of CLGs and get information on their composition, operation and accountability. It also provides a code of conduct for CLG members.
If you’re interested in joining our CLGs, click here to apply online.
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Road header making its way underground
Our first roadheader has arrived this month, with our main roadheader scheduled to arrive in September from Australia.
Unlike the other stations at Aotea and Mt Eden , Karangahape Station does not use the Tunnel Boring Machine to excavate its tunnels. Instead, and specific only to the Karangahape Station, two road headers will be lowered down the temporary shaft to excavate the 220-metre platforms, tunnel cavern and adits between Mercury Lane and Beresford Square.
The TBM will be pushed through this already mined tunnel as it makes its journey from a redeveloped Mt Eden Station to the new Karangahape and Aotea Stations.
Additionally, these two road headers will be named by the local students of Kadimah School! This is a once in a generation project and we are proud to be able to connect with our community as we continue with construction. Watch this space to find out what names the students come up with!
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NASA inspired ingenuity
To record our progress each of our sites are covered by timelapse cameras. To mount our time lapse camera we had a few steps to take in order to get the right angles and height.
We approached the George Courts building manager – Graham Shirley who was most helpful in allowing us to install our camera on the corner of the building overlooking the Mercury Lane site.
Our challenge was to be able to build an extension arm that could hold the camera out far enough to get a full shot of the site.
As we have an office full of engineers we put them to the challenge. Funnily enough the brain child of the arm was a Canadian jokingly citing the ‘Canada Arm’ used by NASA.
The engineer and members of the team who designed the arm are a mix of French and Canadian. So our arm, now dubbed the France/Canada Arm, sits atop George Courts relaying time lapse photos of the site.
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