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Western Line platform glass panels and escalators recently installed – the station is taking shape.
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Kia ora,
It’s been another big month for the Maungawhau/Mount Eden Station! We have ticked off several milestones in our building construction, and we are now working on the elements of the redeveloped station that people will see, use, and enjoy for decades after the City Rail Link (CRL) project is complete. In addition to significant construction progress, we pipped pending storm clouds to celebrate love in the community during the second Aroha in Uptown festival.
On the main site, we have installed the escalators that will take people from the overpass down onto the Western Line platform and installed the panels for the beautiful waterwall in the station building- read on to find out more.
Porters Avenue street works are moving into the next stages as driveway works have been completed and roadworks are commencing. The asphalt works on Water Street are now complete as well. Due to the recent weather events, our delivery routes for trucks have been impacted, causing delays in some areas of the project. Unfortunately, Porters Avenue Bridge lifts were not made operational as planned in February, please keep an eye out for the opening date.
If you have any questions about our work activities, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at mteden@linkalliance.co.nz or 0800 CRL TALK press 5 for Maungawhau / Mount Eden Station. You can also follow Link Alliance’s progress by clicking the social media buttons below.
Ngā mihi,
The Maungawhau/Mount Eden Station team
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Maungawhau Station's first escalators
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Work is escalating quickly on the Western Line platform, with the team welcoming the first set of escalators for the Maungawhau/Mount Eden Station.
This is a huge milestone for the project, as these two escalators will transport passengers between the platform and the redeveloped station’s concourse, moving up to 20,000 passengers a day. Access between the Western Line platform and the station building will be efficient, supporting increased passenger numbers, faster journeys, and more seamless transfers.
Arriving to site in three modules, the escalators were joined together and then lifted onto load skates, shifting them down the platform into their final location. Both escalators weigh 12 tonnes each, are 8.5 metres long, and give a vertical rise of 5.45 metres.
Crews connected both escalators to lifting gantries at either end. Lifting and rotating them into their final position and fixing them to the steel structure. By next month, the protective wrapping should be removed, and we will get a first look at these brand-new escalators.
Keep an eye out for a behind-the-scenes video coming out soon!
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The escalators arriving to site in separate modules, waiting to be connected.
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The first escalator is lifted onto the load skates and pushed down the platform by a forklift into position.
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Attached to lifting gantries, the escalator is lifted and rotated upwards, connecting to the station building overpass.
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Both escalators successfully in place, now waiting for the protective wrapping to be removed next month.
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The first step for a good rail track is a solid base. And that’s exactly what the civil works team at Maungawhau/Mount Eden Station have been tracking toward. This month, all the hard work finally paid off with the last of the concrete pours for the track base completed in the area leading from Dominion Road and into the new CRL tunnels.
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The base of the tracks for the CRL lines.
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Excavations for the tracks in this area started in April 2021. Creating the new tracks meant digging 9m down to separate the Western Line from the new CRL platform and tunnels. To do this, we excavated a total of 13,860m3 of material, that’s enough to fill five and a half Olympic sized swimming pools!.
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The track base completed leading into the CRL platform and tunnels.
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The excavations had to be done in sections, where the wall of the track corridor was secured with concrete after each depth to prevent the walls from caving in. It took a lot of concrete with a total of 260 concrete trucks used to create the base and the walls where the new tracks will eventually run.
The material dug out was made up of dirt, clay, and rock. Much of the basalt rock was retained and recycled using a local stone mason to make basalt pavers for the streetscapes, and as feature blocks on the front of the Maungawhau/Mount Eden Station building.
This is another huge milestone for the project as we continue to progress from civils work to the the track building phase of the project.
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Track base extending from the Western Line.
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Track base from the West facing the CRL platform in the distance.
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When entering the redeveloped Maungawhau/Mount Eden Station, travelers will be greeted by a giant waterwall. Nine metres at its highest point, the waterwall references local history, geology, and atua (deities), including Matāoho, atua of the basalt volcanic field in Tāmaki Makaurau, and Parawhenuamea, atua of fresh water.
This month, we installed the waterwall’s eight panels, which were created by local suppliers. Jackson Formwork created molds, which were then filled with steel reinforcing and concrete mixed with a black oxide pigment at Concretec.
Each panel is three metres wide and ranges from five to nine metres high. Each includes carefully placed indents, which will be fitted with hand-crafted glass and basalt features before the waterwall is finalised.
The panels’ long, narrow shape, limited reinforcing, and weight of between 13 and 14 tonnes means they need to be installed very carefully, and a detailed plan was needed to lift and rotate them into place.
The panels enter site one-by-one via truck, lying on their sides, supported by an A-frame. Tui, our blue tower crane, worked with a mobile crane to lift them into a standing position. Most panels were then lifted above the station building, to enter through the open roof cavity, and a few, which are located near the station’s walkway, were driven into place with a mobile crane.
The waterwall will be completed this year and mobilised ahead of the station opening. Keep an eye out for our video in next month’s newsletter and stay tuned for updates!
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One of Jackson Formwork’s molds at Concretec, before being filled.
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A panel being lifted from its mold at Concretec, showing rubber “press-ons,” which create indents for glass and basalt features in the completed wall.
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Rotating a panel before lifting it into the station building.
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Lowering a panel into the station building, toward its final home.
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Performers at Aroha in Uptown, spreading the love from New North Road to Normanby Road.
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It is the season of love, and to celebrate we partnered with the Uptown Business Association to host the second annual Aroha in Uptown festival on Saturday, 11 February.
Mount Eden Road transformed into a tunnel of love, radiating live music, games, performers, and its very own love letter post office.
Local businesses tied the knot with fun activities for families, singles, partners, friends, and furry loved ones to enjoy. Travelling along the route, event goers took part in drumming classes, flower bouquet workshops, art exhibitions, photo booths, puppy portraits, knife and skin care demonstrations, and so much more.
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Aroha in Uptown featured live music, puppy portraits, art demonstrations and cupcakes!
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We would like to thank everyone who ventured outdoors to share the love in Uptown and support the local businesses. For those who were on the hunt for cupid, winners will be notified by email.
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Maungawhau farewells a grand historic icon of one hundred years, set in the modern landscape of Eden Terrace. The Shot Tower erected in 1885, having weathered the elements of a century, is dismantled. The disassembly of the tower is the closing chapter of the Colonial Ammunition Company Shot Tower in the area’s history books.
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The Shot Tower, a Class A heritage structure, surrounded by modern apartments and businesses.
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The shot tower’s original purpose was to produce munitions in response to war fears with Russia – in subsequent years the factory produced plastics, bottle caps and lipstick. In its heyday, the factory employed up to 900 people. The end in some ways was as explosive as it’s beginning.
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Poster on the side of the Colonial Ammunition Company Building.
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Each month we translate technical terms into easy-to-understand language. This month we’ll look at 'hydrovac' and what this means on our site.
A hydrovac is a type of machinery that uses high pressure water to cut and liquefy soil while using a high-volume vacuum to remove this dirt from the excavation. All contents from the excavation are generally kept inside a truck mounted unit.
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A hydrovac mounted on a truck unit which stores the excavated soil.
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This machinery can be used to expose and locate underground utilities, dig narrow trenches to install cables, pipelines and other utilities and dig holes at various depths to install piles. It can also be used to remove debris and to dig in frozen climates. Once the soil is excavated, it is then carried away from site and dumped onto a designated dumping location.
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Workers excavating using a hydrovac.
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Hydrovacs are an important excavation equipment as they maintain safety for both the infrastructure and the workers. They can dig around existing utilities and gas mains without risking damage while also maintaining safety for workers as it reduces the risk of harm that might come from other forms of digging.
Hydrovacs are used often on the Link Alliance project! Now that you a know a little more, can you spot one?
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We would love to hear from you
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Our stakeholders on a tour of the Maungawhau/Mount Eden site.
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The quarterly stakeholder survey is live for 24 hours more!
This is your opportunity to tell us how you feel about communications and engagement at Maungawhau/Mount Eden Station. Click the survey link below to participate
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or
copy and paste the URL below in your internet browser:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/LRZLWH9
Tell us what you think, and we’ll take it on board. The survey is anonymous and feedback from past surveys has resulted in positive changes to the way we notify our works and engage with our community.
We value this feedback so one lucky winner will receive $100 in voucher(s) to a local business as a thanks for participating.
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