Kia ora,
We hope you and your whānau have been keeping safe. It has been yet another busy month across the Maungawhau Station (Mt Eden) site, with our Dame Whina Cooper Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) breaking through to Karanga a Hape Station (Karangahape).
You can read more about the recent TBM breakthrough below. The team are preparing to achieve many more milestones in August including the permanent closure of the Porters Avenue level crossing and the completion of the Basque Park pipe diversion works.
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 Station. You can also follow Link Alliance’s progress by clicking the social media buttons below:
Ngā mihi,
The Maungawhau Station team
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Breakthrough at Karanga a Hape Station
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On Friday 15th July, our Dame Whina Cooper TBM broke through into Karanga a Hape Station on its way to bore the second and final tunnel to Te Wai Horotiu Station (Aotea) in midtown.
From Maungawhau Station construction site, the TBM travelled 900 metres to Karanga a Hape Station, taking three months.
After some maintenance, the TBM will be pushed forward to Beresford Square, where it will be relaunched in early August.
Supporting operations for the TBM at Maungawhau Station such as spoil removal, have taken a brief break while the TBM is at Karanga a Hape and will resume for the remaining portion of the tunnel drive.
The TBM is expected to reach Mayoral Drive in September, you can follow the progress with weekly updates at www.digcrl.co.nz. See what goes on in the tunnels with a bird’s eye view from our astonishingly clear underground drone footage CRL Maungawhau Station (Mt Eden) Tunnel Fly Through. If you love this, come along to our info hub next week and see the drone up close – details below.
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We’re breaking free here too
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Last month the Maungawhau team hit another milestone by successfully reaching daylight underneath Mt Eden Road bridge on the MC50 line. There are 35 metres remaining which will be excavated in August and will connect this new tunnel to the main Maungawhau Station and form the foundation for the new MC50 train line. The MC50 line is the route passengers will one day take to travel from the City Rail Link (CRL) tunnels towards Grafton.
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The team will now prepare to progress the MC60 line running parallel, and build the MC60 platform followed by track formation and electrification at the end of this year.
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A ‘level’-up for safety as we say goodbye to the last of the level crossings
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The current level crossing at Porters Avenue.
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From Friday 12th August, Link Alliance will permanently close the level crossing between Porters Avenue and Wynyard Road. This level crossing is the last of the level crossings to be removed from the Maungawhau Station construction area and will be replaced with the Porters Avenue Bridge for pedestrians.
The removal of the Porters Avenue level crossing is a ‘level’-up for safety around the railways in the area. Level crossings can create a safety hazard where vehicles and pedestrians cross over the rail lines, and therefore have the potential to come into the path of an on-coming train.
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An impression of the new Porters Avenue Bridge from Porters Avenue.
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Removing the level crossings in the area and improving community safety was a priority when undertaking planning of the CRL project in collaboration with Auckland Transport (AT) and KiwiRail. Alternative design options to get across the rail corridor, such as tunnels and bridges, are considered a better option to cross the tracks safely.
Alternative options were put out for community consultation by AT in late 2017. The replacement Porters Avenue Bridge to accommodate pedestrians over the new rail lines was confirmed as the safest, most practicable option.
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Celebration at Basque Park
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After 11 months of hard mahi on the Basque Park pipe diversion works, we are excited to announce that the project will be completed next month, finishing two months ahead of schedule. Maungawhau Station’s first fully completed project area, as part of the CRL works, is a call for celebration.
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Basque Park will be returned to the community in the same condition it was in prior to Link Alliance commencing work, with our much-loved art hoardings being recycled and relocated to the perimeter of Maungawhau Station site on Nikau Street, near our info spot.
To celebrate the return of Basque Park to the community, there will be a dawn karakia (blessing) with Mana Whenua on Saturday 27th August, with free kawhe and kai to follow at Couldry Street.
We have appreciated your support and patience throughout our works and hope to celebrate with you soon.
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Mana Whenua values in design
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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.[1]
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.
If you want to know more about the Maōri creation story, check out the Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand.
[1] Te Ahukaramū Charles Royal, 'Māori creation traditions', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/maori-creation-traditions Story by Te Ahukaramū Charles Royal, published 8 Feb 2005
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Tūpuna Maunga Authority to complete tihi loop and boardwalk at Maungawhau/ Mt Eden
Maungawhau is a site of immense cultural, spiritual, and historic significance to the 13 iwi of Ngā Mana Whenua o Tāmaki Makaurau (the Māori tribes of Auckland). One of the largest and most important pā in Tāmaki Makaurau / Auckland in pre-European times, Maungawhau today is one of the most well-preserved fortifications of its type in the world. Its underlying cultural and archaeological values require enhanced protection.
With that in mind, this month the Tūpuna Maunga Authority (TMA) works begin to extend the boardwalk around the crater rim to the tihi (summit) and carpark area.
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The tihi loop track was last upgraded more than 10 years ago using aggregate paths. These are now significantly degraded. Among other ill effects, the poor condition of the paths has caused people to make ‘desire lines’ / alternate tracks, which are scarring the Maunga. In two places measuring more than 6 metres wide.
Before COVID-19, the Maunga was visited by more than one million people each year, and that is expected to resume. The boardwalk extension will create a safe, durable walking surface around the crater rim, providing a quality visitor experience while preventing further damage.
Like all Authority initiatives, the project is directed by the Tūpuna Maunga Authority Integrated Management Plan, which cares for the health and wellbeing of the Maunga and manages the treasured places as taonga (treasures) and wāhi tapu (sacred places).
The planning and design of the boardwalk included consultation with industry experts both local and international, and a review of boardwalk design at historic locations and World Heritage sites around the world.
The design uses innovative techniques. Screw pile technology greatly reduces the risk of disturbing archaeology under the surface.
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The boardwalk’s steel substructure requires fewer foundation piles than the traditional timber, which minimises excavation. Steel also has a longer life expectancy than timber (up to 50 years) and is 100% recyclable at the end of its life.
Construction is expected to take nine months with completion in March 2023. The already constructed, and award-winning, northern sections of the boardwalk will remain open to visitors. There will be no access, (including limited mobility access) to the tihi or tihi carpark, for the duration of the works.
On completion of this project, the Authority will have upgraded all the tracks around Maungawhau to their best-practice standard.
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In our recent quarterly stakeholder survey, you shared important feedback about our email works notifications. We heard from you that there is valued information in works notifications, and that this content could be easier to digest if the appearance was visually less complex.
Thank you for your feedback, the team have been working on the appearance and functionality of our works notifications. We have developed notification icons that we hope will create more eye-catching content, increase engagement and enable a higher intake of important advice.
These icons are a new feature of our notifications which we will begin to use across all Link Alliance stations from Monday 1st August. By using these icons, we aim to reduce reading for stakeholders and to bring you the content you care about. For example, anyone who is interested in night work only, will be able to narrow their search to the subjects with the night work icons.
Check out our eight new notification icons and their meanings, we can’t wait to hear what you think of them!
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The latest issue of the Uptown magazine is now out and about! There’s even a 6-page profile spread about all the exciting new transportation projects in the neighbourhood!
You can find yourself a free copy at local Uptown cafés and stores, or online here for those of you who are digitally minded.
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Are you ready for more free Friyay Kawhe?
Between 7am – 9am every Friday this August, we are offering a free coffee to locals around our Maungawhau Station construction site to say thank you for being a great neighbour. Come find us on Wynyard Road and Fenton Street to share a cuppa.
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Each month Link Alliance is going to look at some of the more technical terms from the construction and ‘translate’ them into more easy-to-understand terms. This month we will look at ‘Hydraulic Hammer Head’.
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A Hydraulic Hammer Head also known as a ‘rock breaker’ is an attachment connected to a digger which breaks up the rock beds found during excavations. At Maungawhau Station, there are basalt rock layers that are exposed during excavations which is due to historic volcanic activity in the area. To break up the rock, the chisel end vibrates quickly up and down to hammer at the rock.
While breaking rock can be a noisy activity, a cover or wrap can be attached to the hammer head to reduce noise impact as much as possible. This picture shows the hammer head in action at Maungawhau. Rock breaking activity in the west part of the site will occur intermittently during the excavation of the tracks which is due to be completed by November this year.
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We are buzzing to see you
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You are invited to join the Maungawhau team on their public perimeter site walk and Infohub next week, Tuesday 2nd August.
The revitalized perimeter tour which now includes our western site near Porters Avenue, will take you out into the streets to see what is happening behind the hoardings on the construction site. The tour commences at 4.30pm and takes about one hour. To sign up for the tour please send us an email to mteden@linkalliance.co.nz. Numbers are limited so get in quick!
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Alternatively, or afterwards, you can take a bird’s eye look at the site during our special Infohub about drones. During this interactive session you will be able to get up close to our Link Alliance drone and speak to our drone expert about monthly flights across all of the stations. We will also share exclusive drone footage from our recent flight across the Maungawhau Station. Come along from 5pm – 7pm to check it out.
We can’t wait to see you there!
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