CRL Milestones in Photos
2023
JULY 2023: The steel framing for Karanga-a-Hape Station’s entrance building in Beresford Square has gone up.
If you pass through the square, you will get a real sense of the size and shape of the building as it reveals itself from behind the hoarding.
JULY 2023: At Te Waihorotiu station, here's a look at the concourse level – one level below Albert Street and one of the two main levels underground with the platform level below it.
This shows the team fitting out the perforated ceiling panels. You can also see the Over Concourse Exhaust (OCE) ventilation system ducting in place.
JUNE 2023: Fenton Street Bridge staircase in Mt Eden was successfully installed on Fenton Street over two nights.
JUNE 2023: The Maungawhau team has poured the last concrete roof slab on the first western tunnel, pictured here to the right.
The team has also poured the last base slab for the second western tunnel, shown here in the foreground. This also makes up the roof of the second eastern tunnel, which crosses beneath it.
JUNE 2023: The concrete base and wall for the City Rail Link tracks that begin near the Dominion Road overpass and extends up to the City Rail Link platform, has been completed and handed over to the track building team.
JUNE 2023: At the Karanga-a-Hape Station, nine-metre tall Atua (deity) panels are being installed at the entrance on Mercury Lane.
Designed by artist, Reuben Kirkwood, the panels are at the cutting edge of what is possible with concrete, utilising the same technology used for the foils on New Zealand’s America’s Cup boats.
JUNE 2023: A big milestone at Maungawhau Station - the completion of 2.5 years of mined tunneling activity.
MAY 2023: Walking through the circular CRL tunnels bored by the tunnel boring machine!
Fit-out work in is still in the early stages for this section of tunnel, but the team will soon begin laying track and the other systems needed for trains to operate in the future.
MAY 2023: The Link Alliance fit-out team has completed the first stage of shoulder concreting in both CRL tunnels between Karanga-a-Hape and Te Waihorotiu.
MAY 2023: The Maungawhau site team is saying goodbye to Tui, the big beautiful blue tower crane. Tui has been a key player in the site’s construction, and we’ll miss her on our skyline.
MAY 2023: it really is starting to look like a railway!
Trains travelling through the first CRL tunnel will transition through a complex structure, referred to as the Newton Junction box. This is where a 7.5-metre-high circular shape tunnel will transition into two 6-metre-high box shaped tunnels.
MAY 2023: A dawn ceremony at the site celebrated the opening of the lifts on the new bridge and the official handing over of the infrastructure to AT.
JANUARY 2023: Since January, teams have been installing the new ballastless track from Karanga-a-hape Station to Maungawhau Station. This track will separate into two tracks at Maungawhau’s tunnel portal, with one heading east, and one heading west.
MARCH 2023: At the western end of Beresford Square, this steel frame and scaffolding have been erected to work on the walls of the service building.
The service building, a separate structure to the main entrance building, will house public toilets, a retail section, along with a staircase and ventilation shaft.
JANUARY 2023: Over the holiday period when trains were not running, our contractors team put in the hard work to largely complete the tracks and the overhead lines for the second Western Line track.
JANUARY 2023: The Wellesley Street entrance building has received its first glazing (glass) installation.
The first glass panels have been lifted into the eastern façade wall – just above where the main entrance to the station will be as shown in this render of how it will look like when completed.
2022
SEPTEMBER 2022: The TBM’s cutterhead is lifted from the Mayoral Drive construction area.
SEPTEMBER 2022: The TBM makes its final breakthrough into the Te Waihorotiu Station site, marking the end of boring CRL’s twin-tunnels.
SEPTEMBER 2022: Then Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and CRL Chief Executive Dr Sean Sweeney visit the construction site and travel through the first completed tunnel.
APRIL 2022: The Dame Whina Cooper TBM was turned on again by Link Alliance Project Director, Francois Dudouit, and launched from 110 metres within a mined tunnel at Maungawhau Station on its way to midtown via the Karanga a Hape Station.
JANUARY 2022: Two 450 tonne cranes were used to lift the TBM’s front shield weighing 145 tonnes from the Te Waihorotiu Station site.
JANUARY 2022: 1.3 kilometres of new track has been laid through the busy Mt Eden site - a switch critical to connect the Western/North Auckland Line with CRL at a redeveloped Maungawhau Station.
SEPTEMBER 2022: Workers representing many nations celebrate the end of the TBM boring after the TBM breaks through for the last time.
AUGUST 2022: The tunnel boring machine (TBM) squeezing tightly through the Karanga-a-Hape Station mined tunnel cavern. The TBM was being moved on rails through the 230 metre tunnel cavern, from Mercury Lane to Beresford Square, after it broke through into the station on 15 July.
FEBRUARY 2022: To celebrate the new mined section at the Maungawhau Station site, the construction team proudly showed off their national flags.
FEBRUARY 2022: The TBM’s middle shield was lifted out.
JANUARY 2022: Over the holiday period, down in the Waitematā Station (Britomart) tunnels, KiwiRail and their contractors prepared the station for CRL - including plenty of concrete pouring, realigned tracks and even a new wall.
JANUARY 2022: At the Maungawhau Station construction site, the mined tunnelling team completed a 99.5 metre mined tunnel section where the TBM will enter for her second drive from Maungawhau Station to Te Waihorotiu Station.
JANUARY 2022: The TBM cutterhead was lifted above ground at Te Wai Horotiu Station and transported back to the Maungawhau Station.
2021
DECEMBER 2021: Our Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) Dame Whina Cooper broke through into Te Waihorotiu Station marking the end of its epic underground journey from Maungawhau Station.
MAY 2021: The last concrete was poured to complete the first underground floor (B1 in pink below) of Karanga-a-Hape Station.
APRIL 2021: An iwi blessing marked the re-opening of the restored heritage Chief Post Office building as Waitematā Station (Britomart),
SEPTEMBER 2021: At Karanga-a-Hape Station , a breakthrough by our Dame Whina Cooper Tunnel Boring Machine.
MAY 2021: Then Transport Minister Michael Wood (left) and then Auckland Mayor Phil Goff (right) press the button on the newly-assembled Tunnel Boring Machine
APRIL 2021: Te Waihorotiu Station construction moves underground. CRL Chief Executive Dr Sean Sweeney with thenAuckland Mayor Phil Goff and councillor Pippa Coom.
2020
DECEMBER 2020: With the tunnels built under Lower Queen Street between the Chief Post Office and Commercial Bay, Auckland’s new public square outside the former Chief Post Office - Waitematā Station (Britomart) opened. It is called Te Komititanga which means ‘to mix’ or ‘to merge”
DECEMBER 2020: CRL’s big Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) was named after Māori rights champion Dame Whina Cooper. Dame Whina’s daughter, Hinerangi Puru Cooper, and her wider family were present at the unveiling and blessing of the TBM at the Maungawhau Station construction site. They were joined by thenDeputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson, then Transport Minister Michael Wood, the city’s then Mayor Phil Goff, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei and other Auckland Iwi who sit on CRL’s Mana Whenua Forum, and community, transport and CRL representatives.
NOVEMBER 2020: CRLL’s contract 8 included improvement works at Ōtāhuhu, including a new platform. The works were delivered by KiwiRail and Auckland Transport to help create a more reliable and resilient rail service.
NOVEMBER 2020: Once Connectus JV s finished constructions under the lower end of Albert Street, the street was restored and improved with vehicle traffic, wider footpaths, new street furniture, trees and bus bays.
JULY 2020: Maungawhau Station’s ‘big build’ for the CRL project ramps up with the closure of the local train station.
COVID: The first half of 2020 saw unprecedented health and safety construction measures as part of Covid virus prevention and lockdowns which interrupted or restricted construction.
FEBRUARY 2020: A sod-turning ceremony is held at Maungawhau Station prior to tunnel portal piling and a national competition was held to find a name for the tunnel boring machine (TBM) due to arrive later in the year
NOVEMBER 2020: Mining tradition hundreds of years old was observed when a statue of St Barbara, the patron saint of miners, was blessed and placed in a small shrine near the tunnel entrance at the City Rail Link Maungawhau Station site to mark the start of mining.
OCTOBER 2020: After extensive factory tests in China, CRL Ltd formally accepts ownership of the tunnel boring machine, named after Dame Whina Cooper. The machine arrived in Auckland to be transported to the Maungawhau Station site.
JUNE 2020: Piling begins in central Auckland for the construction of Te Waihorotiu Station and at Karanga-a-Hape Station.
2019
NOVEMBER 2019: The public get the chance to walk the tunnels under Waitematā Station (Britomart).
JULY 2019: A contract was signed with the Link Alliance to deliver the tunnels and the main stations at Te Waihorotiu Station, Karanga-a-Hape Station and Maungawhau Station.
APRIL 2019: Jeffie, a micro-sized tunnel boring machine finished building a new, 423-metre-long stormwater main 17 metres below Maungawhau Station so enabling future CRL construction by the Link Alliance.
2018
DECEMBER 2018: CRL celebrated a major milestone with the breakthrough from the Albert Street tunnels to CRL tunnels across the Commercial Bay site, Downtown Auckland.
NOVEMBER 2018: The Chief Post Office building - Waitematā Station (Britomart)- was transferred onto temporary foundations to allow for the construction of two CRL tunnels underneath.
JULY 2018: Excavation started on a 14-metre-deep trench that will contain the twin rail tunnels under Waitematā Station (Britomart) and Lower Queen Street.
2017
DECEMBER 2017: First concrete has been poured for the tunnel box in Albert Street
JULY 2017: Bulk excavation work started for the cut and cover rail tunnels under Albert Street
JULY 2017: A replacement stormwater pipe along Albert Street was completed
JANUARY 2017: The Chief Post Office closed and a temporary Waitematā Station (Britomart) entrance opened so work could start on building the tunnels.
SEPTEMBER 2017: 90-tonne compact piling rig Sandrine was moved inside the CPO building -Waitematā Station (Britomart).
JULY 2017: First two concrete base slabs for the CRL twin-tunnels were laid on Lower Queen Street
JULY 2017: Then Finance Minister Steven Joyce and Transport Minister Simon Bridges signed the agreements with Auckland Mayor Phil Goff that established City Rail Link Limited to deliver the CRL from 1 July.
APRIL 2017: The last of 362 piles were dug on Albert Street, between Customs Street and Wyndham Street.
2016
JUNE 2016: Then AT Chair Lester Levy, Auckland Mayor Len Brown, Prime Minister Sir John Key and Transport Minister Simon Bridges at the historic groundbreaking ceremony for the CRL in Downtown Auckland.
SEPTEMBER 2016: Gomer, the 9-storey-high piling rig (named after comical 1960s TV character, Gomer Pyle), and one of the world’s biggest piling machines, arrives in Auckland to start work on the CRL.