Kia ora
We hope you and your whānau are safe and well. It has been another busy month across the Mt Eden Station site with the team celebrating a series of tunnelling milestones, huge piling achievements and sharing love on Valentine’s Day with Mr. Whippy ice creams.
Under the Red Traffic Light system our teams continue to work across our construction site and we have stringent health and safety protocols in place to keep our crew and their loved ones safe. This includes work bubbles, masks, vaccine passports and regular COVID-19 testing.
If you have any questions about our work activities in the year ahead, don’t hesitate to get in touch at mteden@linkalliance.co.nz or 0800 CRL TALK (press 5 for Mt Eden Station).
Ngā mihi,
Mt Eden Station team
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Bringing home the Tunnel Boring Machine
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An influx of activity continues on site as the teams from Aotea, Karangahape and Mt Eden work together to bring the Dame Whina Cooper Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) back to Mt Eden Station for her second drive.
To date the TBM’s cutterhead, front shield and middle shield have arrived back at Mt Eden. The team is carefully pulling back the gantries through the first tunnel to realign them behind the cutterhead for the second drive. In the photo shown you can see the back of the gantries near the entrance of the Mt Eden portal. The 130-metre factory will be pulled across the Mt Eden site where the team will begin the process of reattaching it to the front shield. 24/7 activity at Mt Eden continues for our tunnelling operation as the team reassembles this engineering marvel.
The second and final TBM tunnel drive is scheduled to begin May 2022 and we’re looking forward to sharing more updates about her progress.
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Celebrating our mined tunnel completion
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This month our mined tunnel team proudly celebrated the completion of the Mt Eden mined tunnels. Completing all mined sections on 24 January 2022 is a fantastic milestone that began in May 2021 and took 8 months to complete. In total, the team mined 296 metres!
The tunnel was created using a jumbo machine, excavators, and shotcrete machine to spray concrete on the walls that stabilise the ground.
The photo above shows the team celebrating the completion of the tunnels and breakthrough of the third portal. The team are approximately 30 metres below ground in a 99.5-metre mined section of the tunnel called a cavern.
This is where our Dame Whina Cooper tunnel boring machine (TBM) will slide into after entering the portal, before she starts her second drive to Aotea in May.
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This month we also had our smallest tunnel breakthrough on site. As part of building the re-developed Mt Eden Station and tunnels we needed to redivert waterpipes that run from Basque Park to our main construction site.
To do this we have been using horizontal directional drilling which is a construction technique where a tunnel is drilled under a designated area and a pipeline is then pulled through the drilled underground tunnel.
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Our drill rig has now successfully drilled underneath New North Road from Basque Park to our main site. With the micro tunnel now in place, the team are getting ready to pull a 5.6 metre wide pipeline through the tunnel using a pully system.
The Basque Park Pipe Diversion project is scheduled to finish by October 2022.
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It’s been a banger month of tunnelling breakthroughs and celebrations right across the project. The breakthrough of the Eastern Grade Separation (EGS) tunnel is another big project milestone along with completing 132 metres of the EGS tunnel roof on the North Auckland Line (NAL).
The team are constructing the EGS from top to bottom, to ensure the NAL down main can continue to run over the top of the EGS structure while excavating below to form the new East Link down main track.
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With the tunnel breakthrough earlier this month, light is now shining through between the two ends at Normanby Road and Mt Eden Road.
The team will now begin to install temporary support beams (struts) to stabilise the tunnel walls while they construct the base slab for the new East Link down main that will run within the tunnel.
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Exceptionally boring milestone
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Another landmark moment this month occurred as the team drilled the 1000th bored pile on the North Auckland Railway Line in Mt Eden.
This roughly equates to 9,500m3 of concrete, 1,700 tons of re-bars, and a total length of 14.5 kilometres if all 1000 piles were lined up end-to-end (that is nearly the same distance from Mt Eden to the summit of Rangitoto Island).
These bored piles are commonly used on the CRL project to form foundations that provide support for the large tunnel and bridge structures. The piles transfer their weight load to layers of soil or rock that have sufficient bearing capacity.
Bored piles are popular in urban areas where space is limited, there is no risk of movement, and a need to vary the length or width of the piles. This method of piling is also preferred as there is less vibration and noise impact than with other methods.
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The bored piles on the Link Alliance site are commonly drilled using rotary boring (twisting in place). The team often use bentonite fluid to assist in stabilising the bore hole, then insert heavy reinforcing steel cages, and pour concrete into the borehole.
This process ensures the City Rail Link structures are durable for the future.
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In our last monthly newsletter, we asked you to send in your suggestions to name our new tower crane, and we were overwhelmed with creative entries!
After consideration, the winning prize has gone to Jason who nominated the name ‘Tui’ after the native blue bird with a white bib, as our new crane is painted the same colours. As well as this, Jason mentioned that tuis no doubt hang out in tawa trees, and with Tawa being the name of our existing yellow tower crane on site, we thought this was a great fit!
Tui will support the construction of the new Mt Eden Station building, the City Rail Link platform and Ruru Street Bridge. The crane's jib (or arm) will be 86 metres above ground level and will remain within the site boundary at all times.
Congratulations to our winner, and many thanks to everyone else who sent in their great ideas. With the crane scheduled to be erected mid-March, see if you can spot Tui when you next pass our Mt Eden site!
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Our water tanks are looking slightly different this year! To bring more vibrancy to our construction site, artist Oliver Cain’s ‘Passing through Eden’ artwork was recently installed and is visible down on Shaddock Street.
We think ‘Passing through Eden’ provides a sense of place to an area that has been affected by the project. When designing this artwork, Oliver carefully considered the theme of our neighbourhood and construction site and wanted to bridge the gap between the community and the project. He wanted to transform the water tanks into a story telling experience and if you have a closer look at the artwork, you will see there are a few hidden words.
See how many hidden words and symbols you can find!
Would you like to know more about why these water tanks are on site? Check out our Jargon Buster at the end of this newsletter to learn more!
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Work and study from our quiet space
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If you’re a regular reader of our newsletter you may remember that last year we opened a quiet space aimed at supporting our residential neighbours who work or study from home. However, with Auckland diving into lockdown in August last year we unfortunately had to close this space two days after its opening.
So, let’s try it again! Our quiet space will be reopening 1st March and will be available weekly between 10 am – 2 pm on Monday, Wednesday and Friday inside Cityside Baptist Church (also home to the Mt Eden Art Collective) at 8 Mt Eden Road.
You are welcome to come and relax in this comfortable space and take some time out to work, study or just hang out in a quiet place. There are sofas and tables to make work or relaxing easy.
Wi-Fi and power are available but kitchen facilities are closed during the red traffic light setting. Seating will be managed to ensure people are distanced. Library rules apply – whispers only and respect others.
Under the Red Traffic Light system, we’ll be asking attendees to wear a mask and bring their vaccine passport. You can find out more or register your interest by emailing us at mteden@linkalliance.co.nz.
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Chalk out Boston Road's new hoarding
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Feeling creative? Want to write a secret message to a loved one? Check out our newly installed artwork located on Boston Road - a chalk jam wall! This playful piece created for us by the talented unit The Open Fort, allows small kids and big kids to express their creativity on our hoarding.
Each panel has a series of prompts to encourage budding artists to interact. We are keen to see what fun ideas the community comes up with and we can’t wait to see your creations. Share your photos on social media and tag #CityRailLink and #Linkalliance and we’ll feature the best ones!
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Sharing the love with Mr. Whippy
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To share the love with the community, Mr. Whippy made a come-back to the streets of Mt Eden on Valentine's Day evening, providing free ice cream and a great solution to the heat. Check out a few members of the community celebrating Valentine's Day.
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Mt Eden's kindest stranger
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At Kind Stranger Café located at 66 New North Road you’ll find hot coffee and warm company.
This month we chatted to owner and operator Mate Vella to find out more behind the name ‘Kind Stranger.’
Vella found that New Zealanders love going into cafes but the coffee and food is only half of the equation. His favourite spots are the ones that harbour a sense of community in the area, which is what he is trying to achieve here in Eden Terrace.
“Kind Stranger is just in the name really” says Vella, “Regardless of who you are and how you are feeling, you’ll be met with the same warm reaction as my regulars would be.”
Pop into Kind Stranger Café for some Flight Coffee on Espresso & Filter, a great selection of pastries from the Real Bread project, signature sandwiches, or simply just a chat.
Tautoko i tō pakihi paetata, Support your local business.
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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 the term 'Water Treatment Plant’ or WTP.
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Our Water Treatment Plant has a very important role on site as it improves the quality of water used and collected meaning we can reuse water for our construction activities. This includes water that is collected in drainage from rainfall on the construction site, as well as draining water from the operation of the Tunnel Boring Machine, Dame Whina Cooper. The plant is made up of three tanks of varying sizes with the tallest being 15m high.
When the water is collected, it needs to go through three treatment stages before it can be reused with the water travelling through each tank. Each tank has sensors for the pH and sediment levels that let us know the quality of the water we receive on site and the quality of the water we discharge into the stormwater or wastewater system.
To celebrate our WTP, artist Oliver Cain installed his artwork ‘Passing through Eden’ on two of the water tanks. Take a walk down Shaddock Street to check it out or join us on our monthly site perimeter walks on the first Tuesday of each month.
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You heard it, our visitor centre Te Manawa is now open to the public again from 11 am – 1 pm every Monday here at 1 New North Road.
Te Manawa is a hub for information about the City Rail Link project from initiation to completion. You will find an interactive scale model of the Dame Whina Cooper Tunnel Boring Machine, learn how mana whenua have guided the future vision of the station and bridges, and watch videos capturing our key milestones since the start of the project.
We are also excited to announce that you can join the Mt Eden Station team on 1 March for our monthly community drop-in information session at Te Manawa. Our technical experts will be on site from 5 pm – 7 pm to chat about the topic of interest and answer your burning questions.
This month’s topic is the Porters Avenue bridge installation.
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Our perimeter walks will also be resuming on 1 March where you can learn more about the project and what’s happening behind the hoarding. Guided tours begin at 4.30pm from Te Manawa and take about one hour. Please arrive five minutes before the tour commences.
Perimeter walks do not enter the construction site, so no special clothing is required but please wear comfortable footwear. Tours will be cancelled if weather conditions are unfavourable (please keep an eye on your email).
Tours are free, all you have to do is wear your mask, bring your vaccine passport, maintain a social distance, and email mteden@linkalliance.co.nz to book as numbers are limited.
As always, if you have any questions about the project, you can contact us on 0800 CRL TALK (press 5 for Mt Eden Station) or mteden@linkalliance.co.nz.
You can also follow Link Alliance’s progress by clicking the social media buttons below:
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