Kia ora

Happy New Year! We hope you have had a safe and relaxing holiday break. 2022 is going to be another big year with exciting milestones as we work towards completion of the Mt Eden Station and CRL tunnels. This year, expect to see the following and more: 

• Re-launch of the Dame Whina Cooper Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) in the second quarter  

• Completion of the second bored tunnel on the TBM drive 

• Completion of the artistic ventilation building that will provide fresh air into our new tunnels  

• Completion of the Basque Park utility upgrade 

• Opening of the Porters Ave pedestrian bridge 

• Opening of the Normanby Road road-over-rail bridge and deconstruction of the Temporary Services Bridge 

• Beginning of streetscape works on Boston Road 

Many other projects will come to fruition or meet significant progress over this year.  

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 

New year, new track

A big thank you to our neighbours for their patience and understanding throughout the recent Blocks of Line (December 26 – January 23). Your support helped the team achieve a significant project milestone – switching trains onto a new 1.3km section of track – enabling construction to continue this year on the other side of the rail corridor.  

During the summer holidays, a team of 173 dedicated men and women continued to put in the hard mahi on site to construct and align the fresh new train tracks on the Western Line (or North Auckland Line). Trains have now switched over and are running on this new track, meaning that the Link Alliance can carry out necessary construction activity on the other side of the rail corridor (closest to the rail boundary).  

Because of the commitment and determination of our crew members, the team were able to use the Blocks of Line to recover reduced productivity during lockdown, and continue on the track to deliver the City Rail Link on time. On January 12 a diesel freight train ran on the new line for the first time and on January 21, an electrified test passenger train made the same journey over the newly laid track.  Both significant milestones of the ambitious Blocks of Line.  

More excitingly, passenger trains resumed on January 24 and the public can now try out the 1.3km of new track for themselves.  

TBM shield homecoming

Last December 2021, the people of Tāmaki Makaurau received the best Christmas present with the breakthrough of the Dame Whina Cooper Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) at Aotea Station marking the end of the TBM’s successful first drive. Earlier this month the Mt Eden crew celebrated the homecoming of the TBM cutterhead as it returned back to the Mt Eden Station site. 

The TBM’s front shield made her way through Tāmaki Makaurau in the dead of the night last week and back to Mt Eden Station where the team will prepare her for the second drive. 

Moving parts of this 910 tonne machine is no simple task. Throughout the next month the TBM's front section, called the shield, will be dismantled and each piece will be lifted above ground by a crane. Trucks will transport each piece to Mt Eden overnight to minimise disruption to Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland's traffic. The rest of this precious cargo, her additional gantries, will be delivered in six pieces and undergo maintenance and cleaning ahead of the second big drive.  

Mined milestone

Earlier this month our mined tunnel team completed a 99.5m section of tunnel, called a cavern, where the TBM will prepare for its second drive later this year. 

The TBM will be installed in the cavern ready for her next boring journey to Aotea Station. The picture above shows the inside of the cavern that sits approximately 30 metres below ground. 

Art in the park

Not one, but two new beautiful pieces of hoarding art have been installed in Basque Park by artists Deborah Crowe and Ashleigh Taupaki.  

Deborah Crowe’s Look See is a piece composited from hundreds of images, weaving together outlooks from all around the park. Look See acknowledges renowned landscape architect Ted Smyth’s design themes; and the positive impact that looking, seeing and being in a green space has on wellbeing, a sense of place and creating an enriched experience of space. Look See encourages a curious eye.

Ashleigh Taupaki’s work is based on the pūrākau and love story of Pūtoto (God of magma) and Parawhenuamea (Goddess of water that comes from the ground) which resulted in the creation of many volcanic rocks, including onewa (basalt). The combination of these elements and materials used by humanity for advancement and discovery can be seen through the windows of the hoardings as construction workers work to engineer a better Tāmaki Makaurau underground. 

These artworks make a visit to Basque Park a must, especially because more great picnic weather is in the forecast for Mt Eden. Watch for more good stuff in this space. 

Safety screens protecting residents

Those fresh new train tracks on the Western Line (or North Auckland Line) that we mentioned earlier run adjacent to the North Eden apartments on the western end of the project. The apartments’ proximity to the track required a measure to protect residents from accidentally making contact with the overhead line equipment (OHLE).  A safety barrier was needed because the overhead lines and the supporting infrastructure carry electricity at 25,000 volts to power the electric trains. 

Plexiglass Fibre Reinforced Polymer (FRP) has been used successfully on several Auckland projects. The insulative, transparent properties of this product made it the best practical option for the safety screen, and you can see the outcome in the photo above. 

The result is a non-restrictive, transparent safety screen that keeps people safe from the lines and it looks good too. 

Name our new Tower Crane and win! 

Tawa the Tower Crane is getting a sister!  

To support the construction of the new Mt Eden Station building, the City Rail Link platform and Ruru Street Bridge, a new tower crane will be established on our Mt Eden site from mid-February. This will become the second tower crane on site, joining our existing tower crane, ‘Tawa’!  

The crane's jib (or arm) will be 86m above ground level and will remain within the site boundary at all times. Traditionally, big pieces of construction machinery are given a female name and as the tower crane will play a key role in the construction of some of our important structures, we want to give it a name.  

Our new Tower Crane will be blue and white standing tall next to the yellow Tawa crane. 

We invite you to send in your ideas, and the winning entrant will win a $200 voucher to a local Mt Eden restaurant.  

Entering is easy – just reply to this email by 5pm on Friday 11 February with your suggested name. The only criteria are that it’s a female name (as is the tradition), the name is not offensive, and you include a sentence or two about why you think it’s a winner. 

You can enter as many times as you like before the competition deadline and we look forward to receiving your entries! 

On tour with Mr. Whippy

Here we go again! 

Our friends at Mr. Whippy have been touring around Maungawhau providing the community with free ice cream on us.  With Mr. Whippy visiting 5 times throughout the Block of Line period, we’ve been able to say thank you and share over 1000 ice creams with our site neighbours.  

This has been so popular we are doing it again and this time, because you asked for it, Mr. Whippy will come a little later in the day so our hard-working day-job neighbours can share in the fun.   

This Valentine's Day on Monday 14 February we’ll be sharing the love from 5 pm – 7 pm.  

Keep an eye out on our social media channels for where you can find Mr. Whippy ice cream, with love from Link Alliance, on the 14th. 

Maungawhau’s new Greenstone Factory Shop  

Maungawhau welcomes a new business this month, the Greenstone Factory Shop has recently moved from Kingsland to our neighbourhood at 14 Mt Eden Road.  

Greenstone Factory Shop is a small family owned and run business that sell beautiful greenstone, paua, bone carvings and wooden pieces.  

They take pride in providing the community with pieces that hold spiritual significance, ancestral connection, and represent attributes of strength, love, friendship and peace.  

Whether you’re looking for a gift for a loved one or perhaps yourself, they have you sorted.  

Tautoko i tō pakihi paetata, Support your local business. 

Jargon Buster

Systems is the operational division of the rail corridor and includes track construction, signaling, electrification, telecommunications, and operational equipment. It is the process of enabling trains to operate safely and efficiently on the rail tracks.  

Our Systems team here at the Link Alliance play an important role at the end of the project, as ultimately, they will enable the trains to run through the completed tunnels to our new Mt Eden train station.  

We're back!

We are excited to announce that after 6 months, the team will finally be reopening the doors of our visitor centre, Te Manawa located at 1 New North Road to the public for our regular monthly info hub. 

We’ll be hosting our first info hub of the year on Tuesday 1 March from 5 pm to 7 pm, as well as kicking off our perimeter site tours with our Development Response Manager from 4:30 pm to 5:30 pm.  

Our info hubs and perimeter site walks are held on the first Tuesday of every month at Te Manawa. We will provide more information about our March session in the next newsletter.  

Visitors to Te Manawa and on the perimeter site tours will need to have a mask and show a vaccine pass.  

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: