Kia ora koutou
We hope you are keeping well and have successfully seen through the second lockdown. The Link Alliance was fortunate to continue working through the lockdown to help ensure we continue hitting our key target milestones. However, we are all too aware of the personal impacts living through a pandemic has on individuals.
The health and safety of our team and the public is the number one priority of the Link Alliance and this includes people's mental health. We recognise it is particularly tough for our neighbours who live and work alongside a construction site. That is why we place such importance on working with stakeholders throughout the project.
This is a journey we are on together and there are a number of ways to engage with the Alliance. If you have any questions or comments about Mt Eden Station or related works, please call us on 0800 CRL Talk (275 8255) option 5, or email mteden@linkallinace.co.nz
Hei konā mai
The Mt Eden Station Team
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Tunnel Boring Machine heads to New Zealand!
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The tunnel boring machine (TBM) that will dig two tunnels from Mt Eden Station to Aotea Station via Karangahape Road is on its way!
Our TBM will be named Dame Whina Cooper after a national competition to name the machine after a ground-breaking New Zealander. Tunnel boring machines are traditionally named after a woman in honour of St Barbara who is the patron saint of miners and tunnelers.
The Dame Whina machine recently passed her factory acceptance test and has been declared ready to ship to New Zealand. She successfully underwent more than 500 tests to make sure everything works as it should.
Dame Whina has been designed by German manufacturer Herrenknecht at its factory in Guangzhou, China. She will be shipped in separate pieces and reassembled at Mt Eden Station when she arrives in October.
After an official blessing she will start her first tunnel drive in April 2021. It will take around eight months to complete the first of the two 1.6 km drives from Mt Eden Station to Aotea Station via Karangahape Station. At Aotea Station the tunnel will break through onto Mayoral Drive.
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Volcanic rocks gifted to Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei
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Here at Mt Eden Station we have rich volcanic history that includes the eruption of Maungawhau over 28,000 years ago. As we continue excavating the trenches that will become the new CRL line, large pieces of basalt rock from the eruption of Maungawhau are regularly unearthed.
This month our team donated a six-wheeler truck full of basalt rocks from our site to Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei and their new Pourewa Nursery site.
With the nursery due to open in Orakei later this month, iwi will use these basalt rocks as visual markers and edging for the Māra Kai gardens.
Dane Tumahai, Pourewa Site Manager is delighted with the delivery. “Thank you for your kind assistance and goodwill to transport the boulders from our ancestral maunga to our ancestral lands here at Pourewa. Given the historical significance of these boulders they will play a pivotal role and be located amongst our newly developed Māra Kai food gardens”.
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Mt Eden Station ramp demolition
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The team lifting out one of nine segments that made up the pedestrian ramp
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As part of redeveloping Mt Eden Station, the former pedestrian ramp that connects Mt Eden Road to the station's platform needs to be dismantled and removed to make way for works in the rail corridor.
Last month we removed eight out of nine segments that made up the ramp and this weekend we will be removing the final segment that connected the ramp to Mt Eden Road.
This work is anticipated to take place overnight between 9pm and 5am on 12-13 September. A full road closure will be in place overnight on Mt Eden Road between Boston Road and Enfield Street between 9pm and 5am. Traffic management will maintain pedestrian and vehicle accessibility for properties located within the road closure and all other traffic will be re-routed via Normanby Road and Enfield Street.
We will use an elevated work platform (EWP) to access and rig the double-T beam, pier and column. Once the double-T is removed we will use small tools, a wire saw and gas cutter to cut through the remaining column. A 250 tonne crane and flatbed transporter truck will be set up on Mt Eden Road to facilitate lifting the double-T and column directly onto the truck for removal.
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Sustainability is a cornerstone of thinking for the City Rail Link project. We aim to build New Zealand’s largest transport infrastructure project without using unnecessary resources or creating unnecessary waste. There is no New Zealand sustainability standard for infrastructure, so we have embraced and enhanced the Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia (ISCA) framework, working with Mana Whenua to ensure it is appropriate for the New Zealand context.
A water treatment plant was installed on site at Mt Eden Station earlier this year to help meet the sustainability goals of the project by cleaning and filtering water used on site during construction. Since its instalment, approximately 163,000 litres of water has been processed on site. The ability to do this onsite removes the need to transport the water to a distant water processing site, helping to reduce carbon emissions. In the future this water will be repurposed on site for things like dust suppression and cleaning.
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Flying the flag for Mates in Construction
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City Rail Link Ltd and the Link Alliance are proud to support Mates in Construction’s “Fly the Flag” campaign to prevent suicides, particularly in the construction industry.
Mates in Construction is an organisation formed to combat a high rate of suicide among New Zealand construction workers.
More than 200 construction sites across New Zealand are flying special flags this week, to coincide with World Suicide Prevention Day on 10 September.
Our project’s vision for health and safety is ‘Mahia te mahi, hei painga hei oranga mo tātou katoa’ – to do the work for the good of everyone.
In addition to proudly displaying the Mates flag there is a programme of events and talks to reinforce the message to all workers that help is available when the going gets tough.
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Update on our foundation and earthworks
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The tunnel portal is taking shape at Mt Eden Station in anticipation of the big Tunnel Boring Machine arriving next month.
The Link Alliance construction of the tunnel portal involves piling, excavation and ground retention for the tunnel entrance at the corner of Flower and Nikau Streets, and demolition of a redundant stormwater shaft.
The team are continuing to dig trenches to connect the future twin CRL lines with the existing western line. To complete this work, rock-breaking activity will occur for approximately one month as we break through the hard basalt rock layer. To mitigate the noise, we have erected noise barriers around the excavator and placed a special noise mat around the machine’s drill.
Over at Normanby Road, the first five piles for the temporary services bridge (TSB) were completed last month. Starting Monday 14 September, we expect to start piling for the north section of the TSB. There is a total of seven piles required for this section of the bridge, and it will take approximately one and a half weeks to complete.
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Pigeon Rescue at Mt Eden Station
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Last month during preparation for the pedestrian ramp to be demolished, eagle-eyed engineers Jenny and Dimitri spotted a nesting pigeon in the crevices of the ramp.
The quick thinking duo carefully lifted out mother pigeon and her eggs to save them from the upcoming ramp removal works. With the advice of NZ Bird Rescue, our Environmental Advisor Lorena found a safe place in a tree where she placed the pigeon and her eggs into their new home.
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