Kia ora

We hope you and your whanau are keeping safe and well under Alert Level 3. This month as Auckland moved from Alert Level 4 to 3, we recommenced construction across Mt Eden’s site.  
 

Our first priority remains keeping our workers and the wider community safe. Link Alliance workers will strictly adhere to Government protocols for working under Alert Level 3. Safety measures include: restricted access to our site, protective clothing, segregated entry ways for different teams and additional sanitising and cleaning regimes. 
 

As always, if you have any questions or concerns about our works, you can speak to a member of our team at 0800 CRL TALK (press 5 for Mt Eden Station) or mteden@linkalliance.co.nz.  
 

Nga Mihi, 
 

Mt Eden Station team  

Steady progress for Dame Whina Cooper – our TBM 

During Alert Level 4, Dame Whina Cooper our Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) continued working underground, with a small support crew on the surface, at a reduced capacity and slower pace, to ensure the integrity of this important piece of infrastructure was maintained. 
 

Now that we have dropped alert levels the TBM and supporting activities are near full operation and back to working 24 hours, 7 days a week as we continue the drive to the future Aotea Station. 
 

You can stay up to date on Dame Whina Cooper’s drive by following digCRL.co.nz.   

Link Alliance celebrating Te Wiki o te Reo  Māori 

This month, between the 13th – 17th of September the Link Alliance celebrated Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori or Māori Language Week!  
 

Māori Language Week is a time to celebrate the first official language of Aotearoa. Te Reo is one of the many things that connects New Zealanders to Aotearoa, and unites us as a country.   
 

To celebrate we shared with our neighbours a special-edition newsletter with a few resources, stories, and activities to encourage people to  insert te reo into their everyday language.  
 

As part of te wiki o Te Reo Māori we also called out to our neighbours to name our multi-services vehicle (MSV). 
 

Building the CRL tunnels requires lots of materials, such as the heavy pre-cast concrete segments that form the tunnel lining. These can't be stored on the TBM and need to be imported from our construction site above ground. Moving the materials underground is a task for the project's three MSV! 
 

A MSV is a strong vehicle that is specially built to drive through the CRL tunnels while they're being constructed. When we say a MSV is strong, we mean it! The largest CRL MSV can move up to 35 tonnes of equipment at any time. That's the same weight as six elephants.   

The MSV play a key role in supporting the construction of the CRL tunnels, and using the inspiration of Te Wiki o te Reo Māori we asked you to give one of our MSV a new name!  We are pleased to announce 'Waka Pokorua' as the winning name, nominated by 7 year old Honor and her Mum, Ngāwai.   
 

Honor nominated the name Waka Pokorua for one of our MSV's as she thinks the MSV "looks like a big ant and does the same kind of mahi".  
 

They thought the name was fitting as, like an ant, an MSV carries unbelievable weight for how small it is. It works underground weaving its way through the tunnels and its mahi is part of a bigger project like the ant colony.  
 

Ngā mihi Honor, Ngāwai and to everyone else for their thoughtful submissions. Kia kaha te Reo Māori! 

Upcoming pipe diversion at Basque Park 

Utility works are about to begin in Basque Park, Eden Terrace with a scheduled start date of 11 October 2021.  
 

The small but essential work is a pipe diversion as part of the Mt Eden Station upgrade for the City Rail Link (CRL). Bringing the new railway tracks into the station will displace some pipework and will need to be redirected and joined at a nearby interconnection within the park.  
 

Diverting the pipe will also upgrade this section of the network, by separating a combined stormwater and wastewater pipe reducing the risk of flooding and sewage overflows and allowing wastewater to be properly treated. 
 

The location of the site will be in the ‘amphitheatre’ area of the park, by the entrances at Couldry Street and Rendall Place and will take up approximately one quarter of the park. 
 

The park will still be accessible to the public with the site being safely secured inside construction hoardings. It is expected that the works will take a maximum of 12 months, with the park being returned to its original state once over.  
 

The team at Link Alliance are committed to working with local residents, businesses and park users to minimise the impacts felt from the construction. They are encouraging members of the community to reach out and give feedback by filling out this survey linked here: 

Upcoming Block of Lines 

As part of our works to integrate the new CRL lines with the existing Western Line or North Auckland Line (NAL) we’re required to work on the existing rail tracks from time to time. To protect our workers and train users, Link Alliance utilises KiwiRail’s Block of Lines (BOL) which are short periods throughout the year when trains are not running on the rail network to perform this work. The next BOL is 2nd – 3rd October with  additional BOLs planned for 9th – 10th October and 23-25 October.
 

BOL activity in the rail corridor will take place between 7am – 7pm on Saturday and 8am - 7pm Sunday. All other work on site will take place during the regular construction working hours. 
 

To find out more about our BOL activities, click here: https://www.cityraillink.co.nz/mt-eden-calendar  

Quarterly Stakeholder Satisfaction Survey 

Thank you to everyone who participated in our recent quarterly stakeholder satisfaction survey. Participant numbers were down a bit from last quarter but to be expected because the survey release happened prior to lockdown, and people were no doubt focused on other important matters.  
 

Those who did respond expressed an overall 67.5% satisfaction rate with Mt Eden Station’s Communications and Engagement team. Through the survey you told us that you value our emails and our newsletters – that’s great! In fact, 75% of respondents rated this newsletter highly.  
 

Some of the good things you said: 
 

One person asked if we can do a walkthrough of the tunnels once complete – that would be a terrific experience for all of us and we’d love to make it happen. 
 

Another person said to show more visuals of the future station and surrounding landscape. Great! We will do that with Urban Realm consultation starting later this year.  
 

Finally, there have been requests in the last two surveys for more information about the Dame Whina Cooper tunnel boring machine (TBM) progress. We are delighted to be providing more regular updates on DigCRL.co.nz, the TBM tracking website, where updates will increase from bi-weekly to weekly.  
 

Some additional actions we’ll be taking from your feedback include: 

• Ensuring Symonds Street neighbours receive our communications 

• Telling you more about our construction environmental initiatives 

• Providing regular reminders to construction crews and contractors about being good neighbours

New directions for the Huia 2 watermain 

Construction on New Zealand’s largest transport infrastructure project is about to celebrate a significant milestone with the cutover of the Huia 2 watermain in Mt Eden. 
 

After months of ongoing disruptive work, the final stage of this complex relocation is poised for completion. 
 

Due to its size and water capacity, the Huia 2 watermain is an important pipe for the local area water supply. As part of the CRL project, two portions of this pipe needed to be relocated. At Covid-19 Alert Level 3, the cutover can commence and this critical utility relocation is now underway. 
 

The cutover is literally when the existing and new pipes are welded together after a stringent process of testing, draining, cleaning and finally joining. Once this is complete, the new pipe will carry the water and the old pipe is redundant. 
 

The cutover is not only a milestone due to the complexity of the work but it also marks the completion of a significant body of disruptive work, which has spanned several months. 
 

The first portion of the pipe is a 150.0m section located in Fenton Street. 
 

The location of the yet to be built, Fenton/Ngahura Street pedestrian bridge and the realignment of the North Auckland Rail Line meant that the pipe interfered with the substantial groundworks required for these structures and therefore needed to be moved. 
 

The second portion is a 180.0m section of pipe located on Nikau Street, between Ruru and Korari Street. 
 

Construction of the concrete trough that will contain the CRL tracks needs to commence and the Huia 2 relocation enables this work to proceed. The move will place the new sections of the pipe underneath the new station building and the concrete trough housing the realigned track. 
 

The Huia 2 is considered a critical piece of infrastructure and runs approximately 15 kilometers from the initiation point at the Huia Treatment Plant in Titirangi, to the Khyber Pass reservoirs. At 1.3metres diameter, the watermain is on the larger size of the treated water pipes in Auckland. 
 

Completion of the new Huia 2 watermain will ensure that Watercare Services Limited can continue to provide uninterrupted, high-quality water to the local area and enable the work on the City Rail Link project to proceed. We are looking forward to celebrating this fantastic milestone!

Call for local green fingers 

Are you green fingered or looking for somewhere to plant herbs or flowers? The Link Alliance hope to give back to the local community by beautifying the neighbourhood streets with community planter boxes. If there is community interest. these new green spaces will soon pop up around the Mt Eden site, and we want to share the fun! 

 
We would love to give some keen gardeners the opportunity to nurture plants in a green space of their own. Training and resources will be provided if required – and you’re welcome to help yourself to anything you grow! 

Click on the button below to register your interest:

Support your local business community during lockdown 

Buying local is a great way to reconnect with our community and support our favourite New Zealand businesses. 

While lockdowns can be tough, we need to remember our local businesses are there for us – from their opening hours, to their wonderful hospitality and for making those beautiful coffees and cakes that we love so much. It’s now our turn to be there for them and get our community humming again. 
 

We can do this by: 

• checking out the local shops  

• buying produce that has been locally grown 

• browsing local online websites and following them on social media 

• trying somewhere new in the community for a coffee and cake 

 
Today we would like to feature Fount Coffee Co, who is tucked away at 25 Normanby Road.

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 look at the term ‘Early Ramp Down’ (ERD).  
 

ERD is when we request Auckland Transport to move the last train service of the evening to slightly earlier in order for Link Alliance contractors to work a longer night shift from 10pm to 4am. 
 

Although requests for ERD are usually Sunday to Thursday nights, occasionally under special circumstances they will be on a Friday to start a Block of Line early. 

We work hard to ensure all our affected neighbours know about ERD and Block of Line ahead of time. If you don't already receive our regular work notifications, click the button below:

Update on our information sessions & tours 

Under the government’s guidance, we have paused our information sessions and perimeter site tours until we return to Level 1. Usually they are held on the first Tuesday of every month at our visitor centre at 1 New North Road– Te Manawa.  
 

We look forward to resuming our information sessions and tours once it is safe to do so, keep an eye out for our communications and 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: