Karangahape Station Development

Earlier this month, pre-lockdown, two sections of New Zealand’s deepest railway station joined up after an underground breakthrough at City Rail Link’s (CRL) Karangahape Station.

The breakthrough occurred 18 metres below the station entrance at Mercury Lane – the building is now connected directly to the mined tunnel excavations underway for Karangahape’s platforms.

“It’s quite a milestone for us – one that shows we’re overcoming challenging ground conditions to ensure we are ready for the arrival of CRL’s tunnel boring machine” said Karangahape Station Project Manager Jonathan Hill.  

“Construction of the station building below street level began in early March and within five months, we’ve laid the concrete slabs for two of the station’s floors, removed 16,000 cubic metres of spoil, and joined up with the mined tunnels beneath.”

 A combination of vibro ripper and hammer working inside the station entrance excavation chiselled its way through layers of rock to open the hole in the roof of a pilot tunnel below that had been used to excavate the platform tunnels.  

With access now available from both the underground station and the mined tunnels, there will be more flexibility to share resources between teams to excavate the remaining 16,500 cubic metres of rock for the station.    

The Karangahape Station site, along with all CRL sites, has ceased construction while under COVID-19 Alert Level 4 conditions.

To contact the team call 0800 CRL TALK (0800 275 8255) and select option 4 or email karangahape@linkalliance.co.nz.