Haere rā Sandrine

Farewell, haere rā, bon voyage Sandrine! Our hydrofraise, Sandrine, will soon be leaving us at Aotea Station to go start her new job over in Singapore.

The 90 tonne excavation machine has had a long history with the project. Starting in 2017, Sandrine worked to prepare construction of the now built tunnels in the 100-year-old Chief Post Office building in Britomart Station.

In 2018, Sandrine was returned to France before making a comeback in June 2020 to help with the construction of the Aotea and Karangahape Stations.

During her time at Aotea Station, Sandrine excavated approx. 140 diaphragm walls over the course of 17 months and 2500 working hours. She used four drums equipped with teeth to excavate into the ground and adjust to cut different sized panels. Sandrine is a precise excavation tool that was able excavate panels as close as 20 centimetres from a live stormwater pipe and 12 metres deep along Albert Street.

The rig is named after Sandrine Mussier (pictured above), who worked for CRL contractor Soletanche-Bachy looking after its international project staff for the past 20 years.

In the last photo you can see the Aotea Station foundations team saying farewell, hārae ra, to Sandrine at the completion of their scope of work.

To learn more about CRL's big machines click here: https://www.cityraillink.co.nz/crl-construction-methods.