Mining starts on country’s deepest railway station

The first cuts have been made underground to build the country’s deepest rail station.

Karangahape Station construction crews manning heavy machinery have started mining a 15 metre-long connecting tunnel from the bottom of the temporary access shaft in Mercury Lane. The connection will be 15 metres long and provide the access that workers need to mine Karangahape’s two platforms (see diagram below).  

“This connection is short, but it will become an important and busy ’construction artery’ for us to provide access for people, machines and material,” says Dale Burtenshaw, Deputy Alliance Director for the Link Alliance.

After this important connection is cleared, work starts on the platforms that will be 217 metres long to accommodate nine-car trains. 

A large piece of mining equipment known as a road header is arriving from Australia to excavate the platform caverns. A road header has a boom-mounted cutting head that rotates as it grinds its way underground.

At 32 metres below street level, Karangahape Station will be New Zealand’s deepest underground station. The station will have two entrances – one on Mercury Lane and the other in Beresford Square on the north side of Karangahape Road. At street level, work continues to progress on the station building and entrances.