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Rubbish Day Out team holding sacks filled with 176kgs of rubbish, recycling and organic waste.
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Kia ora neighbour,
This month we got our hands dirty at our second Rubbish Day Out with St Peter's College and Epsom Girls Grammar School. The two schools came together to clean up the rail corridor during the recent Block of Line (a time when no trains are running). Speaking of dirty, the portal has come full circle and is now filled to the brim, and again meeting Flower Street at the top. On a lighter note, skylights are in and so are plantings in surrounding streets with more to come. Did somebody say busy! Read on.
Recently, the Branch Out Uptown Spring Festival 2023, organised by the Link Alliance along with the Uptown Business Association (UBA) was a finalist in the ‘Beyond the brief’ category of the Kūmara Awards. Together we celebrated a great partnership with the UBA, and we won in the hearts of community. Thank you for sharing how much you loved it, “The 2023 Branch Out Spring Festival brilliantly illustrated the power of community collaboration in creating a vibrant and inclusive event.”
If you have any questions about our work activities, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at mteden@linkalliance.co.nz or 0800 CRL TALK press 5 for Maungawhau Station.
You can also follow Link Alliance’s progress by clicking the social media buttons below:
Ngā mihi,
The Maungawhau Station team
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A land down under at Maungawhau Station
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An elevated working platform located inside the second eastbound tunnel (MC50).
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Activity is buzzing underground, as various teams’ work intertwined to complete significant outcomes inside Maungawhau’s four tunnels.
Inside the tunnels, crews continue to install traction cables and containment for the 48KV cables. This includes cable pulling, fibre works, and signal installation on the overhead line equipment. Alongside cabling, intumescent painting covers the walls to ensure each tunnel is fireproof.
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Looking up towards the eastern side of Mt Eden Road Bridge from the train tracks.
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Spotted from inside the second eastbound tunnel, Matāoho is shining bright from Mt Eden Road Bridge. Atua (deity) Matāoho, the creator of the basalt volcanic field in Tāmaki Makaurau is referenced throughout the design of Maungawhau Station, including these bridge panels installed along Mt Eden Road Bridge.
In May, the team will use this open section of structure to lift and remove materials from deep inside the tunnels. A mobile crane will be located on Mt Eden Road Bridge at night to safely lift knuckle boom cranes to the surface.
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The exposed roof cavity showing cable containments and support structures.
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Walking through the station building’s main entrance, the exposed roof cavity will soon transform into a finished ceiling. Crews have successfully positioned ceiling panel support structures and electrical and communications cable containment. Shortly, installation for cables and light support structures will commence in preparation for the ceiling panels that will represent the feature, bronze threshold element.
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First level of the station building front of house, showing mounted cable trays spread across the rooms.
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Moving upstairs, floor mounted cable trays and sprinkler systems have been installed inside the Station Group Control Centre. These play a huge role in providing power and data to the control room operator desks. Cabling stacked in the corner of the room has been installed, as well as a raised floor to conceal underfloor systems.
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The feature skylight shines light on the station's concourse, located above two escalators that connect to the Western Line overpass.
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Light is dancing off the walls and on the lifts inside Maungawhau’s station building as teams celebrate installing the new feature skylight. The enormous skylight is positioned above the station concourse to allow natural light to enter the building. The skylight will enable travellers to see the sun track across the sky through the day.
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The first glass panel being lifted and placed into the roof framing.
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On site, crews used careful precision to lift and install ten glass panels into place. A mobile crane and glass suction equipment lifted each individual panel from ground level outside of the station building and into the air. The glass was then met by a team of installers on the building’s roof. The team then delicately used ropes to manoeuvre the panels into the exact position and location. With each glass panel being 6461mm in length, with width varying between 1477mm – 1625mm, this was a highly meticulous operation.
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Close up showing how 28 aluminium panels vary in pattern.
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The skylight is surrounded by 28 metallic soffit panels that are made from aluminium. These panels deviate in pattern and include perforated panels, which consist of small holes and shapes throughout the surface. This architectural feature allows for maximum airflow and enhances natural lighting while creating an eye-catching aesthetic. Each panel ranges in size, with length varying between 2305mm - 2724mm and width varying between 1413mm – 1500mm.
The installation of the skylight took approximately three days, and the aluminium panels took two weeks. Crews are continuing to put in the hard mahi to transform the interior of the station building, now focusing on cabling and fit-out works.
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Two Whau trees planted in a small garden bed underneath Fenton Street Bridge, surrounded by small boulders and ground cover.
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We are growing excited as we enter our favourite season of the year, planting season! Streets surrounding the western area of site will soon be full of life as trees, shrubs and groundcover are planted over the next few months.
Crews have laid topsoil inside the newly constructed garden areas on Fenton Street, marking the first street to welcome new greenery this season. Five Whau trees and two Pōhutukawa trees are being planted along the rail corridor this week, featuring small and large boulders placed in between. In May, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei and Pourewa Nursery will gift Maungawhau Station with Ota, plantings from Maungawhau. These species will also be planted along Fenton Street, in alignment with the Maramataka calendar.
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A beautiful Puriri tree planted inside the tree pit on Wynyard Road.
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Recently planted and blossoming Puriri trees grace Porters Avenue Bridge tree pits at the corner of Porters Avenue and Wynyard Road. Inside each tree pit is a strata cell system, which is designed to support soil and root management in urban environments. Each tree pit is designed to ensure the trees thrive for decades to come, while also protecting surrounding utility services and infrastructure.
As part of the City Rail Link (CRL) Ngahere Planting Programme, the Link Alliance are replanting 25 trees around Maungawhau Station and the surrounding streets. In addition, groundcover plantings and a further 315 trees will be added to the wider Uptown neighbourhood.
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85,000 cubic metres of backfill where the portal and the cliff used to be. Click on the picture to play the timelapse video.
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Six months ago the ‘portal’ presented as a series of concrete platforms that housed the tunnels running under the Maungawhau Station site, and to and from the city centre. Over the past four years, the portal has had many faces running 32 metres deep and changing from month to month. Now it is again what it was four years ago – an area of land rising from the station buildings to meet Flower Street.
Portal construction was completed last October, clearing the way for the next massive programme of work – restoring the hill. On average, a convoy of 45 trucks a day transported backfill spoil from quarries in south-east Auckland to the Maungawhau site.
Compaction has prepared the restored hill for future use by Eke Panuku, Auckland Council’s urban regeneration organisation. The street above the hill will also be re-aligned, back to its original shape.
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The new CRL platform at Maungawhau station has been future proofed to accommodate nine-car trains to take commuters through Maungawhau Station and north to Karangahape and the city centre, or to suburbs in the east and west from the city.
Before work could begin on the platform, Western Line tracks needed to be moved and a trench constructed below ground level for the CRL tracks. Then the work of installing the platform and tracks could begin.
This awesome footage gives a bird’s eye view of the construction of the platform, and then takes you down to platform level to view the completion of the tracks and platform ceiling and fit-out.
Watch the construction of two years' work to build the CRL platform, in two minutes.
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City Rail Link Maungawhau Station platform timelapse video. Click to play.
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Rubbish Day Out on the Western Line
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Students from St Peter’s College and Epsom Girls Grammar School starting the clean-up.
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We had a rubbish day with students and teachers from Epsom Girls Grammar School, St Peter’s College, KiwiRail and Link Alliance teams over the weekend.
Our group of around 40, half students and half adults, gave up a sunny Saturday morning to pick up rubbish from the section of the Western Line which we rebuilt to make room for the new CRL connections. Together we picked up an impressive 176kg of rubbish using 33 coffee sacks donated by local delicatessen, Delissimo. Most of what we picked up is able to be recycled.
We think this group of people are pretty special – good sorts if you will – and appreciated their hard mahi. In fact, the idea for this clean up came from the students, who said they were sad to see how much rubbish builds up in the railway.
Looking after our local taiao (environment) is important to Link Alliance, and we were happy to be working together to keep the area beautiful. This was the second clean-up we’ve organised with local students – in 2022 we picked up 200kg of rubbish together.
It’s also important to note that the group had permission to be in the rail corridor. Everyone – including students – were KiwiRail inducted beforehand and followed protocols and personal protection requirements. Please stay out of the rail corridor unless you have authorisation to make sure you stay safe!
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School students picking up rubbish.
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The Rubbish Day Out clean-up crew filling sacks with trash from the rail corridor.
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Pulling off powerful heavy stuff
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Cables being pulled through the roof of the station building overpass that connects to the Western Line platform.
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The crews at Maungawhau Station have pulled 84 kms of cable to date. There are still 156 kms of cable to be pulled into and through Maungawhau Station buildings. The heaviest of these weighs 8 kgs per metre and measures 57 mm in diameter. This cable is used to power the tunnel ventilation system.
The congested cable tray systems mean that the electrical team are pulling a whopping 1000 metres (8000 kgs) of this heavy cable by hand. It takes 20 people working from scaffolds and elevated work platforms, communicating to each other by radio, to guide and secure these cables.
The 156 kms of cable still to be pulled through Maungawhau Station is a fraction of the total 1600 kms of cable required for all stations and tunnels. The total 240 kms of Maungawhau Station cable consists of 140 kms of communications cables - including network, data, security and fire systems cables plus, 100 kms of low voltage and high voltage cables to power station systems, tunnel ventilation and train signalling.
Once the work of pulling and securing cables is complete, the team will make around 25,000 terminations to connect all the systems together. That’s an achievement in pulling and installing powerful heavy stuff.
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Click on the image for more information.
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Nikau Street, Ruru Street and Mt Eden Road are currently well underway with utilities work, and inside the Maungawhau Station worksite boundaries, Korari Street and the Ruru Street extension are mid urban realm development progressing at pace.
As the streets that abut the station progress from utilities to urban realm, our readers have a lot of great questions. For the next few months, we’ll feature an FAQ section covering the topics you are most interested in knowing about, related to urban realm.
Today we answer the question: What was the consultation process for the streetscape design?
Link Alliance developed the urban realm detailed design in five stages: A, B, C and D, followed by drawings that are issued for construction. Urban realm community engagement to support the design occurred at Stage B and Stage C.
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Stage A confirms the layout, height and bulk of structures, including requirements on utilities.
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Stage B provides the barebones layout of structures with materiality and looks at spatial nuances such as lighting.
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Stage C involves detailed drawings of designs and ensuring that they fit together.
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Stage D involves communicating the design information into construction packages for the Link Alliance to deliver.
Throughout this process, the Link Alliance engaged with project partners and key stakeholders to inform and seek feedback on the design, including:
You can find the engagement feedback received and the final designs in the Maungawhau Station Delivery Work Plan documentation, available on the CRL website.
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One of our workers here at Maungawhau Station is a gentle giant, Link Alliance constructor and aspiring national team player who recently went on tour with the greats of New Zealand rugby to France - one of only two players selected for the honour. Achieving that place was no easy feat. As a young man he moved from Tonga to Wellington where he had been offered a rugby scholarship. Since then, he has played for the Hurricanes under 18 and under 20 teams as well as Hawkes Bay, the Blues in Auckland, and next month he begins training with the national team before heading to South Africa with them.
He has two brothers and four sisters back in Tonga along with his parents. One of his key motivators is making his parents proud and helping his family however he can. He is humbled by the sacrifices his parents have made to see him realise his dream.
Each day when he wakes up at 4am he has his mantra, “Active Enthusiastic, Be Enthusiastic”. He’d have to be inspired to achieve what he does! By 5am he is at the gym for two hours training before starting work at Maungawhau Station at 7am. After work the high vis comes off and the jersey goes on for his rugby training.
Here at Maungawhau Station he is a star player too. He has been with the Link Alliance for nearly three years. He says there are a few similarities with his work at Link Alliance and playing rugby, “In both cases it’s a team game – if you don’t play as a team, with mates looking out for mates, you can’t win.”
Who is this awesome young gent – for now he is not allowed the distractions of fame, but we do want to recognise him as a brilliant role model, and star worker sporting the values of the Link Alliance.
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Maungawhau is flying high
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Travel with us over the new bridges, upgraded streets, tunnels and buildings of Maungawhau Station by drone.
The drone is scheduled to travel once a month over the station and surrounding streets, from Dominion Road to Khyber Pass, travelling over the Western Line tracks and stopping for a visit at the new Maungawhau Station.
While we are filming, our neighbours may see our little aviator travelling. The entire flight from west to east takes about half an hour.
Upcoming drone flights
Our survey team will be out and about next month capturing aerial drone footage across the project. While the team’s typical flight plan and path includes the project area, local roads and the rail corridor, some circumstances may require the drone to fly a wider path such as wind conditions or project requirements. We don’t expect the drone to cause any disturbance to day-to-day activity.
Please contact us if you have any concerns or questions.
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Each month we look at technical terms from construction and ‘translate’ them into easy-to-understand language. This month we will look at ‘winch’.
A winch is a tool which is used to pull multiple cables through long runs of ducting. On the Maungawhau Station site, winches are generally not used in the congested cable trays inside the station buildings due to the risk of damaging the cable or cable trays. In this case, the cable is laid into and pulled through the tray by hand with one person placed at each change in direction.
Below is an image of a relatively small winch, about the size of a microwave oven.
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