Karangahape Station Mining

Dirty, deep and deafening! Those three words describe the work to build New Zealand’s deepest railway station far below Karangahape Road. 

Work’s well underway excavating the cavern for the Karangahape Station that will be 32 metres deep when finished.  

The Link Alliance team building the station are using specialised tunnelling equipment known as road header machines to grind their way through the rock and carve out two platforms. Following mining tradition, the road headers are named after two strong and influential women, New Zealand pioneering aviator Jean Batten and our world champion athlete Dame Valerie Adams.

Karangahape’s platforms run roughly north-south under the Karangahape Road ridge between Mercury Lane and Beresford Square. They stretch 203 metres - enough room for people to safely hop on and off longer nine carriage trains that will run when CRL opens.

Currently around 140 people are excavating the station. At construction peak the number will be approximately 400. The mining tunnel team works five-and-a-half days – most of that time operating 24 hours.

Jonathan Hill, the Link Alliance’s Station Manager at Karangahape says his construction team is making excellent progress and they are looking forward to welcoming the Tunnel Boring Machine in September.

“The noise enclosure we have built over our access shaft in Mercury Lane means that crews can work 24 hours a day. Conditions underground are maintained with fresh air continually pumped into the tunnel.”

The TBM will not be involved in mining at the station but will instead use the power of its hydraulic jacks to “push” its way through the pre-dug station before resuming boring to Aotea.