The Downer-led joint venture  (Downer NZ and Soletanche Bachy) was chosen to progress the CRL work through and under Britomart Station and Queen Street to the Downtown Shopping Centre site.

The contract included establishing temporary accommodation for Britomart Station’s ticketing and customer service operations, underpinning the historic former Chief Post Office building, to allow the construction of the rail tunnels beneath and reinstating Britomart Station and upgrading urban space and surrounding roads.

Contract 1 commenced during July 2016 with construction of the temporary station concourse and accommodation facility. 

In addition, this image gallery section contains images of the portion of the tunnels being built by Fletchers through Precinct's downtown Commercial Bay development.

The main body of work under Construction Contract 2 by Connectus (McConnell Dowell and Downer JV) is the construction of twin cut and cover tunnels along Albert Street from Customs Street to Wyndham Street.

The tunnels will be constructed using the bottom-up construction method where a deep trench up to 18 metres deep is excavated and the tunnel constructed through it, then carefully back-filled and the surface reinstated. You can see more about the construction methods used

Early work in Construction Contract 2 included  pipe jacking a new stormwater main along the eastern side of Albert Street, between Swanson and Wellesley Streets and strengthening of the Orakei Sewer Main across Albert Street.

To enable the pipe jack and cut and cover tunnel works, the diversion or relocation of many essential utility services along Albert, Victoria, Swanson and Wellesley Streets was required.

This included stormwater pipes, electricity supply cables, telecommunications cables, gas pipes, sewer pipes and any other service conduit that needs to be safely relocated. Utility diversion was a significant body of work which commenced during December 2015. Pipe jacking and cut & cover tunnel construction began during Quarter 4, 2016. 

The contract for stormwater diversion works in Mt Eden was awarded to the March Bessac Joint Venture.

The Mt Eden contract worth $16.5M is for the construction of a new underground stormwater tunnel between Water and Nikau Streets to replace an existing adjacent pipe that will be in the way of the CRL tunnels.

This bright red 90 tonne piling rig named Sandrine worked inside and outside the historic Chief Post Office (Britomart Transport Centre) building until being returned to France in early 2018.

The CRL milestone breakthrough to the Commercial Bay development site from the Albert Street trench tunnels – in downtown Auckland. 5 December 2018.

As part of CRL Construction Contract 1, the Britomart Transport Centre, situated within the former Central Post Office, was decommissioned to enable CRL tunnel portals to be constructed below. 

The current 'dead end' at Britomart will be superseded by east and west bound tunnels, completing the current rail network.

The CPO Building was designed by Claude Paton and government architect John Campbell and originally opened in 1912. 

As part of CRL works the CPO will be fully restored and reinstated to its former glory.

These are the latest concept designs for the CRL stations.  There are two new stations - one mid-town (referred to as Aotea) and  Karangahape Road (referred to as Karangahape). There are also the latest images of Britomart post-CRL. You can read about the design concepts and stations

The Finance and Transport Ministers and Auckland Mayor Phil Goff signed agreements to establish City Rail Link Limited to assume responsibility for delivering the CRL from 1 July 2017

On 2 June 2016,  then Prime Minister John Key, Transport Minister Simon Bridges and Auckland Mayor Len Brown formally marked the historic start of the construction of the CRL at a ceremony at the Britomart Train Station.