It’s been a year of great progress on the City Rail Link (CRL), with some important milestones reached.

CRLL chief executive, Dr Sean Sweeney, says building 3.45km twin tunnels and new stations up to 42 metres underground in the middle of a built-up city, is no small task, but he is delighted with the progress made so far.

“When building infrastructure of this size and scale in a busy urban environment, it’s impossible not to impact people in some way. We work hard to minimise the more negative aspects of our construction works but inevitably we do impact on people’s lives, whether they’re dealing with construction noise or having to take a detour around our worksite.

“On behalf of the CRL project team, I’d like to thank everyone for their support, patience and understanding as we work to complete the biggest transport infrastructure project ever to be undertaken in this country.

“When CRL opens in 2024, Aucklanders will have new world-class stations and a modern rail service that will benefit the entire transport network for decades to come. It will be worth the wait.”

CRL celebrated a major milestone this month with the breakthrough from the Albert St trench to CRL tunnels built under the neighbouring Commercial Bay site.

The tunnels between the two sites meet under the Customs St traffic deck, which was built last year to keep traffic moving while the work is carried out underneath.

CRL’s CEO, Dr Sean Sweeney, added: “The nature of the excavation, the tight confines and the city centre location all make building this project extremely complex and I’m delighted with the progress we’ve made to date.”

CRL contractor Connectus JV can now complete the construction of the remaining third of the Albert St tunnel box. The backfilling of the trench will continue until it is completely covered – sometime in mid-2019.

CRL has been recognised for changing the way infrastructure projects are designed and delivered in NZ.

The project won both the Efficiency Champion category and the Supreme NZI Transforming New Zealand Award at this year’s NZI Sustainable Business Network Awards.

Rachel Brown, CEO Sustainable Business Network, says: “The CRL will be a tremendous part of Auckland’s public transport infrastructure. It will help demonstrate how New Zealand can move to a low carbon, circular and more accessible city. City Rail Link exhibits best practice that provides an excellent model for other businesses to follow.”

The project is on track to reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with energy and material use during construction by over 4,000 tCO2e – the equivalent emissions of around 4,500 flights between Auckland and London - and has thus far diverted 97% of construction and demolition waste from landfill.

Some significant changes will be made to the layout of Albert St in the New Year.
At the southern end of the site, work will begin on reinstating the Wyndham St intersection. The struts (horizontal support beams) will be removed, the trench back-filled and the road surface reinstated by about March 2019.
From March, Albert St’s northbound traffic lane will move closer to the centre of street, onto the existing construction traffic deck, to enable the public realm reinstatement works to begin. Connectus JV will remove the pile capping beams before completing the backfilling of the trench and reinstating the road with tree pits, stormwater catchpits and new kerb lines.
CRL’s Albert St tunnel box is expected to be completed by about August 2019.