Good afternoon everyone,

This update brings us to the end of the second week of the tram network shutdown and associated 24/7 works.

Once again, if you would like to unsubscribe to this weekly update during the works, just reply to let us know, and we’ll take you off the list.

We’ve put together an update below on the week that was, as well as a look ahead on some key activities – most anticipated is the reopening of St Kilda Road northbound

Evening works this week

At certain stages this week we’ve encountered a few unexpected scenarios that have required us to make much more noise than we would have liked during the evening period.

In the southern end of the site an auger was drilling the holes for one of the many, many tram poles that are being installed along the new alignment. This auger hit a significant amount of rock which had to be hammered out. At the northern end of the site a section of rail had to be broken out and re-welded after an issue was identified.  Our apologies for these spikes in noise, we know it’s tough when you hear something like this and you don’t know if it’s going to continue for 30 minutes or 3 hours.   If you hear any hammering during the evening, it won’t be a long term exercise and is generally associated with an unexpected underground impediment that we need to break out in order to continue.  The good news is that all the footings for the tram poles have been drilled, which is one less underground activity. There are still a few trenches and pits across the site, but most of our underground activities are coming to an end.

Tree Removal

Those close to the corner of Park Street and St Kilda Road may have noticed that a tree was removed earlier today in front of the Hallmark building. This tree had been identified for removal as part of the final design and planning approvals were in place. The team were hoping to retain the tree and work around it, but we wouldn’t know until we’d carried out further investigations on its root zone. Once we opened up the pavement it quickly became apparent that the structure roots had grown out to areas that meant it couldn’t be retained and we had to remove it.

Even if planning approval has been granted for the removal of a tree, a review process needs to take place before every tree is removed. We will always delay any removal until it is required to continue construction. A replacement tree will be also be planted as part of the final landscaping.

St Kilda Road Northbound – Reopening

Plans are currently being finalised for the reopening of the northbound lane of St Kilda Road and the Albert Road North connection. To re-open the road we’ll need to do line-marking on the new lane and shift traffic barriers. This work will primarily be done inside the existing construction site, however between Bowen Crescent and Bowen Lane there will be some impact traffic while we make the shift.

On the night of the traffic shift there will be traffic management in place at Bowen Crescent from 8pm through to 5am the following morning. Access and egress to properties will be maintained, however we do expect some delays.

Access into Bowen Lane from St Kilda Road will be closed while we carry out the switch and access will need to be via Kings Way.

Residents accessing and egressing the Botanica’s carpark entrance on St Kilda Road will also be held up when the barrier connection is installed out to the new traffic lane. We’ll aim to do this in the early hours of the morning to minimise disruption, but if you’re coming home in the wee hours, we expect that there could be a delay in getting into the carpark.  The traffic controllers on duty will advise.
Early next week we’ll let everyone know exactly which night this switch will take place.

North

The northern section is coming along very well, with the bulk of the asphalting now complete and the final wearing course of asphalt to be applied on the Park Street tracks should be done by the weekend.

Works are currently underway on the road surface with the laying of the sub-base commencing and asphalting underway on the weekend.

In front of the Hallmark building there has been a flurry of work as we are relocating a valve connection on behalf of South East Water, removing some redundant electrical cabinets on the corner and also installing a new tram pole. These works will continue through to early next week.

Up in the far northern section the focus will be on building the trackside kerb adjacent to the new tram tracks, while kerb works and asphalting will start on the pedestrian crossing over St Kilda Road at Park Street.

South

Down in the southern section of the site asphalting commenced on Thursday night for the new sections of track. Kerb construction will kick off next week as well as the stringing of overheads next week in this section.

The new section of northbound lane of St Kilda Road starts at around the Bowen Crescent area, the sub-base prep work is largely complete from the southern section to the middle section, and on Sunday we expect to start asphalting this new section of road.

At the far-far southern extent of the site, at the intersection of Kings Way/Toorak Road/St Kilda Road, we have a redundant pole that needs to be removed and kerb that needs to be removed. Due to the proximity to the intersection, the pole needs to come down at night, however we’ll wait until daytime to break road-saw the kerb and break it out. The pole removal should not be too impactful as an oxy cutter is used to cut the pole off at the base and lower it onto a truck. The pole removal will take place on Saturday night and the kerb will be broken out on Sunday.  

Middle

As mentioned in the southern section, asphalting of the road will take place over the weekend, which is a step closer to the reopening of St Kilda Road northbound.

Either side of the road we’ve started works on the future pedestrian crossing points to access the new tram stop.

Signals have been installed for the ped crossing on the Melbourne Grammar and kerb works will be finished off on this side next week

On the Albert Road side, the new crossing point is at the top of Albert Reserve. Next week we’ll kick off the kerb and road works on this side of the road to create the future connection. All for the inground conduits and connections for the pedestrian traffic lights have been installed already.

One section of conduit run that needs to be completed is the section running down the northern side of Albert Road, past Domain Hill Apartments and 22 Albert Road. The service investigation works were completed this week and next week the team will begin to open up a trench and lay conduits. This conduit run powers the future lights in the centre of St Kilda Road. Once the conduits have been trenched and installed, CitiPower will come to site and undertake the final works to connect them into the mains and power up the lights in the middle of St Kilda Road.

On the platform, the hoarding around the entrances to the future train station and kiosk started installation on Thursday and is nearly complete. This week we’ve included a look at the artwork that will feature on the hoarding.  

Bluestone on the platform should be finished by Monday with the installation of platform furniture and associated tram operations underway next week.

Best regards, Rob and Christian