Good afternoon everyone,

Welcome to the first weekly update for 2023!

We hope everyone had a wonderful and restful break.

This year the site has changed quite a bit following the commissioning of the Anzac Station tram stop and the setup of the sites on the western side of St Kilda Road.

Australia Day is tomorrow and there is an RDO on Friday, so there won’t be much activity on site for the rest of the week (hence the Wednesday update!)

Below is a snapshot of what to expect for next week. Apologies, no photo this week – next week we’ll get out on site and get some photos of what’s happening down on the ground.

Station Roof Works

Starting in the south of the site, between Bowen Lane and Bowen Crescent, preparation works have been underway with barrier setup for the final tie-in works to connect the station roof to the walls. Next week the team will break out the previous kerb line and footpath in front of 390 St Kilda Road to prepare a temporary road surface for the re-orientation of Botanica’s St Kilda Road driveway out towards Bowen Lane. By late next week the driveway should be switched onto this new alignment. There will also be some preliminary work with excavators with hammers breakout of the previous road and kerb surface directly in front of Botanica next week.

Albert Road Reserve Station Entrance

As you’ll have seen over the past few days, the works have kicked off in earnest at the Albert Road Reserve station entrance. The earthworks carried out over the past few days have been to set up a stable working surface for the piling rig, which is now making its way around the perimeter of the station entrance. This piling and surface preparation will continue for all of next week before the first stage of excavation begins in March. The piling rig itself will stop work at 6pm Monday to Friday, but the actual lowering of cages and pouring of concrete will likely run up until 10pm in the evening. Similarly, when the excavation and loadout commences, this will continue up until 10pm.

Conduit Installation – Albert Road North

Installation of the final power connection for the new tram stop and lighting within the St Kilda Road boulevard will start next week. This power connection runs down Albert Road. The traffic setup will be put in place on Monday 30 January with the opening of a trench up near the pedestrian crossing to the new tram stop. The following week the team will start trenching and conduit laying along Albert Road North, the works will be staged across driveways to ensure that access is maintained.

St Kilda Road Median Works

In the centre of St Kilda Road we’ve started works to build the central median of St Kilda Road, at the northern end of site demolition of the existing asphalt and kerbs will continue in preparation for installation of drainage, conduits and pavement.

Down south, the works are underway to install of the services to connect to the future chiller plants. Next week excavation will also commence for the base slabs for the chillers.

We mentioned in an update late last year that planting of the trees on the tram stop will wait until the cooler months to give them the best start in their new location. Similarly, many sections of the completed median has seen the topsoil laid, but the landscaping in these areas wont commence in the middle of summer. We’ll advise in future updates on start the date for this landscaping – as well as any updates on the planting of trees (though the trees will be later in the program as they require space for the excavation of the tree pits to ensure good soil quality and volume)

Albert Road Legacy Construction

Another big change this year will be the legacy works for the new alignment of Albert Road North, including the separated bike lanes. Not much to report on this front for next week, as the conduit installation on Albert Road North will need to take place before we start in earnest on the new road alignment. One thing to report however is that the sequencing of the works has been finalised, and where previously the team had thought it would require the occupation of the parking next to Kettle Black – this will no longer be the case for the first stage of works.

Station box construction

We’ll have a better update on the station box construction next week – safe to say though that while the team have been busy setting up and establishing the new sites, the station team have been continuing their great work – including starting the installation of the platform screen doors.

Shrine Entrance

Similarly, the Shrine entrance works have been continuing over near Domain Road, the final stage of excavation will continue all next week. Like the Albert Reserve entrance, excavation and loadout will continue up until 10pm.

Park Street Under bore

Lastly, the under bore works to finish the high voltage connection at Park Street will recommence next week. These works were scheduled to start on Monday 23 January, but unfortunately were pushed back a week. As a result, on Monday 30 January the left turn from St Kilda Road into Park Street will be closed and pedestrians will be detoured down Park Street, across at Wells, and back up a makeshift pedestrian path on Park Street while the development at 380 St Kilda Road has the footpath closed.

Thanks, Rob and Christian