Good afternoon everyone,
Welcome to the weekly stakeholder look ahead for works happening around the Anzac Station site.
Works on site have taken some significant steps forward in a few key areas, particularly as we begin to construct public realm elements outside of the station footprint.
With this in mind, as a bit of a refresher, I’ve included a link to the Public Realm designs for the new station precinct:
Also this week, I’ve marked up a map below to help everyone cross reference the works described below to the relevant areas out on site.
- Station Roof Works
This week we finally saw the excavator and hammer get stuck into the first section of the station roof works in front of 400 St Kilda Road. While the noise and vibration from the hammering is not a welcome addition, the good news is that the works are now underway and making good progress.
The section of wall that runs immediately parallel to 400 St Kilda Road is almost completely broken down after today after starting on Tuesday. There is a small section of wall that runs parallel to Bowen Crescent that the team will need to get stuck into – but before this section starts we’ll clean out the existing debris and shift the access gate on St Kilda Road so that we can position the excavator.
The bulk hammering in this first section should be done early next week, though the excavator will still be on site to chip away at some minor clean up sections, before the non-destructive digging (NDD), or sucker trucks arrive on site. Unfortunately the ongoing drone of the sucker trucks will be a continued presence for at least a week, as we clean out the exposed section of roof and prepare to tie in the final roof section into the D-wall.
- Albert Road Reserve Station Entrance
Those with a view down to the site will have seen the piling rig taken from site and the concrete trucks rolling into site. This week we’ve broken back a number of the piles to their required height and have commenced the formwork for the capping beam that will be tied into these piles and poured around the perimeter of the entrance roof. Next week will see the form work continue for the capping beam formwork, with the beam to be poured the following week. For those without a view of the site, today I’ve included a photo of the work on the station entrance.
Excavation will also ramp up in the remainder of the station entrance footprint next week
- Conduit Installation – Albert Road North
As I mentioned last week, works to install new conduits along the northern side of Albert Road North have been progressing very slowly due to the discovery of old services and connections in places that they aren’t supposed to be. The reshuffling of this conduit run has been successfully implemented and this week we started backfilling in a number of completed areas. The team are looking to have these works wrapped up by early next week. Works to commence construction of the final legacy alignment of Albert Road North are patiently waiting for these conduit works to wrap up, and now that they are nearly complete we’ll move our worksite further west towards Kings Way.
- Albert Road North Construction
The permanent removal of the central median parking down near Kings Way is now upon us – as mentioned above, as soon as the conduit works are complete we’ll set up the new traffic configuration in Albert Road and take over the central median. The latest thinking is that this will be removed on Wednesday 1 March. This will allow the construction of the new road alignment and parkland – you can see these on page 8 of the public realm design drawings in the link above.
Just a reminder too, that the mid-point zebra crossing in Albert Road will also close at this time, with a new temporary zebra crossing point installed at the base of Albert Reserve. On the day that we switch to the new traffic setup, there will be traffic control in place as we shuffle barriers around and get the new setup in place, this will likely include some closures to the exit out to St Kilda Road from Albert Road, we’ll aim to implement these after peak hour. Access to properties will remain open throughout these works, but there may be some delays as we implement these changes.
- St Kilda Road median works – South
Down at the southern end of site, formwork is up and running for the first of the chiller plant structures, the blinding layer for the second location further to the south is also poured and planning is underway for the installation of the precast sections of concrete that will form the walls of the chiller plant. We have also commenced work on the inner road lane of St Kilda between Bromby Street and Toorak Road (southbound), once the inner lane is constructed, we’ll shift traffic onto this inner lane and start to build the separated bike lanes and kerb along this section.
- St Kilda Road median works – North
At the northern end, the preparation works for the central carriage way is nearing completion, with the first of the asphalting works between Park Street and Dorcas Street looking to go down in early March.
Similar to the southern end – once we’ve completed the roadway in the central carriage way, we’ll shift traffic into the middle while we complete the separated bike lanes on the outer lane.
- Station box construction
Down in the station box, at platform level the works are continuing to install the new platform screen doors along the length of the station platform. Track slab and rail is installed through the eastern side of the platform, with the western side to follow soon. Up on the concourse level the focus is on the myriad of back-of-house rooms within the station, including works to hook the station up to the high voltage power that will ultimately run trains on the network. Underneath the tram canopy works are ongoing to install the balustrades around the perimeter of the oculus that leads from the tram platform down to concourse level.
- Shrine Entrance
Excavation remains the flavour of the week at the Shrine entrance, the team are working their way down to the base slab in this area. As has been the case since the start of the year, excavation works will continue until 10pm each evening. The team are expecting to hit the base slab level in late March.
- Park Street to Albert Road
The under bore works to complete the high voltage conduit connection under St Kilda Road are now complete and awaiting CitiPower to make the final tie in. This will require some additional excavation works at the corner of Park Street and St Kilda Road and we understand that CitiPower are looking at commencing these works in mid-March. The much awaited reopening of the left turn from St Kilda Road into Park Street is expected at the end of March.
As mentioned last week, the team have now started on construction of the final design for the section of separated bike lane, kerb, retaining wall and footpath between Park Street and Albert Road. This week the team wrapped up some minor work on a water main connection under the roadway and next week excavation will begin for the new stormwater drainage alignment under the roadway. Looking a little further ahead into March, we’ll see some reshuffling of the pedestrian arrangements on this section of footpath in front of the Domain Hill building and Hallmark Building. The works in this section reconstructing the entire footpath with bluestone pavers and constructing a new retaining wall. Building access to both Hallmark and Domain Hill will be maintained, however pedestrian access points will likely shift around as we complete these footpath works. Further detail on these arrangements will be provided closer to the date. Again, for a refresher on the final design in this area, see the link to the Public Realm Plans included above (Page 5 and 7)
Thanks, Rob
The Botanica 