Good afternoon everyone,

Welcome to the weekly stakeholder look ahead for works happening around the Anzac Station site.

As I flagged last week – the construction footprint for the station has expanded this week with the occupation of the parking spaces in the centre median. This will kick off the works to reconstruct Albert Road on its new alignment and the new parkland that features as part of the design. We realise that the loss of parking is a significant change in the area and we appreciate it will certainly take some adjustment.

Below is a snapshot of the works that are coming up next week, hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

1. Station Roof Works

The minor clean-up work on sections of the wall continued this week and the site gate shift that we mentioned this week has happened today, this will allow the excavator to position itself to break out the surface above the corner of the station box, before excavating down and breaking back the remaining section of wall parallel to Bowen Crescent. We now expect to see the arrival of the non-destructive digging (NDD), or sucker trucks late next week.

• Albert Road Reserve Station entrance

Albert Road Reserve Station entrance is making good progress, the surface of the station entrance looks like a giant IKEA kit with the various lengths of steel laid out neatly in sections ready to be tied into place for the capping beam that runs around the permitter of the station entrance. The team are well underway with this steel fixing. Meanwhile, the excavation is also making good progress with the first stage excavation exposing the sections of the wall that will have temporary ground anchors installed to assist with stability as excavation progresses. More of the same next week at the Albert Road Reserve Station entrance

• Conduit Installation – Albert Road North

These works are now finally complete with the setup removed from the northern side of Albert Road North. Thankyou to everyone with a driveway in this section for your patience while we worked our way down this side of the street. The conduit is now installed and it is over to CitiPower to commence their tie in works to connect the conduits into the network. CitiPower will be carrying out these works themselves and will notify of any excavation or works in the area. I’ll pop them into this weekly look ahead when we are advised as to their timing and methodology.

• Albert Road North Construction

The parking removal in the median of Albert Road North has been implemented. The team have started this week with service investigations in the newly formed construction area – so you’ll have seen the non-destructive digging (NDD), or sucker trucks working their way around the site to identify services prior to the main works commencing.

On the southern footpath of Albert Road, anyone who has walked down there recently will notice it looks like a Jackson Pollock tribute, with a myriad of spray paint on the footpath. The team have been are marking up the area with the expected locations of underground services. As I highlighted in the designs last week – this entire footpath is ultimately going to be replaced with bluestone pavers – but for now the team are in the process of identifying services in preparation for works to commence there in late-March, early April.

Before then, there will be some NDD works on a section of the footpath down towards Kings Way in the middle of next week. Pedestrian access will be maintained, but we will likely need to occupy some of the carparks at the end to position the NDD truck.

Staying in the south-western corner of Albert Road – one of the large trees in this location will also need to be removed later this month. As I’ve outlined previously, every effort is made to maintain trees in the area, and while all the trees on the southern footpath of Albert Road are identified for potential removal in the approved plans – we’re confident that we will actually be able to maintain many of them . We’ll know more once we open up the footpath and identify the underground conditions and structural root orientation – unfortunately this particular tree will not be able to be retained. As mentioned previously, the trees in the central island parking will definitely need to be removed, including one of the palm trees. While the palm tree will be removed at a later date due to its proximity to King Way, the remaining tree removal will likely be late next week. Once these trees are out, we’ll start excavating this entire area to prepare the new surface.

Lastly, on Monday night the team will come through and complete some minor road marking that wasn’t able to be completed on Wednesday/Thursday this week. Rather than close the road again to complete these works, they’ll be done at night when there is less traffic. The works only involve painting the road and are not expected to cause any disruption.

• St Kilda Road median works – South

Next week the team will commence works on the kerb and separated bike lane on the eastern (southbound) side of St Kilda Road. Works will involve pulling up the bluestone pitchers in the kerb between the pedestrian crossing to the tram stop and Bromby Street. Meanwhile, adjacent to the northbound lane of St Kilda Road, formwork continues for both the chiller plant structures.

• St Kilda Road median works – North

Not a great deal of change at the northern end of the site with work continuing on the drainage installation ahead of the asphalting of the central carriageway. The switch to the inner carriageway will also involve works on the middle of the intersection of Park Street and St Kilda Road, as well as completion works on the northern corner of the St Kilda Road/Park Street intersection. Over the next few weeks I’ll provide some information on the works and any changes to traffic or pedestrian routes.

• Station box construction

Down on platform and concourse level it is more of the same, the most notable addition on the concourse level is the installation of some of the feature lighting at concourse level, a sign of the progress of the station build

• Shrine Entrance

The team this week changed tack and commenced breakout of some of the piles that separate the existing concourse level from the open excavation. Breakout will continue tomorrow before excavation resumes on the way down to the base slab in this area.

• Park Street to Albert Road

The team this week began works to construct the final kerb alignment at the southern corner of the Park Street and St Kilda Road intersection, this kerb rebuild is progressing well, with the much awaited reopening of the left turn from St Kilda Road into Park Street still expected at the end of March.

Preparatory work on the separated bike lane, kerb, retaining wall and footpath between Park Street and Albert Road has commenced with some saw cutting on the roadway, this will be followed next week by some drainage installation across the Hallmark’s service driveway.

Before work starts on the new separated bike lanes, the team will begin the first section of the footpath upgrade work in this area. It’s also worth noting that the trees that run along the footpath have been approved for removal as part of the development plans that I circulated last week.  Similar to the trees on the southern footpath of Albert Road, every effort will be made to retain these trees. Over the next few weeks there will likely be some NDD work to identify the location of structural roots of these trees. This work will determine the possible retention of these trees as we move in to build the retaining wall and footpath.

Thanks, Rob