I hope everyone had a great week and enjoyed beautiful still mornings and clear days earlier in the week. The crisp days have translated into some good progress on site as well.
Below is an update on what is happening around site next week.
- Utility Works – Bowen Lane to Bowen Crescent
The concrete shaft leading down to the concourse level of the station now has it’s pre-cast roof installed, we’ll commence the backfilling around this structure next week.
We’re working with South East Water (SEW) on the final connection of the newly laid water main into the site. I understand that they have scheduled this in for Tuesday next week, if there are any changes to water supply at this time then South East Water will advise accordingly.
As we mentioned last week, the connection of the water utility means that we’ll move onto the storm water connections next.
- Albert Road Reserve Station entrance
We’re progressively making our way around the perimeter of the Albert Road Reserve entrance putting up steel. Once we’ve got the steel in place will put up temporary wooden shutters to allow us to pour the concrete. Wall pours are the slowest and trickiest pours on the job, as the team have to carefully control the ‘rate of rise’ of the concrete as it goes in. This is to make sure we get the best possible finish and structural integrity of the station walls. We’ll see these pours happening progressively around the station as each wall section is ready.
As mentioned last week, works will continue until 10pm in this area.
- Albert Road legacy construction
The underground conditions in the Domain precinct is like a lucky dip at a school fete, you never know what you’re going to get – but usually it’s not very good.
Unexpected services are an issue, but another challenge has been services at different levels than anticipated, this is an issue for drainage installation – as we need to ensure a consistent downhill gradient rather than installing a rollercoaster drainage system.
The works at the intersection of Kings Way have been caught up in this services saga, with the date of reopening now pushing out until Wednesday 16th August. The drainage works on Albert Road are also in the same boat – we’ve had to make some design changes to accommodate what is in the ground.
The sucker trucks are on site today, and likely tomorrow, but as of next week we’ll excavate the drainage pits and start installing the new drainage run, so the noise from the works should drop off next week.
- St Kilda Road median works – South
Down at the southern end of the job we’re about to see a change in our setup, as we do some asphalting inside our site setup, and then on Thursday night shift the concrete barriers towards the kerb. This will see traffic running closer to the inner median and allow us to install the drainage in the kerb adjacent to the Royce and the shops towards Toorak Road. At times this will mean we’ll need to close the crossing to the tram stop in front of the Royce –we’ll have signage up ahead of the closure and detour access will be via the crossing up near Toorak Road. This crossing point will reopen next Thursday.
The works on the drainage installation on the city-bound side barely got started before they hit a snag (See earlier comments RE: lucky dips) Once again it’s a case of a clash with a utility service in the wrong spot requiring a re-design. We’ll be back in this section in earnest next week and you’ll see an excavator working its way along.
- St Kilda Road median works – North (Nightworks reminder)
This section of the update is getting very close to being deleted from the update as we finish off works through the area. We’ve largely completed the drainage works on the Shrine side of the road.
Just a reminder that we’ll be asphalting a short section of the road overnight on Friday 11 August (on the southbound lane of St Kilda Road just before it gets to Park Street).
This means we’ll be able to remove many of the barriers on this side of the road the following week.
We will re-open the new separated southbound bike lanes between Dorcas Street and Park Street, but we’ll only open one of the traffic lanes – because once you get to the Park Street intersection traffic gets back to one lane. Reopening the lane would just slow traffic down as cars merge back to the single lane.
- Station box construction
As we’ve mentioned in previous updates, we are about to close our two remaining logistics voids in the station roof. Those with a view over the station would see that this has been used to lower materials into the station, as well as run our site elevator that has allowed material to be transferred down to the concourse level. Once we’ve closed these voids, we’ll be able to start work behind the barriers on installing services and constructing the kerb for the second lane of traffic through this section of St Kilda Road (this is the continuation of the traffic lane we referenced in the section above)
I’ve included a photo of the site from above and highlighted the ‘bend’ in St Kilda Road southbound – this bend is around the logistic voids – and when these are out of the way we’ll be able to get started on building the dual lane alignment through this section.
- Shrine Entrance
The works at the Shrine entrance have moved into stair construction. These are the legacy entrance stairs, as well as the emergency fire egress stairs from concourse up to the surface. Each set of stairs are formed up and poured inside the box.
- Park Street to Albert Road
This is another section that will soon be removed from the update. We’ve dug the tree plots in the area and today we’re doing the final bit of paving work around a Telstra pit in front of the Domain Hill building. As I mentioned last week, the next stages will be trees, irrigation, wall cladding and lower level planting.
Have a great weekend
Rob and Remy
The Botanica 