Good afternoon,
Can you believe this lookahead includes the start of November! Ten months down and two to go for 2023.
There will be no RDO on Monday so expect people on site. It will, however, be a shorter week as the site is shutting down for the weekend for the Melbourne Cup public holiday. Works will stop from Friday afternoon, 3 November and recommence in the morning of Thursday 9 November. We will be working away next week, trying to get as much done before the break.
We don’t have a section for Park Street anymore since works largely wrapped up there. The east/ west pedestrian crossing from Park Street to the gardens will be closed for a few days next week while we connect the watermain. On Thursday 2 November, the left turn from St Kilda Road to Park Street will be closed while we remove a redundant pole and deliver the cladding for the garden beds. Hallmark residents will be able to access their driveway from Park Street during this time.
- Albert Road legacy construction
Decommissioning of the site sheds will continue in the lead up to the shut down weekend. On Thursday 2 November there will be a westbound closure of Albert Road while we install the new light poles in the reserve. This should only take a few hours in the middle of the day. Further towards Kings Way, the WUSD garden works will continue with the pouring of more retaining walls, installation of stones and pavements. The team are busily planning for the Kings Way / Albert Road intersection works that will commence on 12 November. Keep an eye out for information on that as we get closer to the date.
- Albert Road Reserve Station Entrance (works until 1am)
351 m3 of concrete was poured last Friday. Waterproofing soon followed, that should be wrapped next week and you’ll start to see the backfilling.
Steel tying will continue in the station entrance until 1am. We’re expecting the second pour for the roof (which is about half the size of the first) to be poured in mid-November.
Here is an underside view of the scaffolding for the roof.
- Station Fitout
In the station, along with plastering and furniture, service installation continues to test and commissions different sections.
On top of the station where the old logistics void was, the watermain is nearly complete with just the final connection to go (hence the pedestrian closure at Park). Telstra has started out on site today with installation of their assets to kick off after the shut down weekend.
- Shrine Entrance (Works until 1am)
This week, the first of the structural steel pieces (in a very familiar shade of green) for the smaller canopy for the Shrine entrance was installed. Inside the entrance, the crew have been installing precast concrete architectural elements. We are still working until 1am on this side of the road.
- St Kilda Road – Bowen Lane to Bowen Crescent
In Bowen Lane we have started to dig out the strata vault and are about halfway through the new sewer connection, we are just waiting for some paperwork from South East Water. You may have noticed the kerbs have started to go in at Bowen Lane as well.
We have also started working on the new footpath out the front of 390 St Kilda Road. This pedestrian arrangement will be in place until mid-November.
We will be installing the LV conduit directly under the Botanica’s driveway on Tuesday and Wednesday next week, this will see a closure from 8am to 4pm both days.
There will be quite a bit of activity in Bowen Crescent next week. We will adjust some of our barriers here to give us some space to service prove, using non-destructive digging trucks. We will also demolish the temporary traffic island in the Bowen Cres / St Kilda Road intersection. By removing this island, we will be able to keep Bowen Crescent open for longer while we build the new kerbs and pedestrian crossing here. There will be a stop / start traffic controller on Bowen Crescent while we do these works and some minor delays.
- St Kilda Road Bowen Crescent to Toorak Road
Northbound Side (Towards City)
We know it’s been a bit tricky to navigate the new line marking, our traffic team is reviewing what can be done through this section ahead of the final legacy roadway and line marking works in late November.
Southbound side (Away from City)
Works in the section between Bromby and Toorak road will continue until the end of November. We’ve encountered significant delays here, much like at Bowen Lane. Once you open St Kilda Road, no matter how much planning, you never really know what you’re going to find. Works remaining include the stormwater installation, backfilling, separated bike lane install and temporary road works (final wearing course will be sometime in December). We will open the pedestrian crossing at the southern end of the Toorak Road Tram stop next week.
Enjoy the weekend,
Rob and Remy
The Botanica 