Good afternoon,

Welcome to the update on all things Metro Tunnel construction.

Overnight Works:

No overnight works planned.

Works next week

Albert Road Reserve forecourt and Station Entrance

The DDA drop-off parking bay for the station is almost completely paved as I type, while up on the concourse level, you might have noticed a honeycomb of holes in the pavers – these are the installation points for the array of future bike hoops that will soon be installed adjacent to the station entrance.

Next week we’ll see more of the paving and landscaping works through this area.

Shrine Entrance and Domain Road

Next week is concrete and asphalt week out on Domain Road. The concrete is being poured for the new dual tram/bus stops on Domain Road. The outbound raised stop was poured this week, while the inbound stop to be poured next week. Following on closely behind is the final layers of asphalt for Domain Road and both the new stops.

Edmund Herring Oval (EHO) Reinstatement

Up at Edmund Herring Oval, it’s another week of strategically re-arranging dirt. (The lead engineer was away today – so I’ll have a slightly more technical update next week)

Rectification Works

I provided an update a few weeks back on the process for completing and opening sections of the job that are complete. It is a in-depth exercise, with each area and design element requiring walk-throughs and inspections with the future asset owners (e.g. councils and Department of Transport). As part of this process there are often minor rectification works that are identified, which the team progressively tick off and closes out with the future owner and the independent project auditor.

Next week as part of rectification works, we’ll be doing some repairs on the bluestone pavers at the top of Albert Road near St Kilda Road where local skating enthusiasts have caused quite a bit of damage to the bluestone.  The repair works will include spray cleaning the bluestone and installation of some skate deterrents on the bluestone to prevent further damage. There will be some very minor pedestrian detours while these works take place.

In future, if you’re looking to practice your back-side grinds – you’ll need to jump on the tram and head to RiverSlide skate park adjacent to the Yarra River for all your gnarly grinding needs.

The next rectification works of note are likely to be in mid-September in the garden bed opposite The Botanica (400 St Kilda Road) where we’ll be back in to adjust some of the gradients in the garden bed. We’ll take the opportunity to also do some weeding through this area.

Friday Flashback

This weeks Friday Flashback takes us back to February 2019, when the crews had to carefully transport the diaphragm wall (D-wall) excavating machinery from one side of St Kilda Road to the other. This took place in the middle of the night when trams weren’t running and the road was closed.

The team had to carefully navigated underneath the tram wires that you can see in the shot (As you can imagine – they had the power isolated for the duration)

Thanks, Rob

Good afternoon,

Welcome to this week’s update on all things Metro Tunnel construction in the Anzac Precinct.

Overnight Works:

No overnight works planned.

Works next week

Albert Road Reserve forecourt and Station Entrance

The pavers at the base of the South African Soldiers Memorial are nearly done, and next week the team should move on to complete the footpaths through the reserve. All going well, we should also kick off some of the soft landscaping works around the memorial next week. The DDA parking bay adjacent to the passenger lift should also see some paving action next week.

Shrine Entrance and Domain Road

Today we poured the concrete for the stairs that lead from the station forecourt, up towards the McPherson Robertson Fountain. Next week should see the last of the retaining walls poured around the forecourt – as well as the excavation of the second last strata vault for the project (the final one is further up Domain Road on the Melbourne Grammar side)

Edmund Herring Oval (EHO) Reinstatement

Out on the oval, trenching starts next week ahead of the laying of irrigation.

Smoke Testing at Anzac Station

The smoke testing at Anzac Station went very well on Monday night. To those on the tram stop it might have looked like our entire workforce had starting vaping on the concourse at once. Rest assured the station is a vape and smoking free zone – and all the extraction systems performed well on the day.

Friday Flashback

In this week’s Friday flashback we travel back in time precisely two years, to the day.

As you can see, St Kilda Road is entirely located on the west side of the canopy, which is still very much under construction. Both the eastern entrance and the Albert Road Reserve station entrance are still just plans on a page. A lot has taken place in the two years since this was taken!

Have a great weekend

Thanks, Rob

As you hopefully know by now, the AGM is on Tuesday September 10 at Flo.

We need a projector to use with my PC – does anyone have access to one that we can use for the night??