All posts by Gary Buck

Front garden beds..and more

This is the current(?) version of the plan they are using out the front

This is my best efforts to show where the trees will go – one is off the right hand edge of the screen. They will be planted in about late April.

We will have 4 car parking bays out the front (I’ve drawn them on the photo) – which will leave space for trucks to park illegally and block the line of sight exiting our driveway. the state government rep (Paula Williams from Rail Projects Victoria) has told me that the contractor believes that this is the best option. They have suggested by getting the City of Port Phillip to fine drivers who park illegally, the drivers will cease the practice.

I think we will have to do something ourselves after the project is done.

I’m also of the opinion that the ‘granitic sand’ path through the garden bed will see mud traipsed through our building in winter. May be another small project ‘post-CYP’.

…but in good news – we convinced them to make the crossing in Bowen Cres a zebra crossing. 

CYP dreamin’

Good afternoon everyone,

I hope everyone has had a good week, below is the construction update for next week in Domain.

Just a reminder that next Monday is an RDO, so no works on site – and a more important reminder that Wednesday is Valentines day!

Overnight Works – St Kilda Road final asphalt layer

We’re now well underway on the asphalting works on St Kilda Road. Last night the crews were working between Bowen Crescent and Bowen Lane, and the intersection of Park Street and St Kilda Road. The outer lane section of wearing course from the Toorak Road Tram stop to Bowen Lane is now done. The inner lane of wearing course will need to be completed once the kerbing is installed in the inner median. We’ll update closer to these works taking place.

There is only one small section of asphalt remaining down Park Street, this will be completed early next week

See below for the latest plan on site, as per last week this is subject to change. I’ll update with any major changes during the week.

Bowen Crescent – Partial Closure

As mentioned in the February construction notification, next week we’ll close the left turn from St Kilda Road into Bowen Crescent. This is to enable the works to resurface the footpath on the southern side of the road, and prepare a tree plot in this area. A pedestrian detour via the separated bike lane will be in place during the works, access to local businesses will be retained during the works.

When the resurfacing works are underway, access to 412 St Kilda Road will be via the existing pedestrian access ramp.

St Kilda Road Footpath Works  – Bowen Lane to Albert Road

Next Tuesday (13 February) the closure of the footpath between Bowen Lane and Albert Road will start.

Access around the site will be either via the tram stop (via the reopened pedestrian crossing to the tram stop at Bowen Lane) or via Bowen Lane > Kings Way > Albert Road.

St Kilda Road Footpath Works  – Bromby Street to Toorak Road

The three light pole footings to be installed through this section has now pushed to the following week – this involves cutting, non destructive digging of the footing and pouring concrete for the footings.

The footings will then cure and the light poles stood at a later date.

Centre Island – St Kilda Road

Southern Area:

The barriers were shifted last night adjacent to the ventilation shafts. This will allow landscaping works to soon commence in this area, this will start with the preparation of the ground, removal of crushed rock, final drainage installation and placement of topsoil and prepping for tree pits.

Adjacent to the Anzac Station tram Stop

Works are continuing on the centre island that sits between the road and the tram stop, not much to report there with in-ground utility work the main feature – kerb installation will start next week.

Station Fit out

No major milestones to report from downstairs in the station.

Albert Road legacy construction

Next week we’ll be doing works at the top of Albert Road to install the detector loops for the new signalised pedestrian crossing, we expect the crossing will switch from a zebra crossing to a signalised crossing in the coming weeks.  Over on the other side of Albert Reserve, the steel arrived on site for the South African Soldiers Memorial reinforced base slab. As mentioned last week, the memorial will be carefully reconstructed over the coming weeks.

Albert Road Reserve forecourt and Station Entrance  (Works until 1am)

While works are ticking along inside the station entry, just adjacent to the station canopy, the kerb alignment for the second lane of St Kilda Road is progressively snaking its way towards Albert Road. The surface preparation for the second lane of traffic is following closely behind it. As you’ll see in the update below, we’ll shift the roadside barriers next week while St Kilda Road is closed, and commence the laying of asphalt through this area.

Eastern site – Shrine Entrance and Domain Road (Works until 1am)

The existing pedestrian crossing from Melbourne Grammar School into the Shrine Grounds has now closed and the pedestrian path alongside St Kilda Road is open.

Have a great weekend

Thanks, Rob

Work tonight

Good afternoon everyone,

Another quick update on the progress of our nightworks on St Kilda Road.

Last night we got through some, but not all, of the asphalting works between Bowen Crescent and Bowen Lane, as well as some of the asphalting around the tricky section of tram tracks at the intersection of Park Street and St Kilda Road.

Tonight (Thursday 8 February) we’ll be back to finish off both these sections.
Just a reminder that the section of road at the Park Street and St Kilda Road intersection can’t commence until the last tram rolls through the intersection.

All hammering on St Kilda Road was completed earlier in the week.

I’ll distribute a full look ahead of next week’s works in tomorrow’s Friday Construction update.

Thanks, Rob

CYP plans changed AGAIN

Good afternoon everyone,

The asphalting works on St Kilda Road were scheduled to start this evening.

Due to a combination of factors, these works will not go ahead tonight.

There may be some minor works undertaken, including shifting of some barriers, however the main asphalting works will not commence
At this stage, we expect that these main works will start on Tuesday night (06 February)

The sequence of activities I sent out on Friday will remain largely the same (see below) – with the timing for each activity pushed back a day.

Thanks, Rob

CYP Dreaming – Feb 2, 2024

Good afternoon everyone,

Welcome to the first weekly update of February – as always, plenty happening out on site this week and next.

You might have noticed it was a very quiet out on site today – It was a part of a project-wide safety refresher for the workforce across all our sites.

Overnight Works – St Kilda Road final asphalt layer

We’ve got an extensive program of works to complete the final layers of asphalt on St Kilda Road and reopen the road in the completed two lane configuration by the end of March. I’m sure this will be a welcome milestone, but there is a bit to do before we get there.

We’ve got a work area stretching from the Toorak Road Tram Stop through to Park Street, so the impacts will vary across the nights. To help get a sense of when the works will be in your area, I’ve included a bit more detail of where the team plans to be asphalting each night.

Bear in mind this may change depending on progress, but it reflects our current plan for next week. I hope it is helpful.

St Kilda Road Footpath

Western Side of St Kilda Road

Roads aren’t the only area getting a resurfacing, we’ve still got sections of new footpath to install around the precinct. The new footpath from Bowen Lane, around the front of The Domain, and through to Albert Road is set to kick off in February. Earliest start is likely to be the week after next – but I will advise when we’ve got a precise date. The February notification contains details on the extent of the closure and the detour in place.

There are also some final light pole installations planned for during the day at three locations along St Kilda Road, between Bromby Street and Toorak Road. This will involve saw cutting, non destructive digging of the footing and pouring concrete for the footings. The footings will then cure and the light poles stood at a later date – We’re expecting all three footings to be done next week.

Centre Island – St Kilda Road

Southern Area:

Civil works in the middle of St Kilda Road have taken a bit of a back seat while the team worked on the chiller plant in the middle of the road, the team are nearly finished the fitout works, and that means we’re back in there doing some more of the preparatory works in the middle of the road. This involves trenching for utilities, including the public lighting and the drainage. At the end of next week we’ll shift some of the traffic barriers adjacent to the ventilation shafts to allow works to commence on the preparatory works for the centre island landscaping around the ventilation shafts, as well as some of the kerbing further south.  

Adjacent to the Anzac Station tram Stop

The shift of the outbound lane of St Kilda Road between Park Street and Domain Road has allowed us to start works on the centre island that sits in between the road way and the tram stop. This will continue next week, including kerbing and in ground utility work.

We’ll also be able to get into corresponding area on the other side of the tram stop – adjacent to the city bound lane of St Kilda. Works in this area wont kick off until we’ve shifted traffic slightly west and we have the room to safely work.

Station Fit out

The station downstairs is coming together, with the infrastructure for the new Myki gates going in, as well as the fitout for the new retail precincts within the concourse level. The future facilities for Metro staff are also being installed, including the new customer service windows installed at the concourse level. As promised last week, I’ve included a photo from the concourse level, with acoustic baffles on the ceiling and the retail fitout underway on the left of the image. No decisions as yet on the tenants for these retail spaces.

Albert Road legacy construction

This week saw the works commence in earnest for the base slab of the new South African Soldiers’ memorial within the Albert Road Reserve. The stones for the memorial have been safely stored away while we have built Anzac Station, and our specialist heritage contractor will begin bringing sections of the monument to site once the base slab is ready to go.

Last week I mentioned the commissioning of the new legacy Albert Road South in the week commencing Monday 5 February. We’ll push this date back a tad while the watermain connection works are still ongoing. I’ll advise the new date once we’ve had a look at the program and sequencing

Albert Road Reserve forecourt and Station Entrance  (Works until 1am)

The big crane servicing the Albert Road Reserve Station entrance has been packed up and sent on its way. We’ll be using smaller mobile cranes from this point onwards. The scaffolding around the entrance is nearing its final days as the works on the roof progress. In front of the station itself, the drainage is now largely complete and the team have moved onto the road construction. This means we’ll have crews out on the surface installing the new road kerbing. These crews will continue up until 10pm, before the works scale back to quieter works, on the surface. Inside the station entrance, the works will continue overnight, as they have been since late last year.

Eastern site – Shrine Entrance and Domain Road (Works until 1am)

We’ve now opened the new pedestrian path along St Kilda Road connecting Park Street to the corner of St Kilda Road and Domain Road in front of Melbourne Grammar School.  Very soon, the existing crossing into the Shrine Grounds will close. 

That corner will see a lot of activity over the next month, starting with the removal of the wall that separates the work site from the school. The wall itself was originally constructed by the Early Works contractor who was installing the new Melbourne Sewer connection adjacent to the school. It was left in place during the station works, but will be removed in February to allow the construction of the watermain connection under the footpath. There may be some delays if you’re walking up Domain Road during the removal of the wall, as we’ll need to stop pedestrians whenever we’re lowering sections of the wall. Following this removal, we’ll need to also excavate the footpath itself to install the new watermain connection. This will mean a detour is in place via Bromby Street and Domain Street, further details are in the February notification.

February Notification:

Have a great weekend,

Thanks, Rob

CYP – Jan 27 2024

Good afternoon everyone,

The weekly update is coming to you on a Thursday today, with the public holiday on Friday. Just a friendly reminder that there is also an RDO on the Monday.

Despite the short week next week, there is still plenty happening around site.

PROGRESS UPDATE: Overnight Works – St Kilda Road final asphalt layer

We got very close to finishing the final section of wearing course last night, but we were thwarted by a few last minute issues in the section from Bowen Lane to Bowen Crescent. The team are currently looking at the best way to finish this section.  No overnight asphalting works tonight or next week. We’ll instead get the base layer of asphalt in front of Botanica on day shift – but we will be back out on St Kilda Road the following week as we continue to finish apply the final layers of asphalt onto the dual lanes of St Kilda Road, ready to reopen them.

I’ll have more information on these works in next weeks update – and there will be a dedicated construction notice coming through shortly outlining the timing and location for these works.

St Kilda Road Footpath

Western Side of St Kilda Road

There is a new addition of planting in front of 390 St Kilda Road this week, next week we should see more plants going in, this time in front of The Botanica (400 St Kilda Road) Council will be back later this year to plant the new trees too.

As mentioned above, we’ll be doing the base layer of asphalt being applied to the bike lane and outer lane through this section during the day (The base layer across the Botanica’s St Kilda Road driveway has already been applied, so there wont be any impacts to building access)

We should also have the south-west pedestrian crossing to the tram stop (in front of 390 St Kilda Road) reopened next week.  

Speaking of footpaths and crossings, just another reminder that in the coming weeks the works will shift to the reconstruction of the footpath between Bowen Lane and Albert Road, February construction update will be in letterboxes next week with more information on this.

Station Fit out

Nothing exciting to report from downstairs (It’s all very exciting to see the station starting to look like a functional station – but no big exciting milestones this week. I’ll pop in a photo next week of how the station concourse is shaping up)

Albert Road legacy construction

Next week we will continue our works on the legacy Albert Road South connection (a shared ped/road arrangement). Ultimately this will connect out to St Kilda Road, but next week we should have completed the section connecting Albert Road North to the driveway entry of The Domain and across the front of the Ramsay Clinic. We’ll likely pop cars onto this new section the following Monday morning (5 February).

Albert Road Reserve forecourt and Station Entrance  (Works until 1am)

The two lift shafts are now in shape and we’ve commenced works to fit out the internal mechanics for these two lifts (service and pedestrian) At the station entrance, works are still underway on the construction of the roof of the Albert Road Reserve Station entrance.

The last of the drainage sections are going in adjacent to the station entrance next week, after which you’ll see the kerb being installed along the alignment for the dual lanes of St Kilda Road. We should see some asphalt go down at the beginning of the following week – maybe at the end of next week if our kerbing crew set some new land speed records for pre-cast concrete applications.

Eastern site – Shrine Entrance and Domain Road (Works until 1am)

The new pedestrian link on the Eastern side of St Kilda Road – didn’t quite open this week, instead we’ll do the last little bit of work before opening it on Tuesday, shortly thereafter we’ll close the other pedestrian crossing near Melbourne Grammar School.

Have a great long weekend,

Thanks, Rob