All posts by Gary Buck

No dust now

We are incredibly fortunate, CYP have sprayed a polymer coating over all of the dirt in front of us and 390 St Kilda Rd. It forms a crust over the dirt and, unless we get heavy rain, it will dramatically reduce all that dust blowing into our apartments.

You can see it here

Maybe a chemical engineer can explain how it manages to cover so well. I would have thought you’d need the spray to go over all of the dirt but clearly not.

Yay – we will be able to open our windows – no generator this year. They installed it around the corner in Albert Rd this year.

2 Bowen Cres

Some of you have asked about the building that is planned to go where the Ace Car Park is now.

A development was approved back in about 2016, this latest info is an amendment to that approval….yes it has a lot less car bays and more bicycle bays…hmm.

This is what it will look like, better than the car park!! Their car park entrance will be off Bowen LANE and not Bowen Cres.

If you want to protest, then the info is on the notice that was in letterboxes last week.

CYP update – Dec 15

Good evening everyone,

Just a quick update this afternoon, as the focus next week will primarily be on tidying up the site and preparing for the break. Any exposed areas we spray on a polymer sealant for dust suppression as we’ve done every year prior.

St Kilda Road Resurfacing

Resurfacing of St Kilda Road hasn’t quite got to where we were hoping, but we’ve completed enough to be in a position to remove the barriers on the southbound roadway between Bromby Street and Toorak Road.
This will take place on Sunday evening as we implement our final shut for the year to complete the traffic configuration.
Barriers will be removed early in the shutdown to minimise impact. We don’t anticipate this to be disruptive. The remainder will be the technical team tinkering with and commissioning the traffic lights.

We do expect to be back from the week commencing the 14th January for the final wearing course of asphalt in the northbound and southbound direction. More information will be provided once these asphalt bookings are firmed up.


Park Street to Albert Road
Plants are in through this section here and we’ve begun removing the bollards and fencing through here. In the new year there is still some cladding and a fence to be installed on top of the concrete wall.

Albert Road legacy construction

We’re pushing on with the parkland works down to Kings Way, while this area is not likely to be entirely finished by the end of the year, it will be very close and early 2024 will see it complete.

The Domain driveway re-paving is pushing through the inclement weather and we’ll still have time to see it paved and cured and reopened prior to the break.

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

We’ve removed the last of our large machinery through the final void in the entrance roof and this void is now filled and the emergency stair exit construction underway.

Station Fit out

We’ll be back just after new year’s day to re-start works underground on the station fitout, all works will be underground within the station.

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

As predicted last week, we didn’t quite get the asphalt down through this section of the second southbound lane of St Kilda Road, most of the preparation work is complete though, and once we’ve confirmed our asphalt bookings for 2024 we’ll likely be back in there in January.

St Kilda Road – Toorak Road to Bowen Lane

Northbound side (Towards City)

It’s been a hive of activity around Bowen Crescent the last few days, this continues tomorrow with the Bowen Crescent reopening still on track for end of shift tomorrow. We’ve targeted the small section in front of Botanica’s driveway to minimise the closure to the two days we notified, the rest of the asphalt for the roadway should start to go down tomorrow. The asphalting of the footpath will now hold over until 2024, with access to buildings maintained. A notification for these works will go out early in the new year once timing is confirmed.

St Kilda Road Bowen Crescent to Toorak Road (Night works)

Southbound side (Away from City)

As I mentioned above, barriers and fencing through this area will finally be removed on Sunday night. We’ll come back in 2024 to complete the final ‘wearing course’ of asphalt through this section. We’ll likely stage it over two weeks of northbound and southbound, but we’ll provide more detail once we’ve had confirmation of the asphalt bookings for 2024.

Thankyou

There will be no look ahead next week, as we’ll be done for 2023.

A huge thanks to everyone for their patience during this year. It’s been a big push towards the finish – and 2024 will see the end of our works on the surface.

Have a wonderful relaxing break, and we’ll see you next year for our final year in the Domain precinct.

All the best, Rob

CYP update – Nov 8

Good evening everyone,

Welcome to the second update of December, as we gather speed towards the Christmas break.

The focus of the team is on getting the various public areas into good shape before we break over the new year.
Below is the update of works happening around site.

PROGRESS UPDATE: St Kilda Road and Toorak Road Resurfacing

Weather was slightly kinder to us this week, but unfortunately we haven’t completed the entire scope of works on St Kilda Road. The contingency plan at this stage is to complete these works early next week in place of the previously notified night works near on the roadway adjacent to the tram stop. This includes works to complete the pit lids in St Kilda Road southbound overnight on Monday and Tuesday – in front of Melbourne Grammar. In the meantime, we are trying to get a booking for asphalt with our suppliers for next week. If you’re stuck for a gift idea this year – batched asphalt appears to be hottest item of 2023, with supplies hard to come by.

Tonight there are no asphalting works and St Kilda Road is back open overnight. If the rain holds out there will be some crews doing some minor curb works on the southbound lane of St Kilda Road between the pedestrian crossing and Toorak Road, but noise is expected to be low and nothing like the previous nights.


Park Street to Albert Road
As per last week, we’ve had some delays here due to the weather – but we’ll continue installing cladding and furniture in this section next week.

Albert Road legacy construction

The western side of The Domain driveway closed yesterday to allow works to start on the connection of the bluestone pavers into the driveway. Unfortunately we were rained off today (Friday) and may be the same story tomorrow judging by the forecast.

The sea of bluestone pavers and smattering of low-level planting continue to be put in place down Albert Road as we push to finish this area before the end of year.

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

This week saw some pours done for the station entrance, the works continue on both the structure itself and the canopy construction. Services are being laid in the forecourt area of the station entrance, getting ready for paving and asphalting in 2024.

As we mentioned last week – the view of the new station entry canopy at Albert Road Reserve will be short-lived, as we surround it in scaffolding to allow the installation of the roof and services on the canopy. I’ve included a quick photo of the site today, you can see the scaffolding surrounding the Shrine entrance canopy on the right of the shot, with a  similar structure to follow for the Albert Road entrance.

Station Fit out

Down on the platform level the brand new Anzac station is a sea of wrapping and coverings on the newly installed screens and passengers information displays and seating – it won’t be unwrapped on Christmas Day, but the covers will start coming off early in 2024 as the trades finish up on the platform level.

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

As seen in the photo below, the Shrine entrance is already surrounded in its own scaffolding to allow work to continue. Out the front of this station entrance, we’re moving towards the laying of asphalt next week for the future road – this section is likely to be a victim of the recent (and ongoing) rain issues. But despite switching the overnight works to complete St Kilda Road southern end – we’re still looking for an asphalt booking for next week with the aim of getting asphalt down for the second southbound lane of St Kilda Road between Park Street and the tram stop pedestrian crossing.

St Kilda Road – Toorak Road to Bowen Lane

Northbound side (Towards City)

This week saw the removal of some of the beautified concrete barriers in front of Botanica (They go back to the hire company, so keep an eye out for them around Melbourne) Next week will see the welcome addition of asphalting between Bowen Crescent and Bowen Lane. This is scheduled for Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

To achieve this – there will be a closure of Bowen Crescent and some impacts on the Botanica driveways. Attached is the notification associated with the works.

Once complete we should be able to reopen the pedestrian crossing at Bowen Crescent.

St Kilda Road Bowen Crescent to Toorak Road (Night works)

Southbound side (Away from City)

With the delays in this area we’ve put on a night shift to complete the kerb works through this area (as mentioned in the intro). The drainage was on track to be completed today before we a short sprinkle put a stop to proceedings. If tomorrows rain holds off until the afternoon we should get this done.
This just leaves the standing of two light poles next Monday and Tuesday, followed by some laying of asphalt in the bike lanes.

As mentioned above, we’re still looking to get an asphalt booking in to complete the entire roadway here. We are aiming to remove the barriers and get out of this section as soon as we possibly can.

In a small win, the right turn from St Kilda Road into Kings Way has now reopened.

Have a great weekend,

Rob

Bins – a light ahead

After many weeks of frustration, I finally feel like we have made some real progress on rubbish collection.

Today, Jan and I met with Lachlan Johnson (CoPP GM of Operations and Infrastructure), his Head of waste James, Councillor Christine Sirakoff and David Macnish.

It was great that they came on site and walked around and saw and understood our issues. They’ve given Reeve a priority number to call if he has any waste issues.

They have also ensured that we now have community glass and FOGO (think compost) bins in the park in front of 1 Queens Rd. More on this in the next couple of weeks – but they are there now.

The public toilet in Bowen Cres is also slated for upgrade / replacement…not until 2027 but maybe we can get it up the list!!

CYP update – Dec 1

Good afternoon everyone,

It is the first of December! 18 working day remain for 2023. We will be finishing up for the year on 22 December 2023. Monday is Picnic Day, so different than a RDO. Some trades will work, but not as many as a standard construction day.

Not a lot to report from the week that was. As you can imagine, we were slowed down quite a bit this week by the rain.

Upcoming major works: Toorak Road Resurfacing 5 to 7 December

The rain this week has delayed the completion of the southbound resurfacing works. These have been rescheduled to take place Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday next week.

This requires an overnight road closure of St Kilda Road each night. We will complete the profiling, utility works and laying of the final wearing course.

More information regarding these works available here: https://bigbuild.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/819414/MT-AZ-St-Kilda-Road-resurfacing-Dec-2023.pdf

Park Street to Albert Road

The rain has delayed the works in this stretch, installation of plants and furniture will continue next week.

Albert Road legacy construction

We have removed the sheds at Albert Road reserve. Next week we will reshuffle the site to allow us to work on the foundation of the South African Soldiers’ Memorial. We will also continue works on the legacy road which passes the Ramsay Clinic and the Domain building up to St Kilda Road.

Soft and hard landscaping continues in the linear park.

Linear park:

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

The final pieces of the structural steel for the entrance are being installed today. Tomorrow and next week, the scaffolding will go up around the steel to commence the roof works. In ground services will be installed adjacent to the road, a very familiar formular. Underground, works continue for the walls and stairs of the Albert Road entrance.

Underground:

Station Fit out

Business as usual in Station fit out. Plenty of activity for the front of house and retail facilities. Back of house and B2 commissioning continues.

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

For the entrance, the lift glass is in and glazed, construction on the lift cart and mechanics will kick off next week. Amongst all of the scaffolding, the gutters and the roofing are going in and will continue to do so next week.

The underground service installation is complete adjacent to the road. Earth and road works will continue next week. In December, we will shift traffic onto the new road.

On Monday night, South East Water works will take place from 10pm on Domain Road. These works must take place at night to reduce the impact of the water isolation, South East Water will contact affected customers.

St Kilda Road – Toorak Road to Bowen Lane

Northbound side (Towards City)

Works will continue behind the barriers as we install services, kerbs and prepare the garden beds. The team will spend next week preparing the site for line marking and barrier removal later in the month. 

St Kilda Road Bowen Crescent to Toorak Road (Night works)

Southbound side (Away from City)

This section was slowed down by the rain, we were quite lucky to make the progress that we did this week. We will have the pipes in across the laneway and the area backfilled on day shift today, allowing us to reopen the laneway tonight.

This will leave just the kerbs and the road surface remaining. We will undertake these works overnight at the same time as the asphalting works next week mentioned at the start of the email.

We are on track to remove the barriers from Bromby Street to Toorak Road and reopen the right turn from St Kilda Road to Kings Way late next week.

Have a great weekend,

Rob and Remy