Sorry not great quality

Good afternoon,

I am very pleased to say that the east / west crossing of Park Street has reopened! Say goodbye to the Wells Street detour. The north / south crossing will stay closed a little while longer so that you can keep your step counts up and we can finish off a few final things.

The left turn from Park Street to St Kilda Road will reopen over the weekend.

The pedestrian crossing to the tram stop from the top of Albert Road is also open.

Next week, we will close St Kilda Road in both directions to install new street lights. More information is available here on those works.

Here is a look at what is coming up next week. Monday 24 July is a rostered day off, with things kicking off from Tuesday.

1. Utility Works  – Bowen Lane to Bowen Crescent

Tonight is the last of the utility crossing works between Toorak Road and Bowen Lane, majority of the work is complete. Tonight we will be asphalting until midnight.

Works continue away on the utilities between the Bowens. Next week the sewer and the water will be connected to the main system. We’re expecting to wrap the sewer, water and gas all up by the end of August and then start on the surface legacy work like kerb and road way. Things are moving slower than we would like in this area as I mentioned last week. It is a spaghetti of services in Bowen Lane.

Fit out of the chiller structures will continue until the end of the August.

2. Albert Road Reserve Station entrance

Form work, steel tying, concrete pour.  Form work, steel tying, concrete pour. 

Form work, steel tying, concrete pour.  That is what you’ll see in the Albert Road station entrance for the next little while. Right now we are working on the lining walls. Works will continue until 10pm in this area. The fit out of this entrance will largely follow the same sequence as the Shrine entrance, so next up precast elements will be arriving.

3. Albert Road legacy construction

We’re still paving away the way from Albert Lake to the station entrance over on Albert road. Next week we will also investigating, moving and installing utilities. We are preparing to reopen the Kings way slow lane in early August, which will allow the partial two way arrangement on Albert Road to return.

4. St Kilda Road median works – South

This week we completed the service investigations on the northbound side. As I mentioned above, St Kilda Road may as well be called Lygon Street with the spaghetti of services underneath. So the more we can find out before we crack on with main works the better.

We will start the trenching for the drainage and gas next week. We also made a fair few changes to make the traffic arrangements better for vehicles and cyclists.

On the other side of the road, works progress as they have been for a while.

5. St Kilda Road median works – North

Most of this I mentioned in the opening intro. Next week will be finishing a few things off in this area and give it a good tidy up. We are hoping to be for the most part finished in this area in August. 

6. Station box construction

Biggest news from the station box this week is CARPET has started to be installed in some of the back of house rooms. Testing, commissioning and the various trades continue to do their thing underground.

7. Shrine Entrance

The raft slab is finished! This is the support slab for the stairs and escalators into the station entrance, as well as the canopy. We’ve got a few more internal walls to do here but you’ll start to see the escalator walls and stairs go in shortly.

8. Park Street to Albert Road

The pedestrian crossing across the top of Albert Road opened earlier in the week. Next week we will dig out tree pits and continue with the hard landscaping in this area.

Thanks for time, have a nice weekend
Remy and Rob

Yes it is VERY noisy after last night’s work.

Jan and I have discussed with CYP. They are going to try and flip the offending plate during the day. It will be removed this evening and the area asphalted.

If it is causing you great grief feel free to call them 1800 105105

General comments:

• Road saws are all done
• We have raised the issue of the ‘thunking’ plates – this will be examined and the team will look to improve the final plating each night
• We have raised the issue of light tower placement to shine north/south as much as possible, rather than directly across the road

Tuesday night:

• Non Destructive Digging (NDD/Sucker Truck) until around midnight
• Excavator
• 4/5am install steel plates and move barriers 

Note: If the team encounter crushed rock they may need to put on the hammer attachment on the excavator to loosen it up.

Wednesday night: 

• NDD should be complete – but possibility they may need it if we get any water into the excavation
• Excavator
• Install conduits – by hand and glue together
• Install storm water pipes – installed with excavator (large concrete sections)
• 4/5am install steel plates and move barriers

Thursday night:

• Install conduit
• Install Storm water pipes
• 4/5am install steep plates and move barriers

Friday night:

• Tidy up
• Back fill
• Asphalt 

Thanks, Rob

YES it was very noisy – here is a version with no sound

and for those trying to get back into the St Kilda Rd car park…it was accessed via a goat track

I just wanted to bring all owners / residents up to speed on the contract we have for Paul’s services.

The Committee signed a 3-year contract on 1 July 2021.  The current monthly fee is $7950 per month ($95400 pa) plus payment for all consumables.  The initial fee was agreed after some negotiation and was increased from the previous contract amount to the figure requested by Genesis.  It also has an annual CPI escalation clause.

I was surprised to get a request for an increase of 10% rather than the CPI figure of 6.8%.  The dollar difference was not significant, but I thought it was a simple oversight and the OC Manager, under my agreement, simply replied that we would increase the amount as per the contract.

We received a reply to say that they were very disappointed and that they wished to terminate the contract with one months notice.  

We met with Maggie Simone (the owner of Genesis) to discuss.  She explained that they are operating at a loss on our building and she had increased Paul’s wages several times during this contract period.  I replied that they picked the initial price and have had CPI increases, she has elected to increase Paul’s wages.  I also noted that they have the opportunity to increase the price at the end of the contract period (in 12 months time).  I also noted that they cannot terminate until that time.

Maggie made it clear that she thought we were being unreasonable and gave us notice that she would not offer us a new contract at any price.

It is very sad it has come to this.