There is a hard rubbish collection booked for July 4.

Please place material in Bowen Cres. If you ask Mick, he may be able to help or provide a trolley if needed

All done in less than 60 seconds

Good afternoon everyone,

It has been a short week on site with a lot of activity! Sites on Albert and St Kilda roads have shuffled and changed this week as we moved into the next stage of works for those areas.

1. Utility Works  – Bowen Lane to Bowen Crescent

This week the precast concrete sections of the maintenance hatch arrived and were installed. There will be some changes to the site layout and pedestrian access from Monday in this area as we begin to work on the water main installation. We will skinny up the bike lane on Bowen Crescent and close the pram ramp on the corner. The next pram ramp is about 50m down towards Kings Way, about a 118m detour in total.

2. Albert Road Reserve Station entrance

Steel fixing for the concrete base slab of the Albert Reserve entrance will be the focus for the next little while. Steel fixing is the process of positioning steel rods to reinforce the concrete. If you cast your mind back to when the roof slabs were poured you may remember this process.

3. Albert Road North construction

Albert Road is looking very different to when last weeks email was sent out. As mentioned last week, the bluestone footpath down to Kings Way is now open.

Albert Road is now one way between Kings Way and St Kilda Road. This will be in place for approx. 5 weeks while the Kings Way slow lane closure is in place. We will be doing some line marking tonight to make pedestrian and vehicle access clear.

We are building the kerb at the Kings Way / Albert Road section into its legacy position. Once the kerb is complete, two way traffic from Kettle Black to Kings Way will return. Two-way access to The Domain and Ramsay Clinic is currently in place and will remain.

There will be a lot of breakout and demolition of the redundant roadway for the next little while to make way for the construction of the legacy linear park.

4. St Kilda Road median works – South

Overnight work on St Kilda Road southbound took place last night and will again tonight. The team made a lot of progress last night with line marking, trenching and barrier moving to the final tasks remaining for tonight.

The second chiller plant was installed day, fit out of the chiller structures is ongoing.

5. St Kilda Road median works – North

Excellent progress has been made between Park Street and Dorcas Street, navigating the spaghetti of services underground in the area. Works to install the drainage, sewerage and stormwater connections on the corner will continue until mid-July. This works activity is hard to miss! Works are continuing on the East side of St Kilda Road, as we connect drainage and irrigation.

6. Station box construction

Installation of architectural glass on B2 has commenced. Otherwise largely the same back-of-house fit out continuing into next week and beyond. 

7. Shrine Entrance

We reached the milestone of pouring all the internal walls (photo below). You’ll start to see 6m long precast columns arrive. These columns will separate the back and front of house stairs in the Shrine Entrance.

8. Park Street to Albert Road

We are working away to complete the footpath from the Domain Hill/ Hallmark up to the tram crossing. This is looking to be done early next week and hoping to open it as soon as possible. 

I hope everyone has a nice weekend.

Thanks, Remy

The Botanica AGM will be held on Tuesday August 29 at 6pm. This year we’re making it super easy for you – it will be Flo, just across Bowen Cres.

Format will be the formal meeting first and then light food and drinks.

Please make an effort to attend

Yesterday we had a noisy, troubled person in the building that caused a lot of concern. The person was a family member of someone in the building.

The police were involved and have assured us it is very unlikely to occur again.

https://clipchamp.com/watch/Ract2ZgwRDf

…all in a minute

Good afternoon everyone,

Welcome to our look ahead for works happening out in the Domain Precinct next week. Just a reminder that next Monday is the Kings Birthday long weekend, followed by an RDO the next day, so a fairly short look ahead for next week!

Just a note for anyone who witnessed some of the drama on St Kilda Road on Wednesday morning, when a large truck carrying another large truck seemingly took a wrong turn onto St Kilda Road city-bound and ended up stuck at the tram wires across Park Street. Rest assured that this wasn’t a project vehicle, we are very much aware where the tram wires are on St Kilda Road, having gone to significant effort to install them last year.

We understand that with some assistance, the truck was removed at around 1am the following morning.

1. Utility Works  – Bowen Lane to Bowen Crescent

The completion of works to connect the last section of the station wall to the station roof, the focus will switch to the utility works happening through the area.

We’ll see an NDD truck parked up on the corner of Bowen Lane and St Kilda Road next week identifying the existing services in this location ahead of excavation.

There will also be a crane parked up in the area to lower in the precast concrete sections for the maintenance access hatch into the station.

2. Albert Road Reserve Station entrance

The works on the entrance are continuing at good pace. We’ve completed the last of the excavation for this entrance – which also means that we’ve completed all bulk excavation for Anzac Station, a significant milestone in itself. Next week the focus will remain on steel fixing at the base of the entrance.

3. Albert Road North construction

The paving works have almost made their way entirely down to Kings Way, we’d expect by Tuesday that we’ll have the footpath reopen in its entirety, with the temporary fencing moved to the outer edge of the paving. This will be in time for the our major change on Albert Road, which will see the closure of the westbound lane of traffic out to Kings Way on Wednesday night (This westbound lane is the site of the future landscaping and gardens in the legacy design).

This means that on Thursday morning, Albert Road will become a one-way road from Kings Way through to St Kilda Road (with access retained to the Ramsay Clinic and The Domain)

It also means that we’ll start work at the intersection of Kings Way and Albert Road as we continue the build of westbound lane of Albert Road on its new alignment (In the final design, traffic will exit Albert Road just to the left of the remaining palm tree)

4. St Kilda Road median works – South

Despite the short week, there is a bit of activity down at the southern end of site next week. We’ll be doing some overnight work on St Kilda Road southbound, which means it will be closed from 8pm Thursday night to 5am Friday morning, and then again from 8pm Friday night to 5am Saturday morning. In this time we’ll be trenching a new VicRoads service connection across the road at the Toorak Road intersection, while also laying some temporary asphalt in the kerb between the pedestrian lights and Toorak Road and shifting the traffic barriers here. This will also see the final three parks as part of the Stage 1 parking removal implemented through this section.

Over at the chiller plant locations, we’ll be delivering the last of the internal plant for the chiller structure on Friday next week, which will be followed by the internal fitout of the structures after that.

5. St Kilda Road median works – North

Moving down to the works between Park Street an Dorcas Street, anyone who has walked past this area will have seen that the team have made short work of excavating the area for the final set of works. This has allowed the start of the installation of drainage, sewerage and stormwater connections on the corner – while next week we’ll continue the final kerb layout that began this week. The level of the road in this area changes slightly, which is why the area has been excavated to the extent that you see out there today.

Meanwhile, over on the East side of St Kilda Road, we’ll begin the final connections of the drainage and irrigation in the bike lane, adjacent to the temporarily closed pedestrian crossing

6. Station box construction

Nothing new to report downstairs for next week.

7. Shrine Entrance

Next week the team will hit another milestone over at the Shrine entrance with the last of the internal walls to be poured. The relocated site hoarding is also coming together, the team was out on site today doing measurements for the artwork installation for both the future wooden hoarding through the area, and the short section of covered walkway that will extend over the existing asphalt path.

8. Park Street to Albert Road

This week the team have all but completed the new paving on the Hallmark service driveway, once cure this will be ready to reopen on Wednesday next week when the teams return to site.

If you’ve walked along the newly completed path you might have noticed some water pooling in a section of the footpath. It hasn’t gone unnoticed at our end too, and after some investigations it appears that the levels in this area are slightly off. Unfortunately this means that we’ll need to get back into this section and relay some of the paving. It is unfortunate, but this is the legacy design and its important that it is built to a high standard. We’ll likely come back the week after next to complete the rectification works here

The section of future landscaping in front of Domain Hill is still undergoing some works and the this week we’ve been working on conduit installs for both CitiPower and VicRoads utilities connections. Next week we will likely remove the now disconnected light post on the corner, which will be followed shortly thereafter by the installation of two new poles further towards St Kilda Road. One for a future crossing button and the other for the replacement light pole for this section.

Late next week, early the following week will also see a section of bike separator median installed at the top of Albert Road near the future crossing point.

We hope everyone has a wonderful long weekend

Thanks, Rob and Remy

Good afternoon all,

Hope everyone is having a great Friday, as we tip over into the first week of winter – it’s time for a look ahead to what’s happening out on site next week.

1. Station Roof Works and Bowen Lane Utility Works

As promised the last section of the station roof was poured last Saturday and the last of the blue waterproofing membrane has been applied to the completed section. It’s a bit of a low key milestone, but it means that the entire station box structure underneath St Kilda Road is now complete. Over the next few weeks we’ll see some pre-cast concrete risers installed around what is the future egress hatch that sits below ground in front of The Botanica building. This hatch is specifically designed so that the transformers within the station below can be (relatively) easily removed and replaced when they come to the end of their lifespan. The mini-detour down Bowen Lane came into effect on Thursday, and the works will commence on the utility connections down this section of Bowen Lane. The target remains to reopen Bowen Lane by the end of July/start of August.

2. Albert Road Reserve Station entrance

A large section of the concrete blinding layer was poured earlier this week for the station entrance. There won’t be a great deal of variety in this section for the next few weeks, as the entire site will be a mix of waterproofing and steel tying.

3. Albert Road North construction

One section that will see a great deal of change over the coming weeks is Albert Road. The Albert Road configuration is slowly but surely transitioning to its future alignment, which will see the westbound lane pushed further to the north to make room for the future parkland between the station entrance and Kings Way. In the June monthly construction update, you’ll see that Albert Road will essentially shift into a one-way arrangement between Kings Way and St Kilda Road. The closure of the last remaining section of the westbound lane of Albert Road will enable the team to complete the final kerbing at the intersection of Kings Way and Albert Road – and start the works on the actual parkland itself.  We’re expecting that these works will take just over a month to complete.

There is quite a lot of chopping and changing happening on Albert Road, and given the reduction of parking, we’ll look to include drop off bays wherever we can. Following the closure of the westbound lane out to Kings Way, we’ll implement some additional short term drop off bays to help with taxi/uber drop offs and pick-ups. We’ve already included one bay in front of the Ramsay Clinic.

4. St Kilda Road median works – South

With the asphalting complete last week, the crews are working on the inner lane of St Kilda Road through this southbound section. This should be fairly stable for a little while, before we move onto the bike lane construction and the second stage of the permanent parking removal in July. The work on the two chiller plant structures in the median are also progressing well with a crane arriving next week to assist with the installation of the 8 tonne chiller plant.

5. St Kilda Road median works – North

Another big change to site is coming next week with the start of kerb works in front of 380 St Kilda Road. Unfortunately this is the return everyone’s least favourite step-count booster – the walk down Park Street, crossing at Wells Street, and back up Park Street to continue along St Kilda Road. It also comes with the addition of the closure of the crossing over to the Shrine grounds and Gardens at Park Street. If you’re headed from Albert Road, over to the gardens for a stroll, it might be quicker to cut over the tram stop crossing – otherwise, the next crossing point is at Dorcas Street.

This blitz on the corner will also see a short term cul-de-sac arrangement come into effect in the service lane between Park Street and Dorcas Street. You can turn right on the green arrow at Dorcas Street to access Seasons Botanic, or for a drop-off/pick up at any of the apartments here.

The good news is that once we’re done here, the separated bike lanes will be in effect, the inner and outer lanes will be reopened and the parking will be returned (and the pedestrian crossings reopened).

6. Station box construction

No new news from those working down underneath the station box – the various back of house rooms required to commission the power to run trains are being progressively completed and tied in. It is maze of cables running from room to room.

7. Shrine Entrance

This week we have prepared the reinforcement and form work for another five sections of the internal walls, ready for concrete next week. We are also preparing to lower precast elements down into the shaft. Excavation for the footing for the future beams that will support the station canopy is underway.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the hoarding, works are processing with the new site alignment. Behind the temporary fencing, a section of the new site footpath was poured today.  

8. Park Street to Albert Road

I’m pleased to say that the bluestone footpath between Albert Road and Park Street is now reopened and looks great. The garden bed has been filled with soil and will planted with some of the ground cover in the next few months. The replacement trees that will go in this location will be planted separately, we’re working with City of Port Phillip on their planting and I’ll provide an update when I have some timing on when we’ll see them in place. We’ve also got some finishing works to do on some fencing that will go on the retaining wall that runs behind the garden bed – We’ll complete these works before we go in and plant in this location.

With everyone back on the footpath, the team are working on the future connection from the footpath up to the tram entrance, as well as works to complete the driveway connection into the Hallmark buildings service area. This driveway resurfacing will be the predominant activity in here next week.

Have a great weekend

Thanks, Rob and Remy

Good afternoon all,

Welcome to another weekly look ahead, outlining what is happening out in the Domain Precinct next week.

1. Station Roof Works and Bowen Lane Utility Works

The final sections of steel tying has been the focus of the team this week, and we’re now ready to pour the last section of the station box roof. We’re expecting the concrete to go down tomorrow, once this is down and cured we’ll get the water proofing done and backfill. The team will soon begin to install the pre-cast concrete walls for the hatch in front of 400 St Kilda Road. This hatch is going to be in regular use, it has been specifically designed to future proof the station for the eventual replacement of the transformers down in the station, which will be removed via this hatch. In Bowen Lane, the slight pedestrian detour down and back up Bowen Lane is yet to come into full effect, but over the coming weeks there will be a lot of excavation and pre cast concrete drainage sections delivered into the site and the detour will come into effect.

2. Albert Road Reserve Station entrance

Down at the base of the new Albert Road Reserve station entrance, the team are installing all the required plumbing and drainage connections across the base of the station box. The works are also continuing on the formwork for the base slab next week.

3. Albert Road North construction

Next week the team will open up the first section of completed footpath, between The Domain building and the Ramsay Clinic main entrance. Next week we’ll also shift the location of the disabled parking in front of the Ramsay Clinic slightly towards St Kilda Road, this also presents us with the opportunity to create a five minute drop-off bay in this location. We understand it’s been challenging getting a taxi, or Uber eats while the works are going on. The drop off bay is an enforceable five minute zone and should hopefully help a little with the functionality on this side of the road.

While it’s a few updates away, when the paving works get down to Kings Way, the footpath will be fully reopened and we’ll close the on-road detour and shift the road traffic across to where the old central island parking was. This will allow us to start work on the other side of the tree line, to construct the new kerbs, and parkland through this section.

4. St Kilda Road median works – South

This morning the asphalting crews were hard at work laying a new section of blacktop in the kerb in front of the Melbourne Grammar School and up to the Royce Hotel. We’ll shift the traffic towards this kerb and this will give us the real estate we need to build the inner lane of traffic. The “pinch point” on the southbound side of St Kilda Road is the penetrations in the station roof that we’ve been using for the past few years to lower material in and out of the station with the crane on site. We’ll soon close up these penetrations and begin bringing material in through the two station entry points. This will give us back some real estate and allow us to start to build the lanes of traffic running past the station canopy.

5. St Kilda Road median works – North

On Park Street you may have noticed that the eastbound section of the road has closed earlier than expected. We have taken the decision to close this section of Park Street at Wells Street a little earlier than anticipated on safety grounds, this has come after two large livestock vehicles have ignored the restrictions on vehicle sizes and got stuck at the intersection (Not quite as prolific as the Montague Street Bridge, but enough for us to be concerned for pedestrians on the corner) You can continue straight from St Kilda Road into the Service lane. When we start works on the 5 June, we’ll turn the service lane into its own cul-de-sac arrangement with access from the green right turn arrow at Dorcas Street. (I’ve included a copy of the notification in today’s look-ahead)

When the next set of works are complete, the intersection will reopen, with the wider turn into the central lane enabled, to create more space for larger vehicles.

6. Station box construction

Station box construction is still in the same space as last week, the lifts are very close to being commissioned, and the team working on the escalators underneath the canopy have almost finished the first set and next week will move onto the second set. I’ve included a photo today of the team hard at work behind the canopy hoarding.

7. Shrine Entrance

The team over at the Shrine entrance are making their way back up and out from the base slab. The internal walls are being poured section by section, while at the top of the entrance they’ll be pouring the raft slab next week. This raft slab will form the base for the top landing of the escalators and elevators of the future entry point. The team today are in the process of excavating the footing for the future beams that will support the station canopy. Meanwhile, the new hoarding alignment that I mentioned in last weeks update has begun construction on its new alignment.

8. Park Street to Albert Road

With the concrete pour that took place on Tuesday, the team should make short work of the bluestone laying in front of the Hallmark, this will be followed by some works to complete the retaining wall adjacent to the footpath. While it wont be next week, we’ll soon start work on the legac pedestrian connection up to the new tram stop – this connection point branches off just next to the Hallmarks service driveway and heads up towards St Kilda Road. It will be a little while before pedestrians are using it to get to the new tram stop though, as we’ve got some work still to be done this year to complete the median at the intersection of Albert Road and St Kilda Road.

Have a great weekend

Thanks, Rob and Remy