There is a live camera on the action

https://www.youtube.com/@GaryBuck

Camera 6 is the one on the driveway

Just another reminder that all cars MUST be out of the lower car park BEFORE 7am tomorrow.

Good afternoon everyone,

Welcome to this week’s update and the first for April. A skinny update this week, as there will be a lull in work on site while we head into the Easter Holidays.

There will be no work on site during the holiday period, which also leads into RDO’s on Tuesday 11^th April and Wednesday 12^th April. Crews will be back on deck on the Thursday 13^th of April.

1. Station Roof Works

Next week will see the start of works on the next section of the station roof to be tied into the walls – directly in front of the Botanica driveway. Following the closure of the driveway and the shifting of traffic barriers, crews will begin breaking out the surface with excavators and hammers, before excavation commences down to roof level. In the still open section, works will continue to steel-fix, concrete pour and backfill.

2. Albert Road Reserve Station entrance

This week saw the major concrete pour for the capping beams around the station entrance, while excavation has continued on in the southern section. No new works on site, with excavation continuing next week.

3. Conduit Connection – Anzac Tram Stop

As mentioned, we are just waiting for approval from the power provider before we can cut the power over to the tram stop. There will be a days work to connect the power to the tram stop, at this time the pedestrian lights to cross St Kilda Road to the tram stop will be out of action, but we’ll have traffic controllers in place to get people across safely while the connection works are underway. Still no firm date on this, we are chasing the provider for an answer – as soon as this happens, the temporary generator will be removed from in front of Melbourne Grammar School.

4. Albert Road North Construction

Not too much new to report from Albert Road North, the team are busy with the drainage installation, this remains the key focus. The April construction notice will be hitting letterboxes shortly (I’ve included the new-look map below)

We’d previously flagged that the removal of the parking on the Southern side of Albert Road will happen in April, we’re going to push this back to the 1 May 2023. Not a huge reprieve, but appreciate that everyone would like to hang onto the parking for as long as possible. Once we take the parking, we’ll be closing the pedestrian path and putting pedestrians on a temporary path where the current parking is. That will see excavators roll in and rip up the footpath, ready for new bluestone kerbing to be laid. We’ve gone through and mapped out the building entry points to ensure that access to buildings is maintained. It’s still a little ways off– but a reminder that it will be another big change within the area.

The U-turn at the bottom of Albert Street is also going to be closed in April, the team are going to hold off on this closure for as long as possible, as it facilitates access back up to St Kilda Road. It looks like this U-turn will close in late-April.

5. St Kilda Road median works – South (Nightworks – 13 and 14 April)

The base slab has now been poured for the second of the chiller plant structures (the southern structure) As I mentioned last week, the structural steel and precast work commences after Easter.

In an update to last week’s notification – It has been confirmed that we will be shifting traffic barriers between Barwise Street and Toorak Road overnight on the evening of the 13 and 14 April, but in some further good news on parking – the removal of the parking spaces along this section of St Kilda Road southbound has been pushed back until May.

This traffic barrier shift will allow works to start on the inner lane – One change that will take effect is that you will no longer be able to turn right from St Kida Road into Kings Way until these works are complete later this year.

6. St Kilda Road median works – North – (Nightworks – 13 and 14 April)

Last week we finally managed to get in and complete a tricky section of asphalting at the intersection of Park Street and St Kilda Road.

On the night of the 13^th and 14^th of April we’ll do the works to install new traffic barriers and line mark for the traffic shift into the central carriageway in both southbound and northbound directions. The big change will be the temporary removal of parking on the western side of St Kilda Road. Like the barrier shift in the southern end of site – this will require an overnight shut of St Kilda Road to execute the change.

7. Station box construction

Works are pushing along underground, you may have seen the announcement that we recently laid the very last section of track within the new twin tunnels – and exciting development which paves the way for train testing to commence later this year.

8. Shrine Entrance

The pouring of the blinding layer is underway for the Shrine Entrance and will continue into next week– the blinding layer is the preliminary layer of concrete that will form the working base for the steelfixing and base slab.

9. Park Street to Albert Road

The footpath diversion is now in place between Park Street and Albert Road and the crews have wasted no time pulling up the asphalt and laying new pavers. As I mentioned in our most recent updates, we’ll assess the viability of the trees adjacent to these works. The trees have been marked for removal in the approved plans – however we wanted to first pull up the asphalt and use non-destructive-digging (NDD) trucks to investigate whether we can in fact retain these trees. We’ve this week done the investigation on the tree closest to Park Street, and unfortunately there are structural roots very close to the surface and directly in the path of the excavation works. We’ve had arborists out to provide advice and have also called in City of Port Phillip arborists to review the findings – it appears that the tree will need to be removed. It will be replanted with a replacement tree in the same location as part of the works. The other tree along the footpath will have NDD excavation carried out next week, I’ll advise everyone of the outcome once we know more.

I hope everyone has a restful and enjoyable Easter break.

Good afternoon everyone,

Welcome to this week’s update, live from the current centre of the F1 universe. There is also plenty happening on site, albeit not moving quite as quickly as the machinery over at Albert Park.

As forecast in last weeks look-ahead, we did get a bit of weather this week, so it has dented progress a little.

1. Station Roof Works

Next week we’ll continue with the steel tying to connect the roof into the diaphragm walls – the corner section is proving a little trickier than first expected, so the concrete pour isn’t on the agenda for next week. The start of works for the section in front of Botanica is still locked in place for the 13 April.

2. Albert Road Reserve Station entrance

Wet weather has thwarted our plans to pour concrete this week – we’ll have trucks and pumps out to site on Monday to pour the capping beams. Meanwhile the excavation has moved along in between showers, we’re now roughly a quarter of the way through the main excavation of the entrance itself. Other than some freshly poured concrete, there won’t be any new scenery next week, with excavation ongoing.

3. Conduit Connection – Albert Road

We understand that almost all the conduit connections are in place and it is over to the energy provider to cut over the power to the tram stop. There will be a days work to connect the power to the tram stop, at this time the pedestrian lights to cross St Kilda Road to the tram stop will be out of action, but we’ll have traffic controllers in place to get people across safely while the connection works are underway. Just waiting for confirmation from the provider about when this can occur.

4. Albert Road North Construction

Similarly in Albert Road, it’s drainage works in the central island section, we’ve installed some of the culverts through here and backfilled. Next week we’ll continue with sections of drainage and also start underground electrical connections within the Albert Reserve section (up closer towards St Kilda Road)

5. St Kilda Road median works – South

The base slab has been poured for the first of the chiller plant structures (the northern structure) In what is a recurring theme across site, we should have some concrete trucks arriving late next week or early the following week to pour the concrete base for the second chiller plant structure. The structural steel and precast work commences in April.

The shifting of traffic barriers on the southbound lane of St Kilda Road between Bromby Street and Toorak Road will take place just after Easter. This will require mobile cranes on the road shifting barriers, so will need a short term closure of St Kilda Road southbound. We’ll do this overnight to minimise disruption to traffic. We’re targeting an evening on or just after the 13 April at this point, but I will confirm once we’ve got the relevant approvals in place.

Once again, a reminder that this will result in the permanent removal of the St Kilda Road parking, southbound between Bromby Street and Toorak Road.

6. St Kilda Road median works – North – Nightworks this evening

The biggest impact from the rain this week is that we couldn’t get the asphalt down at the intersection of Park Street and St Kilda Road last night. Tonight was contingency night for line-marking, but we’re going to get into this section tonight and finish this asphalting work that we couldn’t get done last night. Once again, kicking the works off once trams stop operating, which on Friday night is a smaller window between 1am and 5am.

We did however push on through the weather and re-open the left turn from St Kilda Road into Park Street on Thursday night – as well as reopening the pedestrian crossing. A welcome change for everyone, I’m sure.

We do now have some brand new asphalt in the centre carriageway of St Kilda Road between Park Street and Dorcas Street.  As I’ve mentioned previously, we’ll soon shift traffic into the central carriageway in both southbound and northbound directions and temporarily remove the parking on the western side of St Kilda Road. Like the barrier shift in the southern end of site – this will require an overnight shut of St Kilda Road to execute the change.

To minimise the number of closures and overnight works – we’re going to combine these two activities into one night of work. As mentioned above, we’re targeting an evening either on or just after the 13^th April.

7. Station box construction

It has been a while since I’ve included a photo of works from around site, so today I’ve included a snap from underground that shows the main stairs down to the platform level. The yellow drum lighting will feature across the stations, as will the architectural baffles, these orange baffles help to reduce the noise within the actual stations. You can also see the station escalators, this is one of two sets of escalators for the new station, works are currently underway to commission these escalators – as well as the escalators linking the tram stop to the concourse.

8. Shrine Entrance

The Shrine Entrance has now completed the excavation down to the base slab and we’ll start building back up with the base slab and internal walls. The team are pleased to see the end of the excavation and break back, as this was a very small and fiddly site that was a challenge to work within. The entrance build out will kick off next week, involving concreting a blinding layer before steel fixing for the base slab.

9. Park Street to Albert Road

If you walk between Park Street and Albert Road now, you’ll see that we’ve put in place the detour onto the separated bike lane which will act as a temporary footpath when we close the footpath in front of Hallmark. We should get in and start breaking out the footpath tomorrow.

Have a wonderful weekend

Thanks, Rob

Good afternoon everyone,

A short and sharp update this week focussing in on the areas where we’ll see some change in activity.

Next week we’re expecting a bit of weather – so there’s every chance it will put a dent in progress.

1. Station Roof Works

Last week’s update promised concrete this week, but that’s actually set for the back end of next week. I’d like to point the finger at the weather, but I’m afraid it was me misreading the program, specifically when the concrete was going in. It will be steel tying next week with the concreting at the end of the week.

2. Albert Road Reserve Station entrance

We got some, but not all concrete into the first section of the Station reserve roof this week. The main pour is going to kick off next week, subject to the weather. Outside this, its business as usual with excavation underway in the other areas.

3. Conduit Installation – Albert Road North

CitiPower are still working on the conduit connection. I haven’t had an update from them this week, I’ll have some more news next week.

4. Albert Road North Construction

More drainage and surface preparation work down at Albert Road. Nothing new to report from this end.

5. St Kilda Road median works – South

Chiller plant work and median surface preparation still underway as per last week.

6. St Kilda Road median works – North

Next week we’ll see quite a bit of action between Park Street and Dorcas Street – The asphalt pour for the section of road at the intersection of Park Street and St Kilda Road will happen on Thurscday night (actually starting around 1am on Friday morning – essentially when trams stop running and we can get into this area). The good news is that as part of these works we’ll also re-open the left turn from St Kilda Road into Park Street at the same time – as well as the pedestrian crossing.

The next night we’ll get some line marking done overnight, which should be a quiet exercise. We’re also looking at getting some yellow hatching line-marking over the tram tracks where the 58 Tram turns in and out of St Kilda Road to get in/out of Park Street.  Drivers are consistently getting stuck in the middle and queuing over this area, blocking trams and causing incessant dinging at all hours.

We’ve put in additional signage, but hopefully this new line-marking also helps the issue, as I know the dinging is annoying for the residents of Hallmark.  

We’ll likely get some asphalt into the new inner carriageway between Park Street and Dorcas Street  from Thursday onwards.  The final date for the switch of traffic into the inner carriageway is still being worked through, it will require an overnight intervention on St Kilda Road to get the traffic barriers into position, so just working this through with the relevant authorities. Earliest date would be the 3 April, but I will confirm next week. Once the switch happens, the parking will temporarily be removed between Park and Dorcas Streets.

7. Station box construction

Business as usual down underground.

8. Shrine Entrance

Business as usual for the Shrine Entrance

9. Park Street to Albert Road

The switch of pedestrians off the footpath and onto a temporary path has been held up.

As mentioned above, the good news is that the Park Street pedestrian crossing and left turn from St Kilda Road into Park Street will open on Friday next week.

The footpath closure is now likely to happen late next week and coincide with the Park Street left turn reopening

Have a wonderful weekend

Thanks, Rob

I did not attend but here are the “slides”

BOWEN CRESENT/ QUEENS LANE INTERSECTION TO ST KILDA ROAD/ BOWENS CRESENT INTERSECTION.

Date: 28/03/2023 – 29/03/2023

Details below

Good afternoon everyone,

I hope everyone had the chance to enjoy some of the glorious sunshine this week. A short week on site, but still some good progress has been made. There are a few changes to pedestrian access around the site next week – I’ve included a copy of a notification that is going out to the Hallmark and Domain Hill building regarding works on the footpath in front of their respective buildings – but I’ve also included it here as it will involve a slight detour for anyone walking from Albert Road around to Park Street.

Broader update is below, and have a lovely weekend.

1. Station Roof Works

The noise of the sucker trucks will ease off (temporarily) next week as the team move onto tying steel to connect the last part of the station roof into the wall next week, with the aim to have concrete poured later in the week. The pour is done in one hit, with all exposed areas poured. After this we’ll move onto the waterproofing and backfilling. The backfill will be reinstated with a temporary surface (likely concrete) that in May will serve as a future driveway for the residents of the Botanica who use the basement carpark while we complete the remaining sections.

2. Albert Road Reserve Station entrance

The station entrance saw the completion of the first stage of excavation, ground anchors and shotcreting (sprayed concrete application) this week, with the second stage of excavation also kicking off. The excavators and trucks will again be hauling material from site next week.

On the northern side, the steel tying works are almost complete and we’re expecting to pour the concrete for the capping beam early next week (likely Monday)

3. Conduit Installation – Albert Road North

CitiPower are expected on site from the 20^th March (Monday) on Albert Road – As we understand, they’ll have some excavation and will be pulling cable through for the permanent power connection for the tram platform. This means the generator that is currently on the side of the road over near the pedestrian crossing will be decommissioned and removed in early April. I’ll firm  up the date once we’ve heard more from CitiPower.

4. Albert Road North Construction

If you’ve been down to Albert Road recently you’d have seen that the team have made short work of the carpark as they start construction of the final alignment of Albert Road. The first stage of the works is the excavation for drainage that runs from St Kilda Road all the way down to Kings Way. The team will be installing drainage all next week, which varies from box culverts through to standard drainage pipes.

Beyond this, the remainder of this area will be progressively excavated to prepare the surface for the construction of final road layout.

Just a note that the NDD work that was happening on the southern footpath this week will also run into tomorrow, with some parks occupied on the southern side.  Next update I’ll look to firm up a date on the permanent removal of the parking on the southern side of Albert Road.  Like the central median parking, we try to leave the parking in place until the point that we absolutely need to get in there and work. It may just be a delay of the inevitable, but every day counts.

5. St Kilda Road median works – South

The base slab for one of the chiller plant structures is expected to be poured tomorrow, while the other one follows along behind with the same sequence, with steel fixing ongoing next week. Over on the other side of the road, the most of the works will be in the centre median across from the Royce Hotel, with some works to prep the surface for new pavement.

6. St Kilda Road median works – North

Moving up north beyond the station canopy, the inner carriageway of St Kilda Road is prepped and ready for asphalting on the western side, with the eastern side just having the last of the subsoil drainage completed.

Next week we’ll see some new irrigation installed on both sides of the road.  We’ll have a notification in letter boxes (and inboxes) next week regarding the switch of city-bound traffic into this middle lane. In an all too familiar sentence, parking will be removed to facilitate the bike lane works through this section – though this section of St Kilda Road will have parking reinstated, so the loss is only temporary.

7. Station box construction

Down underground, the western section of track is now laid all the way through Anzac Station and the new platform screen doors are complete. Up on the concourse level, we’ve started installing some of the permanent lighting for the station, which adds a splash of colour to proceedings. Meanwhile, in the back of house, the rough in for services is ongoing – Not as interesting as rail track, platform screen doors and feature lighting – but the team are hard at work back there, so it would be remiss of me not to give them a shout-out.

8. Shrine Entrance

The Shrine entrance has made good progress down towards the base level. If you were so inclined you could now poke your head through from this western station entrance into the main station box (you wouldn’t see much as there is a giant curtain there to protect from debris – but a good milestone all the same.

9. Park Street to Albert Road

The last section of todays update will see the most changes next week, as the team are close to completing the drainage run between Park Street and Albert Street. This means next week they’ll be in a position to divert pedestrian traffic up to a dedicated pedestrian walkway through our site (on the future roadway) and around to Park Street. The reason we’re putting pedestrians up on this section is so that we can break out the asphalt footpath and build the new bluestone footpath in this location. The notice has flagged a start date of Thursday, but as of this afternoon, progress has been very good, so it could be slightly earlier.

To do this we’ll break out the surface and excavate it down to the required level, before pouring a layer of concrete to form the base for the new bluestone. As we excavate down we’ll find out more about the root systems of the trees adjacent to this footpath. We’ll have an arborist on hand as we go, and we’ll make an assessment as to whether we can retain the trees in this location. They are listed for removal in the approved plans – but like all trees on the project, if we find that they can be retained – we most certainly will.

The notice for these works are attached – the detour is relatively minor, but it is an access change for Hallmark residents. I’ll have more info for Domain Hill residents when we get closer to starting the footpath section in front of their apartments. (Ultimately everyone will the footpath reinstatement works experience, Hallmark is the first cab off the rank)

Thanks, Rob

Yes we have had some issues with the bin collections over the last week.

It has been raised by multiple people to multiple people at City of Port Phillip who all promise the world but do nothing.

Thanks for your patience.

Good evening everyone,

Welcome to the weekly stakeholder look ahead for works happening around the Anzac Station site.

It’s a very short edition this week, as next week is an ultra-short week on site. This weekend is a shutdown weekend for the construction industry, followed by the public holiday on Monday and a rostered day off (RDO) on Tuesday.

Works will resume next Wednesday.

I hope everyone enjoys their own long weekend.

1. Station Roof Works

This week saw the arrival of the non-destructive digging (NDD), or sucker trucks as promised, the team are progressively breaking open the section of delayed pour strip and using the NDD truck to clean it out. This will continue next week.

2. Albert Road Reserve Station entrance

Similarly at the Albert Road Reserve Station entrance, it will be more of the same next week with steel tying underway in the northern end of the site. The drill for the temporary ground anchors arrived on site this week and has made short work of the task, the last of these first stage ground anchors should be done when we return on Wednesday next week. As we mentioned in a previous update, these provide the required stability as the excavation of the entrance makes its way down in stages. Once they are done, we’ll recommence excavation down to the next level.

3. Conduit Installation – Albert Road North

As I mentioned last week, it is over to CitiPower to commence their tie in works to connect the conduits into the network. We understand CitiPower will be carrying out these works on the 20^th March. I’ll provide additional information as we get it from CitiPower, but they will be notifying separately for their works.

4. Albert Road North Construction

As notified last week, the trees in the central island carpark were removed this week, this will allow the team to start to excavate the road surface in preparation for the main works to construct the permanent Albert Road North alignment. The focus for next week will be on the excavation of the drainage run for this new roadway.

Last week I mentioned that there will be some NDD works on a section of the southern footpath down towards Kings Way This has had to be pushed back to next week, most likely Thursday and Friday. As per previous advice, pedestrian access will be maintained, but we will need to occupy some of the carparks in front of Albert Square to complete the works.

5. St Kilda Road median works – South

Last week I mentioned that the works to pull up the bluestone in the kerb between the pedestrian crossing and Bromby Street would commence this week , these have had to push back and will likely commence late next week.

Looking a little further ahead, later this month we’ll need to do some overnight works to move the concrete barriers in the southbound lane between Bromby Street and Toorak Road, as well as do some new linemarking in this section. The barriers will be pushed further into the existing traffic lane to provide enough space to construct the inner traffic lane. In order to create the space required, it means that the parking spaces along this section of St Kilda Road will be removed and bikes and traffic shifted towards the kerb (hence the new line marking) 

6. St Kilda Road median works – North

Rinse and repeat last week’s update on the northern median. Drainage installation continues along with preparatory works on the surface ahead of the asphalting of the central carriageway. A notice should be coming out next week on the works to shift traffic into this central carriage way – the outer lane will remain open for bikes and local access only, but as we’ve been advising for a while now – the kerb side parking will be temporarily removed while we install the separated bike lane.

7. Station box construction

Nothing new to report from inside the station box – next week I’ll put together a bit more of an insightful update – but for now, the main task for the team is continuing their installation of platform screen doors along the length of the station platform.

8. Shrine Entrance

As I mentioned last week, we made the switch to commence the breakdown of the piles that separate the shrine entrance from the main station box. This has made good progress and next week the break out work will continue, along with the final excavation down to the base slab level.

9. Park Street to Albert Road

The new kerb alignment running from the corner of the Park Street and St Kilda Road intersection around towards Albert Road has come as far as the Hallmark service driveway, with works underway today to trench across this driveway to install new drainage. As I mentioned last week, we’ll soon start the works to complete the footpath in front of both Hallmark and Domain Hill building. The section of the footpath in front of Hallmark is expected to commence on the 20^th of March – during this time we’ll have a short pedestrian detour in place. I’ll provide some more information in next weeks update, and residents of the Hallmark and Domain Hill will soon receive a notice advising of the building access arrangements during these footpath works.

Thanks, Rob