Good morning everyone,

Apologies this email is only going out today – connection issues on Friday meant it didn’t go out.
Content is now updated below.

I hope everyone enjoyed the gentle sounds of F1 cars flying around Albert Park this weekend.
Last week’s big milestone is that St Kilda Road is now reopen in two lanes in each direction.

There are still some small sections that did not get completed (see below), but regardless – a huge milestone for the project and a big thanks to everyone for their patience during the works.

Overnight Works Next Week

Line Marking

This week we will have some line markers out painting the road. Thankfully these are much quieter works and we wouldn’t expect any disturbance.

Concrete Pour

This Wednesday night (27 March) we’ve got a big concrete pour happening in Albert Road Reserve around the station entrance. A section of these works will require a concrete pump to sit on St Kilda Road adjacent to the tram stop – this means we’ll need to close St Killda Road on Wednesday night to complete these works.

• St Kilda Road will be closed northbound at Toorak, meaning Botanica’s St Kilda Road Driveway will be accessible via Bowen Crescent from 8pm.
• Entry into Albert Road will be via Kings Way only. Egress from Albert Road onto St Kilda Road will remain open while this is underway.

All works will be at the Anzac Tram stop and there are no works besides linemarking at the Toorak Road end of site through to Bowen Lane

Albert Road Traffic Light commissioning
The one piece of work that couldn’t be completed last week was the commissioning of the traffic lights at Albert Road. This is due to the incorrect signal technology being provided.

If you’ve walked the pedestrian crossing at the top of Albert Road you’ll see it’s the only section without brand new asphalt.
On Tuesday 26 March we’ll close Albert Road and St Kilda Road northbound overnight to asphalt this final section and commission the new traffic lights.

• St Kilda Road will be closed northbound at Toorak, meaning Botanica’s St Kilda Road Driveway will be accessible via Bowen Crescent from 8pm.
• Entry and exit from to Albert Road will be via Kings Way only. Traffic controllers will be on hand to assist Domain Hill residents to exit their driveway.

All works will be at the top of Albert Road and there are no works besides linemarking at the Toorak Road end of site through to Bowen Lane

Median Planting

There are some tricky spots is in the median between Albert Reserve and the Anzac Tram stop that need to have turf laid – we’ll have to come back at some point during the evening and lay some turf.

While we’re doing the concrete pour on Wednesday night, we’ll also pop in and lay that turf.

The tree plots through this area are already prepared and will be planted after April.

Domain Road

As outlined in the March construction notice, we’ll continue to do footpath works overnight further up Domain Road. This doesn’t include high-impact activities like hammering.

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

The familiar blue sheeting that is the waterproofing was laid on top of the station concourse roof at Albert Road Reserve entrance last week. Over the weekend we’ve backfilled the surface and get ready to pour the concrete that will form the base for the station concourse bluestone paving.
The preparation work for these concrete pours is already well advanced on the northern end of the station entrance.
Next to the station entrance, the South African Soldiers Memorial continues to grow in height as the formwork for the central obelisk is formed and poured.  This week we should see the first of the original stonework installed.

St Kilda Road Footpath Works  – Bowen Lane to Albert Road

The footpath connecting Bowen Lane around the Albert Road opened last week. Our thanks to everyone for the patience while we finished these works, particular thanks to the residents of The Domain building who had their pedestrian access curtailed during the works.

Bowen Crescent – Partial Closure and Footpath Works

The reopening of St Kilda Road to two lanes in each direction also means Bowen Crescent is open from St Kilda Road. Again, thanks to everyone for your patience while this closure is in place. I appreciate that it means a round-the-block detour to Kings Way to access driveways at the top parking level of The Botanica as well as the laneway parking access for apartments at 416, 416A, 418 St Kilda Road.

Shrine Entrance and Domain Road (Works until 1am)

At the entrance adjacent to the Shrine of Remembrance, we are in full swing with the installation of services under Domain Road and the future station entrance forecourt. Like Albert Road Reserve entrance, this area will take shape very quickly once the in-ground works are complete.
What isn’t taking shape quickly is the drainage works on the footpath along Domain Road. We were targeting a 5 week closure of this area – but with the amount of in-ground services, it looks like we’re going to overshoot this mark.

We had originally planned to reopen the footpath, before closing it at a later date to apply the final asphalt surface.  The delay to the inground services means that we’ll finish the services and just roll straight into the completion works for the footpath. This will mean that we’ll have it re-opened in time for school returning on the 15 April.  Apologies that the detour via Bromby Street/Domain Road will remain in place for a while longer.

St Kilda Road Footpath Works  – Bromby Street to Toorak Road

All our light pole works are done through this area and we’ve passed the area on to CitiPower.
They’ll connect the poles to the mains network and will advise separately.

Centre Island – St Kilda Road

Southern Area:

Drainage continues to be the focus within the central island, It will be some minor drainage works around the southern ventilation shafts in March, before we head in to the landscaping, and ultimately the tree planting next month.

Adjacent to the Anzac Station tram Stop

As mentioned above, we’ll need to come back and lay some grass through this area.

Enjoy the rest of the week – next week’s update will back to Fridays!

Thanks, Rob

If it causes you problems – call 1800 105105

Rough plan

• Asphalting and turning on traffic lights at Albert Road

• Asphalting at the northern end of the tram stop

• Asphalting the footpath just past 412 SKR

• Removing the barriers at Bowen Crescent and reopening the road

• Working inside the Chillers

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• No loop cutting underway tonight
• The footpath asphalting at 412 is early in the shift and should be done by midnight
• They will backfill some of the trenched soil in the garden beds tonight – Have asked them to use hand tools.
• Barrier removal will likely be just before the shift finishes
• Also confirmed that the works inside the Chiller box will be finished tomorrow night
• All the hybrid light towers have been serviced today and are fine

That bloody NDD truck will be there AGAIN tonight. Call 1800 105 105 if you want to be moved

Good afternoon everyone,

Welcome to the stakeholder lookahead on a sparkling Friday afternoon.

Lets jump right into the lookahead for construction next week in the precinct:

Overnight Works Lookahead

We’re progressing well on our works to return St Kilda Road to two lanes in each direction.

Last night we got a the initial layer of asphalt down on the south bound lane, while also standing two of the three light poles between Bromby and Toorak Road

Tonight we’ll be working in both the southbound lanes and the northbound lanes.

We’ll also have the final NDD works taking place tonight.

As always I’ve got a night-by-night snapshot below – And I’ll advise if this changes significantly.

Concrete Pour

Tonight we’ll have a concrete pour for the barrier kerb between the road and the tram tracks – it’s not a big pour, but we’ll need to do it while traffic is not running to ensure that we can get the pump and trucks in place. This will be done at the start of the road closure.

Chiller Plant Commissioning

The electrical work within the southernmost chiller plant is will be completed during this evenings shift.

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

The South African Soldiers Memorial remains the feature piece of works at the moment, with the concrete formwork happening now for where the central obelisk go. Some of the stone will be coming out of storage next week and making its way to site.

The last of the lifts on the Albert Road Reserve side are finishing their internal commissioning, in what is a great milestone. The pile breakout around the perimeter of the entrance is still happening, there wasn’t much action this week, but it will resume next week.

St Kilda Road Footpath Works  – Bowen Lane to Albert Road

The 20^th March remains a target date for us to reopen this pathway. The lost day to rain this week didn’t help us, but we’re still well on track to complete this area ahead of the original timeframe. I’ve attached a photo of some of the handiwork of the team, who were in there grouting areas this morning.

Bowen Crescent – Partial Closure and Footpath Works

Yesterday we laid the asphalt in front of 412 St Kilda Road, while a tad further up in front of 416 St Kilda Road, the sucker trucks are still on their extended farewell tour for this part of the site. As I mentioned above, we should have the NDD works finished this evening, at which point the drainage crews will be able to slot the new drainage connection in amongst the myriad of services in this area.

We’ll aim to have this installed early next week, before backfilling, completing the asphalting, and then removing the site fencing and reopening Bowen Crescent left turn off

This should all be done by the end of next week.

Shrine Entrance and Domain Road (Works until 1am)

I’d estimate Domain Road has now shrunk by around 7% – as we’ve now completely demolished the roadway between St Kilda Road and Edmund Herring Oval. The good news is that we’ll soon start building it back up again, including installing the new tram track connection from St Kilda Road into Domain Road and building a new tram stop.

As I mentioned last week, we’ve begun the excavation and ground preparation for the station forecourt at the entrance adjacent to the Shrine of Remembrance.
The footpath closure along Domain Road remains in place for the time being.

St Kilda Road Footpath Works  – Bromby Street to Toorak Road

We’ve got one more light pole to install tonight (Closest to Toorak Road) After which we will hand them over to CitiPower to connect them into their network. CitiPower will advise of what works they need to do, and when they need to do them.

Centre Island – St Kilda Road

Southern Area:

Drainage continues to be the focus within the central island, It will be some minor drainage works around the southern ventilation shafts in March, before we head in to the landscaping, and ultimately the tree planting next month.

Adjacent to the Anzac Station tram Stop

The new retaining wall adjacent to the tram stop will be poured tonight. We’ll then asphalt this final section of St Kilda Road (See below) before coming back at a later date to landscape and prepare for tree planting.

Station Fit out

Downstairs in the station fitout space, we are nearing the end of the electrical connection work on the concourse level – it might not sound like much – but there are a maze of cable trays and kilometres of cables installed down on oncourse and platform level, so this represents quite a significant achievements.

I told you it was going to be a bad week – last’s nights noise will be similar tonight.

Ring 1800 105105 and ask to be relocated if it is a problem. they have moved a number of people

I thought that CYP was crazy planting dead plants until someone pointed out to me that Easter is fast approaching and perhaps all will come good on Easter Sunday when the resurrection occurs.

Apologies for being a little blasphemous

My short version

• Last week was supposed to be quiet and wasn’t by any measure
• They couldn’t work past about lunchtime yesterday to get home in time for the long weekend…and it’s a LONG weekend for them, they get Tuesday off too.
• The coming Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are supposed to be noisy…but who knows

Official CYP version

Good afternoon everyone,

Welcome to the stakeholder lookahead – just a reminder that this weekend is a lockdown weekend, so no works over the weekend – and none on Monday with the public holiday – nor on Tuesday with an RDO.
We’ll resume works on Wednesday.
It’s a big week next week– as we enter our final push to return St Kilda Road to two lanes in each direction. Unfortunately that means the return of night asphalting. Details below, including a summary of where we plan to be working each evening.

Overnight Works Lookahead

Below is a snapshot of the asphalting works taking place next week.
I’ve included a copy of the construction notice that should be hitting letter boxes and inboxes shortly.

Below is a breakdown of where the team intend to be working each night next week – these areas are subject to change based on progress each day. I’ll update everyone as we proceed.

Once we’re done with this batch of asphalting, St Kilda Road will be returned to two lanes in each direction.

Chiller Plant Commissioning

As per last week the chiller plants work will continue next week. The team are confident they’ll have it done by the end of the week – I’ll confirm next week.

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

At the South African Soldiers Memorial we’ve got a few minor pours next week to complete the base slab, the stone should arrive in the coming weeks to reassemble the memorial.

The glass fitout on the station entrance will be ongoing next week, all going well we’ll be done with that by the end of the week, though with the short week it may also push into the following week. The focus will then turn on the forecourt works, which include surface preparation, and the installation of a strata vault in front of the station stairs. You might remember from previous editions that the strata vault is to assist the growth of trees underneath structures.

Around the edge of the new station lifts we’lll continue with the heavy breakout of piles, even with the short week we should be done with that by the end of the week.

St Kilda Road Footpath Works  – Bowen Lane to Albert Road

The pavers are keeping up the good work, originally scheduled to reopen at the end of March, we’re on track to get pedestrians back through this area by around the 20^th March.

Bowen Crescent – Partial Closure and Footpath Works

Drainage clashing with services continue to be an issue for us in this location – we’ll have to do some extensive sucker truck excavation to achieve the depth to install the drainage. This means next week the sucker truck will be an ongoing fixture in this section of pavement.

Shrine Entrance and Domain Road (Works until 1am)

Over at the Shrine Entrance we’ve begun the demolition of some of the temporary footings along Domain Road that previously supported the walkway for the workforce, and in a little throwback to 2019 – also supported the previous pipe racks that transported the excavated material from the Tunnel Boring Machines up to Edmund Herring Oval.

As this progresses, we’ll also begin the forecourt excavation and ground prep next week, ready for construction of retaining walls around the perimeter of the forecourt.

St Kilda Road Footpath Works  – Bromby Street to Toorak Road

The light pole footings in this section of road are finally complete. We’ll stand the poles in the coming weeks before handing these over to CitiPower who will do the final connection and commissioning works.

Centre Island – St Kilda Road

Southern Area:

It will be some minor drainage works around the southern ventilation shafts in March, before we head in to the landscaping, and ultimately the tree planting next month.

Adjacent to the Anzac Station tram Stop

We are nearing completion of this section, with the construction of a new retaining wall that is being formed up now and will be poured next week.
This area is largely in readiness for the final asphalting.

Station Fit out

I have not had a chance to get downstairs and look at the progress of the station concourse. I’ll provide an update next week on the progress down there

Have a great weekend

Thanks, Rob

Good afternoon everyone,

Welcome to the first week of March, as always there is plenty going on around the site, see below our look ahead for all construction related things within the Domain precinct

Overnight Works Lookahead

We’d previously notified that next week would be a return to asphalting – but we’re not quite at that point yet.  There will however be some minor works undertaken while the St Kilda Road closures are approved and in place.

Asphalting will resume the following week – there will be a revised notification out soon.

Monday night.

South bound St Kilda Road closure (away from the city)

Access Changes:

• Royce driveway via Bromby Street

Works include:

• Cable pulling works for light poles on the northbound lane
• Shifting traffic barriers adjacent to Anzac Station tram stop (eastern side)

Tuesday night

No on-road works scheduled, however will be a contingency day for barrier shifting on out bound lane

Wednesday, Thursday nights (Friday contingency)

North bound St Kilda road closure (towards the city)

Access Changes:

• Domain Hill access and egress via Kings Way – traffic management to assist driveway exit
• Botanica’s St Kilda Road driveway via Bowen Crescent

Works include

• Commissioning light poles on the southbound lane
• Adjusting barriers between Bowen Lane and Albert Road (Wednesday)
• Standing a new light pole at the intersection of Park Street and St Kilda Road (Wednesday/Thursday)

Chiller Plant Commissioning

As part of the works to get the chiller plants online, there will be overnight works happening, with electricians and plumbers working inside the chiller box.

This is not expected to generate any significant noise.

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

A noisy work alert for next week – next week we’ll start breaking back some of the piles around the station entrance. While it will all be during the day, it will be noisy and require the use of jackhammers.
I’ve included an image below with the extent of the pile break out highlighted in green. These piles were installed to support the construction of the station roof, and now that elevator installation is complete, we can remove these piles ahead of future landscaping of the area.
On the station entry itself – as promised last week, the scaffold around the station entrance has come down, and next week we’ll commence on the glass balustrades around the station entrance.
Adjacent to the station entrance, we’ve poured the base slab in readiness for the rebuild of the South African Soldiers Memorial. We’ll have some preparate work on the slab next week and the excavation of some drainage around the perimeter.

St Kilda Road Footpath Works  – Bowen Lane to Albert Road

It’s paving, paving and more paving through this section. Next week I’ll pop in a photo of the progress in this area.

Bowen Crescent – Partial Closure and Footpath Works

This week we excavated the pavement on the corner and used sucker trucks to excavate the tree pit. Next week will see the sucker truck excavate along the footpath towards 416 St Kilda Road for the new drainage line.

Shrine Entrance and Domain Road (Works until 1am)

With the pedestrian crossing point towards Melbourne Grammar now closed, works have begun on the forecourt of the station entrance. Domain Road has nearly been entirely pulled up, which has allowed the new drainage and water works to commence.
The pedestrian path up Domain Road (adjacent to Melbourne Grammar) will remain closed while the water main work connection works continue underneath the footpath here.

St Kilda Road Footpath Works  – Bromby Street to Toorak Road

Today we’ve done the last of the excavation for the light pole footing in front of the Royce.
Excavation for the light pole in front of Spence and Larder is now largely complete.

The light pole footing closer to Toorak Road has encountered a myriad of un-documented services, but we should be able to identify a new location and excavate this section mid-next week.

After this, we’ll install the cages, ready for a concrete pour the following week.

Centre Island – St Kilda Road

Southern Area:

Mid next week we’ll have an excavator in to start preparation of the area adjacent to the ventilation shafts, this will be preparation of the area, followed by the final irrigation installation along this section – and lastly the landscaping once the irrigation is installed.

Adjacent to the Anzac Station tram Stop

Works are now well underway on both sides of the Anzac Tram Stop. Next week will see the continuation of the kerb/retaining wall on the western side, while on the Eastern side we’re finalising drainage and kerbing.

Station Fit out

While works continue on the concourse level, down on the platform level the finishing touches are being applied along the entire length. We’ve begun removing protective coverings off the floor and the associated station infrastructure.

Have a great weekend

Thanks, Rob

Afternoon Botanica residents,

Tonight we are shifting barriers on Bowen Crescent as planned,

Unfortunately from 8-10pm we will also need to do some NDD works in front of Botanica to clear out some conduit pits ahead of light pole connection works the following evening.
There is one location in front of Botanica and one at Bowen Lane.

If you hear these works out front, rest assured they wont be going all night – they’ll be wrapped up by 10pm.

Driveway access will remain via Bowen Crescent tonight while both sets of works are underway.

Apologies for the late change in plan. We’ll wrap them up as quickly as we can.

Thanks, Rob

A number of you have commented to me that the new crossing from 390 St Kilda Rd to the new tram stop is VERY dangerous. The sight lines are terrible.

I have tried to get someone to accept responsibility for it but they all tell me that it has been approved and they do not want to get involved.

I was delighted today to see a new – but unofficial sign has been erected.

Please be careful