Don’t forget next Sunday afternoon we’re having a ‘paint the barriers green’ afternoon.
Plan is to kick off at about 230pm
BYO wine and cheese – meet your neighbours
You won’t have to do painting – there are plenty of other onerous tasks like pouring drinks, cutting cheese. Maybe even traffic management, stopping pedestrians coming in contact with the wet paint.
Good afternoon everyone,
Hope everyone managed to find where you’d stashed away your winter coats today – hopefully next week we can get back to some warmer weather!
Just a reminder that it is an RDO on site next Monday, with work resuming on Tuesday, below is a snapshot of what to expect next week out on site:
Station Roof Works
The preparatory works are nearly done and next week will see the Botanica driveway on St Kilda Road diverted out to Bowen Lane to allow the start of demolition of the D-walls. This demolition will be followed by the sucker truck to clean out of the delayed concrete pour strip, and then concrete pour and waterproofing. The driveway switch is scheduled in for Wednesday 8 February. An excavator will start breaking back the wall immediately following the driveway switch. The team will likely use one excavator that will break out the wall, and periodically switch to loading a truck with the broken out material. The sucker truck will then follow later, but won’t be in this section next week.
Albert Road Reserve Station Entrance
The piling rig is making good progress around the perimeter of the new station entrance, 35 of the piles are now complete and the northern edge is almost done. As we mentioned last week, the piling rig itself will stop work at 6pm Monday to Friday, but the actual lowering of cages and pouring of concrete will likely run up until 10pm in the evening.
With the northern end nearly complete, initial excavation will commence early next week. The excavation in this area will go down 2m in depth to expose the piles, before work can start on a ‘capping beam’ across the top of the piles in this section, and ultimately form up a section of the entrance roof.
In order to pour the capping beam over the top of the piles, they need to be broken back to the exact required height. Unfortunately this requires the use of excavators with hammers. The team have reduced the amount of overpour on these piles to help minimise the time required to break them back to their required height. This breakout work is likely to commence the following week, and will only occur during standard working hours
Conduit Installation – Albert Road North
The first stage of the conduit installation kicked off this week with the opening up of Albert Road at the top end near the pedestrian crossing. This section is nearly complete and we’re expecting them to switch over to the northern edge of Albert Road early next week to start trenching and conduit laying along Albert Road North. As we mentioned the works will be staged across driveways to ensure that access is maintained. This will also require the team to temporarily occupy kerb-side parking spaces along this section as they make their way down the road, sucker trucks will be used to excavate the trench as works make their way down.
Albert Road legacy alignment construction
There won’t be much to report on the construction of the final alignment of Albert Road for a little while, as it is reliant on the completion of the conduit installation on Albert Road North.
We’ll have more news on these works as the conduit works progress.
St Kilda Road median Works
As mentioned last week, in the centre of St Kilda Road we’ve started works on the central median of St Kilda Road.
Similar to last week, in the northern end of site demolition of the existing asphalt and kerbs will continue in preparation for installation of drainage, conduits and pavement.
Down south, the last of the trenching works to connect services to connect to the future chiller plants will be finished by the end of next week. Service proving in this area is done and the sucker trucks will only be in use if there is rain and the trench requires a clean out. Excavation has also now begun for the base slabs for the chillers, by the back end of next week we’ll start blinding (a preliminary concrete layer) before we also start the formwork for the base slab of the chillers.
Station box construction
Underground there is a lot of good work being done. The framing for the platform screen doors are at the half way point of installation, while in a great sign of progress there is now track laid through Anzac Station on the eastern side of the platform, with the western side following next week.
Up on the concourse level the team are working under the canopy and behind the tram shelter hoarding to install the glass panels around the permitter of the oculus as well as the balustrades around the permitter. I’ve included today a photo of the balustrades being installed around. Steel framing and insulation is going on many of the back of house rooms at B1 as the station continues to take shape.
Shrine Entrance
Excavation at the Shrine entrance will be ongoing next week, as per last week, excavation and loadout will continue up until 10pm.
Park Street under bore
The Park Street under bore works are now underway with minor preparatory works to continue next week, before the under bore drill is setup the following week to bore underneath SKR and make the the final HV connection.
News from Rob Mair….
Generator
The team will be onsite tomorrow to erect the new cover for the generator. Depending on how quickly it goes up, there will be a period where it is uncovered.
There is a bit of rain forecast, so I’ve confirmed that they’ll be available on Saturday – so that in the event that it doesn’t get completely erected tomorrow, it won’t sit semi-complete over the weekend and into the RDO.
GB note – this is the sound I hear from my balcony
Driveway access
I’ve got a notice ready to go for the driveway switch (you will have seen that they sealed it today)
The switch is likely to happen Wednesday.
Just speaking to the guys now about sequencing it to minimise the time that the driveway is delayed, will still require some TC’s while it is happening.
GB Note – this is what will happen…
On Sunday week (Feb 12) we are planning a cheese and wine afternoon in the lobby and out the front of The Botanica. BYO everything of course.
The current plan is that we will paint the ugly barriers a nice shade of green. Paint and painting gear to be provided.
We may need some traffic management specialists to advise footpath traffic to take extra care – if anyone has been able to learn these skills from watching the CYP staff perform such duties that would be invaluable.
Details to come – save the arvo not sure of timing at the moment.
A few people noticed this comment from CYP the other day …
“Next week the team will break out the previous kerb line and footpath in front of 390 St Kilda Road to prepare a temporary road surface for the re-orientation of Botanica’s St Kilda Road driveway out towards Bowen Lane. By late next week the driveway should be switched onto this new alignment. “
What does it mean? CYP are drawing some diagrams but essentially it will something like this
This will occur late this week
I know that if you can only exit via Bowen Lane it means a crazy path to South Melbourne.
Don’t shoot the messenger
As you may have gathered, late last week the system that I use for the blog, developed a problem – it stopped emailing you.
At first I thought it was one person and maybe the email was in their spam. It was quickly apparent that it was multiple people, multiple internet providers and multiple email systems. So it was easy to say it was WordPress.
So that you don’t feel alone – let me tell you that the latest WordPress ‘audited’ numbers show that they have 830 million. I also discovered that they have ‘happiness engineers’ who fixed the problem
A few people noticed this comment from CYP the other day …
“Next week the team will break out the previous kerb line and footpath in front of 390 St Kilda Road to prepare a temporary road surface for the re-orientation of Botanica’s St Kilda Road driveway out towards Bowen Lane. By late next week the driveway should be switched onto this new alignment. “
What does it mean? CYP are drawing some diagrams but essentially it will something like this
This will occur late this week
I know that if you can only exit via Bowen Lane it means a crazy path to South Melbourne. Don’t shoot the messenger
Here is a video of the smoke from yesterdays fire
Message from CYP
MFB have advised while there is a lot of smoke, there is no community risk following the fire on site
Good afternoon everyone,
Welcome to the first weekly update for 2023!
We hope everyone had a wonderful and restful break.
This year the site has changed quite a bit following the commissioning of the Anzac Station tram stop and the setup of the sites on the western side of St Kilda Road.
Australia Day is tomorrow and there is an RDO on Friday, so there won’t be much activity on site for the rest of the week (hence the Wednesday update!)
Below is a snapshot of what to expect for next week. Apologies, no photo this week – next week we’ll get out on site and get some photos of what’s happening down on the ground.
Station Roof Works
Starting in the south of the site, between Bowen Lane and Bowen Crescent, preparation works have been underway with barrier setup for the final tie-in works to connect the station roof to the walls. Next week the team will break out the previous kerb line and footpath in front of 390 St Kilda Road to prepare a temporary road surface for the re-orientation of Botanica’s St Kilda Road driveway out towards Bowen Lane. By late next week the driveway should be switched onto this new alignment. There will also be some preliminary work with excavators with hammers breakout of the previous road and kerb surface directly in front of Botanica next week.
Albert Road Reserve Station Entrance
As you’ll have seen over the past few days, the works have kicked off in earnest at the Albert Road Reserve station entrance. The earthworks carried out over the past few days have been to set up a stable working surface for the piling rig, which is now making its way around the perimeter of the station entrance. This piling and surface preparation will continue for all of next week before the first stage of excavation begins in March. The piling rig itself will stop work at 6pm Monday to Friday, but the actual lowering of cages and pouring of concrete will likely run up until 10pm in the evening. Similarly, when the excavation and loadout commences, this will continue up until 10pm.
Conduit Installation – Albert Road North
Installation of the final power connection for the new tram stop and lighting within the St Kilda Road boulevard will start next week. This power connection runs down Albert Road. The traffic setup will be put in place on Monday 30 January with the opening of a trench up near the pedestrian crossing to the new tram stop. The following week the team will start trenching and conduit laying along Albert Road North, the works will be staged across driveways to ensure that access is maintained.
St Kilda Road Median Works
In the centre of St Kilda Road we’ve started works to build the central median of St Kilda Road, at the northern end of site demolition of the existing asphalt and kerbs will continue in preparation for installation of drainage, conduits and pavement.
Down south, the works are underway to install of the services to connect to the future chiller plants. Next week excavation will also commence for the base slabs for the chillers.
We mentioned in an update late last year that planting of the trees on the tram stop will wait until the cooler months to give them the best start in their new location. Similarly, many sections of the completed median has seen the topsoil laid, but the landscaping in these areas wont commence in the middle of summer. We’ll advise in future updates on start the date for this landscaping – as well as any updates on the planting of trees (though the trees will be later in the program as they require space for the excavation of the tree pits to ensure good soil quality and volume)
Albert Road Legacy Construction
Another big change this year will be the legacy works for the new alignment of Albert Road North, including the separated bike lanes. Not much to report on this front for next week, as the conduit installation on Albert Road North will need to take place before we start in earnest on the new road alignment. One thing to report however is that the sequencing of the works has been finalised, and where previously the team had thought it would require the occupation of the parking next to Kettle Black – this will no longer be the case for the first stage of works.
Station box construction
We’ll have a better update on the station box construction next week – safe to say though that while the team have been busy setting up and establishing the new sites, the station team have been continuing their great work – including starting the installation of the platform screen doors.
Shrine Entrance
Similarly, the Shrine entrance works have been continuing over near Domain Road, the final stage of excavation will continue all next week. Like the Albert Reserve entrance, excavation and loadout will continue up until 10pm.
Park Street Under bore
Lastly, the under bore works to finish the high voltage connection at Park Street will recommence next week. These works were scheduled to start on Monday 23 January, but unfortunately were pushed back a week. As a result, on Monday 30 January the left turn from St Kilda Road into Park Street will be closed and pedestrians will be detoured down Park Street, across at Wells, and back up a makeshift pedestrian path on Park Street while the development at 380 St Kilda Road has the footpath closed.
Thanks, Rob and Christian
The Botanica 
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