Yesterday’s concrete pour was cancelled due to the weather – they are there now.

You can get cars in and out but will take a little extra time

Good afternoon everyone,

I hope everyone stayed dry during today’s downpour.  

The team are crossing fingers and toes for some drier weather, as we need to switch southbound St Kilda Road traffic to its new lane next week.

Speaking of which – there will be a notification about these works hitting letterboxes shortly, I have attached the electronic copy here.

You might recall we have mentioned the road switch in the September and October notification, but todays notification has some information about the nightworks and overnight lane closures that will be required to put the switch into effect.

As always, we’re at the mercy of the weather, but we’re still targeting having the new road open on the morning of Thursday 12 October. To hit this date we will have some extended working hours up until 10pm next week.

These are all outlined in the notice and below.

Anzac Station entrance construction – Tram Interchange

The works under the canopy have moved from a focus on the construction of the canopy itself, to the rabbits warren of trenches that hold the various conduits and drainage for the platform. The second of the ‘strata vaults’ have also been excavated and installed. You might recall from a previous update, the strata vaults are effectively large inground planter boxes that create space under the tram platform for the tree roots to safely spread.  On the station platform itself, next week should see the start of the installation of the balustrades for around the tram stop oculus underneath the canopy.  

The most exciting thing around the tram canopy is the installation of the first sections of new tram tracks. These have gone down over the past few days and we’ll continue to install them over the coming weeks. These works are all happening ahead of the start of the 24/7 works on 27 November 2022, when buses replace trams and we break out the old tram alignment, and re-build it to connect into these new sections of track we are building inside the site. We’ve included a photo today of the new track sections installed this week.

Station box construction

Not a great deal of additional activity on the B1 level. At the northern end of the station the regular reference to ‘blockwork’ is nearly behind us, as the last of the rooms takes shape. The focus will be on the roughing in of services and installation of overhead cable trays. Down at the southern end the team remains focussed on completing key back-of-house rooms within the station. In between these two sections, concrete pours have been underway this week and will continue next week to pour sections of the wearing slab for the floors in the public area.

Down on platform level, the track slab is being poured through the station box, this will support the installation of the future track. In August this year the Eastern Portal site in South Yarra took delivery of the entire lengths of rail required to install track between Town Hall Station and the Eastern Portal.

Shrine Entrance

Next week at the Shrine entrance over near Domain Road will see the start of the steel fixing for the new section of roof. Once the roof is installed, the main excavation down to the future base slab will commence.

Surface Works

As mentioned in the intro – it is full steam ahead on the construction of the new section of St Kilda Road southbound. Tomorrow and next week will feature asphalting through the entire length of the site, as well as barrier installation and line marking.

In order to get the road switch happening, the asphalting, line-marking and barrier installation will continue up until 10pm on weeknights (and 3pm tomorrow). This is outlined in the attached notification.

There are also two full night of work to switch traffic onto its new alignment.

You’ll also see in the notification that we’ve set out two contingency days for the switch to the new lane, unfortunately we lost almost the entire day today to rain (Friday) if we lose another day on Saturday then we’ll be almost certain to push back to the first of our contingency days.
We’ll issue an update email to this group to let you know what night the overnight switch works will occur.

Other notable work on the surface level is the ventilation shafts. The southern sections of precast began installation this week and next week will see the stitch pours to connect these both the northern and southern ventilation precast sections to the station roof. Backfill (and any rolling) wont be happening until the following week.

Regards, Rob and Christian

Good evening everyone,

Below is a summary of current and upcoming works next week.

Anzac Station entrance construction – Tram Interchange

Above the tram platform, caulking of the colour back glass and skylight surrounds has continued this week with work on under canopy features to continue next week.

Around the western side of the tram platform, installation of electrical conduit will progress through the week with electrical and communications services continuing to be connected to the platform.

Station box construction

Forming up and pouring of the central platform stairs will begin within the station box structure and with pouring of the northern roof now complete, pouring of the south box roof will take place over the coming week.

On sub-surface levels, testing and commissioning processes are continuing at lift 9 and installation of lift 8 will commence.

As blockwork on the southern platform is now complete, blockwork will continue to shape the northern end of the platform into additional back of house rooms from the open space.

Shrine Entrance

As we mentioned last week, initial excavation and break back has commenced around the piled columns to develop the Shrine entrance, enabling formation of the top-down roof to start mid-next week.

Excavation of this zone will progress steadily over the coming weeks.

Surface Works

On Monday night/ early Tuesday morning, the team will conduct a visual inspection of a sewer pit on the northbound lane on St Kilda Road at the intersection of Park St and St Kilda Road.

To ensure worker safety, this inspection will be conducted between midnight and 4am when traffic periods are low.

Northbound traffic will be maintained on St Kilda Road during this inspection with reduced speed signage and traffic management in place to assist.

As mentioned last week, this is just a visual inspection of the pit and will not generate any noise or require any road closures.

From Tuesday 4 October until Friday 11 November, works will occur on Park Street at the intersection of Park Street and St Kilda Road to connect a high voltage cable to its connection point on Park Street.

This work involves boring underneath St Kilda Road to the retrieval and connection point on Park Street and will require the closure of the left hand turn from St Kilda Road into Park Street for approximately four weeks.

Access to properties and driveways will be maintained, including Hallmark Apartment residents, with detours in place via Dorcas Street and Wells Street and traffic management on hand to assist drivers with access to properties.

To ensure pedestrian safety during these works, pedestrians may be intermittently detoured down Park Street to cross at the Wells Street pedestrian signal however pedestrian access will be maintained at the St Kilda Road and Park Street intersection whenever there are no works occurring and if it is safe to do so.

At the northern end of site, the team will be applying asphalt next week, developing the new southbound lane of St Kilda Road and installing kerbing that will shape this roadway.

To enable these works, there will be another minor shift of site fencing at the Park Street signalised crossing St Kilda Road next week leading into the Shrine of Remembrance however pedestrian pathways and access will be maintained.

These road formation and asphalting works will progress further through site towards the south with a small vibration roller in use and some out of hour works that may occur once this compaction sequence has commenced.

To the south of the tram platform, strata vault drainage installation will continue.

Towards the end of the week works underway at the MGS crossover will be nearing completion.

This week we have included an image of the ventilation and services shafts that were craned into place last week in the north.

These will be stitch-poured next week with backfilling around the perimeter of the foundations to follow over the next 2 weeks.  

Some out of hour welding works may occur at the base of the ventilation shafts however this is not expected to generate high levels of noise.

From Tuesday, a crane will mobilise onsite in the south to begin the lifting of precast panels for the southern ventilation and services shafts which will follow the same build process as the northern ventilation structures.

On top of the southern station box, backfilling will recommence once craning of the ventilation precast panels and waterproofing is complete.

Southern Civil Works Lookahead
Monday03/10	Tuesday04/10	Wednesday05/10	Thursday06/10	Friday07/10	Saturday08/10
Northern & southern stitch pour FRPDrainage installationElectrical conduit installation	Northern & southern stitch pour FRPDrainage installationElectrical conduit installationHV installation – Park St	Southern precast installationDrainage installationElectrical conduit installationHV installation – Park St	Southern precast installationDrainage installationElectrical conduit installationHV installation – Park St	Southern precast installationDrainage installationElectrical conduit installationHV installation – Park St	Southern precast installationPermanent Backfill placement and compactionDrainage installation

All the best for a great weekend ahead everybody.

Best regards, Rob and Christian

We now have an arrangement for coffee pod recycling – but it is NESPRESSO only. In the basement carpark near the bike racks – see photo

Nespresso offer this as a free service, we will look at other brand pod types later.

The guys who run Otis in Bowen Lane have now opened a cafe in the bottom of 412 St Kilda Rd (the old Police Building)

It’s called Flo, has really good coffee and nice setup…plus fab little egg tarts

There are some free coffee vouchers on table in our lobby…only take one please

Just spotted this on my walk – too late to lodge a submission but has a lot of details about the bike paths. You need to scroll down a little

https://www.heritage.vic.gov.au/protecting-our-heritage/currently-advertised-permits

After five days off, lots happening today

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

Spotted this driving this evening…maybe a happy cats fan looking for the way home??

Watch the car at the right edge of the screen

Happy Wednesday everyone,

We’ll keep todays update short and sharp, in keeping with the short sharp working week.

We hope everyone enjoys the four day weekend – and five days free from construction, with next Monday being an RDO.

Anzac Station entrance construction – Tram Interchange

Progress around the edge of the canopy has been good, with fascia nearly complete and the caulking and waterproofing on the skylights also well on its way to completion.

The trenching and conduit installation is continuing next week, as the team start the installation of the electrical services to the platform. Next week construction will also begin on the balustrades that surround the edge of the oculus (or opening) that lets natural light down from the tram platform to the station concourse.

The feature photo is the start of what is referred to as a strata vault. These strata vaults will hold the trees that will feature on the new tram platform – We’ve also included an artist impression that shows where the trees will be located on the platform. The strata vaults in the image will house the tree shown closest to the tram in the artist impression.

Station box construction

No new works to report on the B1 and B2 levels As we mentioned last week, the testing and commissioning of the new back of house lift is the newest feature in the station and is a real sign of how far the station build has progressed.

In a previous edition we mentioned that the platform was nearly complete, save for a gap that allows plant and workforce to traverse between the two track sections and for workforce access to install the electrical conduits underneath the platform. Over the next two weeks this gap will be closed up as the final precast elements are installed – completing the entire length of the future Anzac Station train platform.

Shrine Entrance

The Shrine entrance over near Domain Road is constructed in two parts, with initial excavation underway in the first section, with around 1m left to go next week. Steel tying for this first section for roof will also start later next week. The second part of the entrance employs a bottom-up approach, with construction of a retaining wall around the perimeter of the piles currently underway, the team will then excavate down roughly 2m before the piles are broken back with excavators to their required height. We expect this hammering work to commence next week, and take place intermittently for around one week.

Surface Works

On Thursday evening next week the team will be out on St Kilda Road near Park Street to inspect a sewer pit, this is just a visual inspection of the pit and will not generate any noise or require any road closures.

Inside site, the new road alignment for the southbound lane of St Kilda Road is starting to take shape. Over the coming weeks this road and kerb will be constructed and the road will be connected into the existing roadworks that have been underway at the northern end of the site where the construction sheds were previously located.

Staying at the northern end of site – the works to install the pre-cast concrete panels for the northern ventilation shafts has progressed well. These works have been continuing up until 10pm, but with the pre-cast panels installed, work on these structures will revert back to standard working hours.

Speaking of ventilation structures, the southernmost area of the site is also home to the future ventilation structures, the precast panels are still a week or so away in this section, but work is underway to prepare for the installation, with waterproofing, screeding and backfilling works extending into next week. This will include the use of our smaller vibrating roller at the back end of next week.

As we mentioned last week, installation of tram infrastructure footings for future overhead lines will continue within site to the south in preparation for tram alignment works in November and December. We’re also looking to have the first section of the new tram track alignment laid within the site in the coming weeks.

With the D-wall demolition complete for 2022, this week will be the last edition of the day-by-day look ahead table. When we resume D-wall demolition and sucker trucks in the final location next year we’ll reintroduce this table to help everyone plan around our noisiest and easily least favourable activities.

Southern Civil Works Lookahead
Monday26/9	Tuesday27/9	Wednesday28/9	Thursday29/9	Friday30/9	Saturday1/10
RDO	Waterproofing Completion	Waterproofing screed	Permanent Backfill placement and compaction	Permanent Backfill placement and compaction	Permanent Backfill placement and compaction

Enjoy the long weekend, and best of luck to anyone with a team in this week’s Grand Final!

Regards, Rob and Christian

This art exhibition is on just around the corner and it is open today

Well worth a visit