I am a local resident at The Botanica that has been heavily involved in the Metro Tunnel Project.
I am VERY frustrated by their inability to simply arrange regular lawn mowing. I understand that there is a bit of a demarcation issue but I was shocked to hear them say the other day that this is the most difficult part of the project – the handover to various bodies.
REALLY?? Arranging handover to councils is harder than the tunneling and construction – there must be something wrong with what you are trying to handover??
One part of the plan going forward is based on
The area around the chillers is the responsibility of VicRoads
They have asked City of Port Philip to maintain the lawn and garden beds
City of PP are in the process of letting a contract to a third party for this work
VicRoads will continue to maintain the trees that are to be planted sometime by the City of Melbourne.
The area nearer Melbourne Grammar is also VicRoads but City of Melbourne have been asked to maintain that. I am almost pleased there are no trees involved there.
….sounds like a great plan. Don’t ask about bins on the station platform!
I gave up and simply mow the lawn when I have time, usually on a Sunday morning – happy to have others come and help, even bring me a cafe late 🙂
If you are unhappy with the ongoing car and maintenance, feel free to send them an email to
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
The existing St Kilda Rd past Botanica will continue as is.
The area in front of 390 St Kilda Rd will be ‘adjusted’ to allow a ‘driveway’ (Jan’s Way mark 2) about where the kerb is currently.
To access the lower cark park from the south, you will go past our building down to Bowen Lane and effectively do a U turn along the new Jan’s Way. Then right into our driveway.
You will also be able to come up Bowen Lane and turn right into Jan’s Way
On exiting the driveway, you turn left onto Jan’s Way. At Bowen Lane you will be able to turn left. You MAY be able to turn right and merge onto St Kilda Rd. Waiting on safety checks
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
I hope everyone took the opportunity to get out into yesterday’s glorious sunshine after what can only be described as a miserable week of weather.
That is a not-so-subtle segue into the impact that the rain has had on the work out on site. The team have lost a huge amount of time to the weather this week and the overnight works that have been happening last week will unfortunately need to roll into the following week. While we recognise that this will roll directly into the 24/7 works starting on the 27th November – unfortunately it is unavoidable, as it is critical that the tram track infrastructure within the site is ready to connect into the infrastructure that we will be constructing while trams are shut down from the 27 November to the 17 December.
I’ve included a copy of the notification will go out on Monday to local residents advising of the extension to the works.
Once again the table of activities is contained below, but it is essentially the same activities that we have notified previously, but were unable to complete due to the weather.
Anzac Station entrance construction – Tram Interchange
On the station platform, the works next week will continue to be focussed on the laying of bluestone pavers. The question has been raised with the team about the planting of the new trees that will be a feature of the new tram platform. On the advice of arborists, the trees will be planted in Autumn next year rather than during the hotter summer months (after the past week of weather we’ve had this doesn’t ring true, but the advice is that the warmer months ahead will impact on the long term health of the future trees) Works on the station kiosk will also continue, with the installation of cladding around the kiosk.
On the canopy itself, the skylight flashing and final works on the architectural finishes on the underside of the canopy will all be underway next week.
Surface Works
The new track continues to make its way out from the platform to both the north and the south. Next week will see more track laid and concrete poured to the north of the tram platform, especially now that the backfill around the ventilation structures has largely been completed.
On the north-west corner of Park Street works have begun to construct the final legacy design for a kerb outstand and tram pole installation. The future kerb line extends out further from the existing kerb and this extended kerb line is currently being constructed, along with one of the tram wire poles that will be required during for the new tram alignment. To construct this extended kerb the left turn from Park Street into St Kilda Road has now been temporarily closed, this left turn will reopen ahead of the closure of the northbound lane of St Kilda Road to ensure access is maintained to the buildings along this section of St Kilda Road.
Station box construction
Underground, the team have completed both the eastern and western sections of track slab adjacent to the new tram platform. On the platform itself, we’ll be pouring the concrete for the wearing slab of the platform, while also continuing with our steelwork in preparation for the future platform screen doors. Escalators 1 and 2 are being installed next week, these sit adjacent to the freshly poured stairs linking the concourse level to the platform.
Shrine Entrance
The Shrine entrance continues to work away over in the corner of the site – installation of formwork is ongoing next week as is the steel fixing for the capping beam on top of the piles, this all ahead of the final stage of excavation, which is expected to commence in early December.
Extended Hours Works:
The works listed below are those that will extend overnight next week. At this stage of the program, all these works are likely to extend for the duration of the week.
If you are having issues with the noise outside during the nights – call 1800 105 105.
They will entertain relocations if needed as a last resort.
You may have also noticed that they cannot work if there is any rain….so you could take matters into your own hands and use one of these TOY water pistols. I doubt they can tell the difference between rain and water from this.
The round one is an inlet – It brings in outside air to the mechanical systems, so nothing will be discharged from it.
The middle one is an outlet – It is the over track exhaust, but also has battery/uninterruptable power supply (UPS) room exhaust in the event they are called on. During normal operations, the over track exhaust extracts heat locally from the air conditioner condensers which are onboard the train and braking devices of the stationary trains. In the unlikely event of a fire, this would be used to extract smoke from the trackway, platform and concourse.
The tall one is a tunnel ventilation system (TVS) inlet exhaust –The TVS shaft can either exhaust or supply depending on the requirements of the tunnel (two shafts – one supply and one exhaust). The TVS is an environmental control e.g provide fresh air within tunnel and discharges oncoming air from approaching trains. In the unlikely event of a fire, the TVS is designed to prevent smoke spreading and to maintain acceptable conditions in the non-incident tunnel.
The Botanica 
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