Good morning everyone,

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 27^th 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.