The City Rail Link is almost done with the new stations shaping up.
Video / Corey Fleming / City Rail Link
Shimmering cladding reflecting the sky and earth elements at the new Maungawhau railway station at Mt Eden is a clue the City Rail Link (CRL) is nearing the finish line.
After eight years of disruption in the city centre, around Karangahape Rd, Newton, and Mt Eden, the above-ground view remainsquite underwhelming, says Barry Potter, an engineer and Auckland Council’s eyes and ears on the country’s largest infrastructure project.
It’s a different story underground where it’s coming together, says Potter, during a tour of the twin tunnels snaking their way 3.4km from Mt Eden to Britomart, and two new stations that emerge on a grand scale.
The City Rail Link has moved beyond the civil stage and hundreds of kilometres of cables are being laid to run the stations and trains. Photo / Corey Fleming
Since City Rail Link Ltd last hosted the Herald on a tour of the tunnels 10 months ago, it’s safe to say the vast concrete shell of the flagship rail project, with its subterranean stations and 200m-long platforms, has come a long way and is now two-thirds through being fitted-out.
“What you are going to see is something that is starting to look like the finished product,” says CRL Ltd boss Dr Sean Sweeney.
But on entering the tunnels at the Mt Eden end, it’s clear there’s a huge hurdle in front of Sweeney and the Link Alliance main contractor, and that’s the reels of cables being installed as part of a complex and rigorous testing and commissioning phase.
Walls panels are being installed on the new underground stations. Photo / Corey Fleming
At the new Karanga-a-Hape station, the deepest at 44m below Karangahape Rd, Sweeney points to a group of workers standing in a huddle, to explain the challenges through this phase.
During civil works, he said, 95 per cent of the workers would be working.
Now, it’s 50 per cent because of the head-scratching associated with the installation of cables and other equipment.
Sweeney says Karanga-a-Hape is the most complex of the stations, with 10 levels and narrow, cramped spaces to work in.
He also pointed to some of the 100 or so concrete workers recruited from the Philippines two years ago, saying: “They are really good at their jobs, really hard workers and everyone loves them”.
At the station, escalators and lifts are in. The curved glass-reinforced concrete wall panels, as well as ceiling panels, are being installed, giving a picture of the finished look.
The escalators inside Te Waihorotiu station. Photo / Corey Fleming
Further along the track is Te Waihorotiu station, the new 15m-deep, 300m-long station below Albert St named after the Waihorotiu stream that once ran down nearby Queen St.
The station, with entrances on Victoria and Wellesley Sts, is expected to become the city’s busiest with a bigger catchment of passengers than Britomart, renamed Waitematā station.
At the Wellesley St entrance will be an undulating pattern of rods hanging from the ceiling to mimic the Waihorotiu Stream.
At the platform level, escalators and lifts are in and a wide open atrium rises to ceiling height for a circulation concourse near ground level to cope with hordes of passengers. Skylights will also go in above the concourse.
Looking up from the station floor, cultural elements of Tamaki Makarau have been cut into black panels and a huge X-shaped concrete cross-beam hangs over the escalators.
At Wyndham St, the circular tunnels join up with the first - and the most disruptive - section of the CRL to be built when work started in 2016. Construction caused years of misery and heartache for businesses, who dubbed the area a “war zone” along Albert St.
Barry Potter, Auckland Council Director Infrastructure and Environmental Services, says the view above ground is quite underwhelming, but it's a different story at the underground stations. Photo / Jed Bradley
At lower Albert St, the CRL takes a right-hand turn beneath Commercial Bay to connect to Waitematā station to complete a loop and allow patronage to rise from 15,000 passengers at peak hour to 27,000.
When the CRL finally opens - pencilled in for 2026 - it will offer faster journeys across the city. For example, Aucklanders will whizz from the central city to Mt Eden, via Karangahape Rd, in about six minutes.
A further spin-off will be the 10ha site at Mt Eden. It will be levelled and sold in parcels for apartments and commercial development, along the masterplan lines at Wynyard Quarter.
