By Lynda Myer
The New Zealand’s deeper ever station is going to start in City Rail Link (CRL) project in Auckland, with the concrete pour for the first underground floor.
The awarded budget for this project is NZ$4.4bn (£2.3bn) and Karangahape Station, which is being built by contractor Link Alliance, will be one of four stops on the CRL project that involves construction of a new 3.45km metro in the city that is going to connect Britomart Station and Mount Eden Station.
One of the five entry portals of the station will be the Karangahape Station and its platforms will be located 25m beneath the ground level and the Mercury Street entrance where the concrete pour has been completed.
“It’s great to see a station that’s going to have a huge impact on the Karangahape Road area slowly taking shape. There’s been some pretty intense work in a confined central city area to complete the floor successfully,” said Link Alliance Karangahape station manager Jonathan Hill.
While the digging process below the street level entrance floor and then the building of the initial underground floor has taken 10 weeks, almost 9000m3 of material was first removed before 880m3 of concrete was poured and some 280t of reinforcing steel fitted.
Following the completion of the top heading of the first of the two platform tunnels with 233m length under the ground, the station’s Beresford Square entrance preparations are underway to begin pouring the first underground B1 level of the station.
In order to commencing the construction of the Karangahape Station, the old Mercury Plaza and adjacent buildings were demolished in late 2019. Although the station structure is due to be completed by 2023 and the installation of mechanical and electrical equipment that includes lighting, escalators, lifts, ventilation and communication systems will be done, but the CRL is scheduled to open in 2024.
