City Rail Link Achieves Top Sustainability Rating

New Zealand’s City Rail Link project, the highest Infrastructure Sustainability Design rating, has been awarded by the Infrastructure Sustainability Council (ISC).

The score of 93 corresponds to a “Leading” rating, the highest possible in the scheme.

Dr Sean Sweeney, CRL Ltd chief executive, stated that the independent assessment from the Australia-based ISC was an endorsement of the values and hard work the Link Alliance and CRL team brought to New Zealand’s most considerable transport infrastructure project.

Sweeney claimed: “We have worked our hardest to make the City Rail Link an exemplar project, to set a new higher benchmark for construction, workplace safety, environmental sustainability and to form partnerships in our community to provide opportunities for people who face barriers to entering the workforce”.

Three innovations that were necessary to award the highest possible rating were highlighted by the ISC independent assessors; the incorporation of Maori cultural values into the IS framework; the use of BIM to track the carbon footprint during design; and the use of battery-powered multi-service vehicles with regenerative braking to provide materials to the tunnel boring machine.

Other highlights comprise:

• An 18% decrease in the footprint of concrete used, equivalent to removing over 7,000 truckloads of concrete
• Diminishing mined tunnelling and associated concrete and steel by 11% in the redesigned Karanga-a-Hape Station
• Escalating the use of grid electricity during building to fulfil about 80% reductions compared to diesel generators
• Reducing the use of carbon-intensive shotcrete and reinforcing steel associated with mined tunnelling and expanding the use of lower-carbon bored and cut-and-cover tunnels at Maungawhau.

Furthermore, the examiners concentrated on the positive social outcome’s delivery, particularly the actions to provide meaningful training and employment to Maori, Pasifika and youth.

Link Alliance and CRL Ltd executed a 16-week paid internship for young people, containing training and support, career development, and a mentoring and pastoral care program. They also made supply chain opportunities for Maori and Pasifika businesses, social enterprises and socially innovative businesses.

Sweeney declared: “It is particularly pleasing to see that for the first time, the ISC has incorporated cultural values into its Infrastructure Sustainability technical manual and is now sharing it across Australasia and with its partners around the world”.