By Lynda Myer
Winning the Sustainability & Environmental Excellence Award at the Australasian Rail Industry Awards in Melbourne by CRL’s main contractor, Link Alliance, New Zealand’s City Rail Link (CRL) project has been recognized due to its remarkable efforts to protect the environment.
Australasian Railway Association chief executive Caroline Wilkie congratulated Link Alliance for what she described as a significant achievement and added: “City Rail Link has successfully embraced several sustainability initiatives at all levels of this major project, leading to a significantly reduced carbon footprint. It is a remarkable project and Link Alliance has set new benchmarks for incorporating environmental, social and cultural benefits into infrastructure projects.”
While since 2019 over than NZ$135m (US$80m) spent on Maori and Pasifika-owned businesses, the judges indicated to the reduction in mined tunneling by up to 45%; as well as the replacement of 21% of cement with fly ash in concrete mix designs.
Additionally, this other contents of this costs are the 16-week internship program for Maori and Pasifika youth, with 33 interns graduating and more than 73% employed since; and the use of advanced 3D BIM computer technology to track CRL’s carbon footprint – a hi-tech first for New Zealand.
According to CRL’s principal sustainability adviser, Nick Braxton: “The award was a proud honour. From procurement, through design and now construction the whole Link Alliance team has been focused on reducing our carbon footprint, avoiding waste and leaving a positive social and cultural legacy for Auckland.”
Also the Enduring Impact Award from the Australia-based Infrastructure Sustainability Council (ISC) was handed to a CRL manager, Berenize Peita, in earlier this month, for the impact her sustainability leadership was having on CRL and the wider infrastructure industry.
In May, the ISC awarded the project the highest Infrastructure Sustainability Design rating. The score of 93 corresponds to a Leading rating, the highest possible in the scheme.
As New Zealand’s first underground rail line and the largest transport infrastructure investment ever undertaken in the country, CRL is a 3.45km twin tunnel in downtown Auckland and the date of completing its tunneling was September 2022, whereas the mined section was done in May this year.
The Link Alliance comprises City Rail Link Ltd, Vinci Construction Grands Projets, Downer NZ, Soletanche Bachy International NZ, WSP NZ, Aecom New Zealand, and Tonkin + Taylor.
