CRL's International team of Tunnel Boring Machine workers at the Aotea site. Photo / Supplied
CRL's International team of Tunnel Boring Machine workers at the Aotea site. Photo / Supplied
For a few crazy weeks, City Rail Link sites looked more like the sets from a zombie movie than construction zones — near-desolate scenes with lots of machinery around but very few people about.
Those "crazy weeks" occurred during Omicron's peak.
Despite high rates of vaccination, the virus at its peak kept more than 15 per cent of our workforce of 2000 at home.
There was some fear of turning up for work combined with understandable concerns all of us at City Rail Link (CRL) had for family and friends.
Importantly, though, we got through that — we did not allow Omicron to beat us. Neither City Rail Link Ltd nor the Link Alliance ever considered shutting down.
Momentum is critical on any construction site — if lost, it is hard to recapture. CRL kept the momentum train moving, very slowly at times to be sure, but still pressing ahead.
The efforts by Link Alliance's senior and mid-level managers to keep going — to readjust programmes of work and reassign the few resources available during the Omicron peak — can only be described as herculean and relentless.
All that elbow grease was well and truly worth it. The bottom line from the mahi and sweat was this — we were able to start strong after the Omicron peak.
Absenteeism across our sites is down to the levels we normally associate each year with the flu, and we are now celebrating one of the most important milestones on the project.
Construction is underway on the second CRL tunnel — our Tunnel Boring Machine, Dame Whina Cooper, is starting to make its way from our Mt Eden site to Auckland's midtown and our Aotea construction site.
An aerial view of CRL's Mt Eden site. Photo / Supplied
But let me make it clear, despite our strong start the full impact of the Covid pandemic's long shadow across the project is still to be measured. Readjusting work programmes to manage lockdowns and constrained working conditions, restricted border access, the rising cost of raw materials and supply chain issues these past two years or so cannot be ignored.
CRL Ltd will have more clarity around impacts later in 2022.
For now, though, the focus is on positive project advancement. CRL has a great story to tell about progress made through the pandemic as we build a world-class railway for an international city like Auckland.
We had double-barrelled good news at our Aotea site towards the end of last year. One was the breakthrough at the northern end of the station under construction there into the cut-and-cover tunnels already built under the lower end of Albert Street as part of our old C2 contract. The other good news, at the southern end, was more spectacular and a lot noisier and a lot dirtier — the "teeth" on Whina Cooper's revolving cutter head cut through a final concrete retaining wall at the end of its first tunnel drive from Mt Eden under Auckland into the central business district.
The breakthrough, coming on the eve of Christmas, was a great morale booster for our team and, again, a further demonstration of the flexibility and determination we adopt to side-step obstacles to get the job done. Aucklanders had a chance to see the front section of the tunnel boring machine transforming the way they will travel around the city when it was lifted out of the ground and put on display briefly before being trucked back to Mt Eden.
There was little respite from work over the Christmas/New Year break at either end of the project.
At Britomart, we took advantage of a network rail closure to upgrade the tracks to better manage a much busier station handling more trains once CRL is completed and fully operational.
No summer break at Mt Eden, either. We worked flat tack including double shifts in some pretty high temperatures to successfully lay 1.3km of new track through the busy site — a switch critical to connect the Western/North Auckland Line with CRL.
Both jobs demonstrated exceptional teamwork and close collaboration between Link Alliance, KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and rail specialist contractors Martinus and Siemens.
Workers help move the Porters Avenue footbridge into position. Photo / Supplied
A lot of our work is out of sight for most Aucklanders, but they were able to get a glimpse of their rail future after one of CRL's heaviest single lifts was completed successfully at Mt Eden. It took a team of 70 supported by three titanic cranes four hours to carefully manoeuvre a 46m steel span weighing 160 tonnes into position over the Western Line.
The span is the "foundation" for a new overbridge that will give people safe access 7m above the railway.
Along our Covid-influenced journey, CRL continued to demonstrate that there is more to advancing the country's largest transport infrastructure project than the use of high-tech machinery and spades in the ground. We've been recognised for our commitment to protect the environment and to keep people safe, fragments from the city's colonial past have been recovered and preserved, an employment scheme for young Māori and Pasifika is now in its fourth year, and the designs we are finalising for CRL's new stations will be unique worldwide acknowledging the city's rich cultural heritage.
We've been tasked by our Sponsors — the Crown and Auckland Council — to manage the Targeted Hardship Fund they've established to provide financial help for small businesses impacted by works from our main C3 contract. Clearly a busy time for CRL, despite Covid, and now significant change is coming.
Dame Whina Cooper is due to complete its second drive — via the deep underground station at the Karangahape site — in early spring.
The tunnel boring machine's triple job — excavating the tunnels, removing spoil, and installing concrete tunnel segments — will then be done.
A new section of the Western Line at CRL's Mt Eden site. Photo / Supplied
In many ways, the machine's second breakthrough at Aotea will mark a new phase as we move from a heavy construction build to the installation of the rail systems — the lines, signals, safety and access facilities, and communication. The finish line may still be some way off, but it is coming into sight.
I began by describing the impact of a pandemic leaving our sites looking a bit like zombie-themed movie sets. In the best of Hollywood traditions there will be CRL sequels, and, in the best of those traditions, they will be ones that will have more positive outcomes as we step out of Covid's shadow to finish building a world-class underground railway that will help Auckland grow and prosper for generations to come.
• Dr Sean Sweeney is chief executive of City Rail Link Ltd. For more information visit cityraillink.co.nz. • City Rail Link is a sponsor of the Herald's Project Auckland report.
