$4.4b City Rail Link milestone: tunnel contract sealed as officials sign up Link Alliance

Left to right: Bill Cashmore, Phil Goff and Phil Twyford. Photo / Anne Gibson

KEY POINTS:

• CITY RAIL LINK
• $4.4b project to deliver two 3.4km-long tunnels
• Not due to be finished until 2024
• Tunnels from Britomart to Mt Eden
• Cut and cover tunnels dug at Britomart end
• Tunnel contract awarded to Link Alliance
• New stations: Aotea on Albert St, Karangahape Rd
• Jointly funded by Government/Auckland Council
• Aucklanders make 100m public transport trips a year
• CRL opens the rail network for major expansion

Auckland's $4.4 billion City Rail Link project hit another milestone this morning with the signing of the tunnel and station contract between state officials and the winning Link Alliance bid.

The Government/Auckland Council entity, City Rail Link invited guests to the event which it said "marks an important milestone in the delivery of the project."

CRL and the Link Alliance signed the project alliance agreement and that now marks the formal start of construction of the project's substantive stations-and-tunnels contract, by far the largest part of the project which started some years ago.

The signing was at the Chief Post Office heritage building in lower Queen St. That ornate historic building has been raised to accommodate construction of the rail tunnels underneath, which then run under the public space, below the $1b Commercial Bay then turn to head up Albert St.

Phil Twyford, Transport Minister and Auckland Mayor Phil Goff were due to be at today's event along with CRL officials.

The Link Alliance is six international companies and New Zealand companies with experience delivering big infrastructure projects like CRL. Three of the companies will do the design side of CRL and the other three will build the tunnels and stations.

Several of the companies already have some involvement with the CRL.

The Link Alliance is Vinci Construction Grands Projets S.A.S., Downer NZ, Soletanche Bachy International NZ, WSP Opus (NZ), AECOM New Zealand and Tonkin + Taylor.

Link's bid was accepted due to its strong proposal that offered an experienced construction management team and commitment to the alliance from the executives of the construction firms involved, CRL said.

Some members of Link have worked on the NZ Transport Agency's Memorial Park project in Wellington, the MTR in Hong Kong, Qatar Railways Company's Doha Metro line and contracts for its Lusail Light Rail Transit.