First new cells appear in jail's makeover

The new block will have 240 cells on eight levels. Photo / Greg Bowker

New cells are rising on a flat site between Mt Eden Prison and the Southern Motorway, more than 120 years after the original jail was built.

Fletcher Construction has completed parts of the floor slab and put up the first precast walls of the cells. The walls and floors of more than a dozen cells are up in three separate areas of the site.

Fletcher is now at ground level on the new structure, which will eventually rise to eight levels, overlook the motorway and have 240 cells.

Beside it, Fletcher has also started building a new four-level 120-cell block. Geotechnical, drilling, foundation and ground work is under way.

The two new jail buildings, on the northern side of Auckland Grammar School's lower sports fields, will eventually replace the existing Mt Eden Prison.

The two new blocks are on the eastern, or motorway, side of Mt Eden Prison.

Fletcher's project manager on the $216 million job, Michael Pearson, said work was on schedule.

On the western, or railway, side of Mt Eden Prison, Fletcher has nearly completed a seven-level 400-space carparking building.

"We're within three months of finishing that," Mr Pearson said.

Fletcher started the carparking building in October.

One of the tower cranes on the site was dismantled on Tuesday, leaving two tower cranes working. The cranes are covered in barbed wire for security reasons.

Construction of the new gatehouse entrance building on the railway line side of the site will start soon.

Well before work on the new buildings started, Fletcher erected a series of containers as an airbridge. It also laid paths and put up wire-mesh "cages" to separate construction workers from prison visitors and staff.

The airbridge of 12m containers linked together is standing on sections of tower cranes.

This structure gives pedestrian access between the Auckland Central Remand Prison and the historic Mt Eden Prison.

Mr Pearson said the job was extremely challenging, mainly because of the scale of the new buildings but also because of security and the need for the Department of Corrections to continue operating existing facilities while new buildings were rising.

All 150 construction workers had to be cleared before they could work on the site, Mr Pearson said.

Once inmates are moved into the new buildings, the old prison building will be renovated and refurbished for staff and administrative use.

The department said this building had high heritage value, and protecting and continuing to use it was an important part of the wider redevelopment project.