CRL CLG Mt Eden minutes

MINUTES

DATE

8 October 2019

TIME

5:30 PM – 7:30 PM

LOCATION

Link Alliance site office, 97 Mt Eden Road

MEETING

Mt Eden Community Liaison Group

ATTENDEES

CLG members: Juliana Netzler, Kelvin Norgrove, Richard Coombes, Steve Wilson, Megan Ottley, John Fryer, Christine Tait, Roscoe Tait, Diane Rutherford. Guest: Nick Geor.

Link Alliance staff: Sonya Leahy & Ros Brown (Senior Communications & Engagement Advisors), Aidan Kirkby-McLeod & Aslam Bhikoo (Senior Planners), Thibaut L’Hopital (Mt Eden Station Project Manager), Phil Young (C5 Utilities Engineer), Hugh Leersnyder (Environment, Sustainability & Planning Manager).

Management plan specialists: Jason Pene (Air Quality), Sarah Macready (Archaeology), Jane Matthews (Built Heritage), Craig Fitzgerald (Noise & Vibration), Elyse Laface (Contamination), Mike McConnell (Erosion & Sediment Control), George Brink (Groundwater and Settlement), Rob van de Munckhof (Industrial & Trade Activities), Duncan Whyte (Social Impact & Business Disruption), Lyndsey Smith (Trees & Vegetation), Michael Jongeneel (Transport, Access & Parking), Sonya Leahy (Communication & Consultation), Caroline Secretin & Caitlin Smith (Construction Environmental Management).

Agenda items No

Item

Speaker

1

Welcome and overview

Sonya Leahy

2

Mt Eden enabling works update

3

•

Station area

Thibaut L’Hopital

•

Fenton Street area

Phil Young

Update on Western Line works programme

Sonya Leahy Phil Young

3

Re-cap on management plan process for Mt

Aidan Kirkby-McLeod

Eden enabling works 4

Breakout session with management plan

Aidan Kirkby-McLeod

specialists

Minutes •

Sonya Leahy welcomed everyone to the meeting, outlined the agenda for the evening and introduced the Link Alliance staff present.

•

Thibaut L’Hopital, the Mt Eden Station project manager, then provided an update on what’s happening in the Mt Eden Station area: o

The Link Alliance’s Mt Eden team is now based at its temporary site office at 97 Mt Eden Road and will be using this building until it is demolished in a year or so.

o

The team has been meeting with parties in the vicinity of the planned enabling works as part of preparing draft construction management plans that outline how we’ll manage the impact of our works on people and the environment.

o

Soft-strip and salvage work is taking place within the Mt Eden demolition area and this will continue until about March 2020.

o

Temporary fencing is being erected around the demolition site (Nikau, Flower, Shaddock & Ruru Sts) this month

o

Geotechnical investigations started on 5 October around the Nikau/Flower St intersection to confirm sub-soil conditions and install equipment to monitor groundwater levels prior to excavation. These investigations will take place in various locations around our future construction site (where buildings will be demolished) and around the Nikau/Flower St intersection and Newton junction. We will spend up to three days at each borehole location and reinstate the pavement immediately afterwards.

o

Physical building demolition is expected to start mid-October and continue until Q2 2020 approximately. Demolition works will produce some noise and vibration. However, the

buildings to be removed are generally low-rise structures with concrete block walls and/or timber or steel framing. As a result, noticeable vibration will largely be avoided. o

Asbestos has been found in a few of the CRL-owned buildings to be demolished. The removal of that asbestos will start shortly and neighbouring properties will be notified ahead of time.

All asbestos will be removed by a specialist company in accordance with strict national guidelines to ensure buildings are safe and free of contaminants before bulk demolition begins.

•

Thibaut then provided information on upcoming works and the indicative dates for them: o

Geotechnical investigations in the wider station area will be ongoing until the end of 2019

o

Utility investigations and relocations on the corner of Nikau & Flower Streets will take place in November and December

o

Mt Eden Road Bridge utility investigations and relocations are scheduled for early 2020

o

Tunnel portal works, including piling and ground retention for the tunnel entrance near Flower/Nikau St intersection, basalt blasting, bulk excavation and mining is expected to take place between early 2020 and early 2021

o

The relocation of utilities, including the Huia 2 watermain, in the Fenton Street area are expected to take place from about March to September 2020.

o

Construction of an additional Mt Eden Road bridge and Ruru Street bridge to accommodate the CRL lines is expected to begin in Q2 2020.

•

Thibaut then presented diagrams showing the location of Mt Eden Station works between now and early 2021 and where plant and equipment will be based on site. He also showed a 3D image of the proposed construction set-up for tunnel boring machine operations.

•

Sonya introduced Phil Young to CLG members. Phil a member of the C5 team, managing utility relocation works around the Western Line.

•

Phil spoke to the planned diversion of utilities in the Fenton St and Porters Ave area, including the diversion of the significant Huia 2 watermain. The diversions are planned for March to September 2020. Watercare has instructed that the cut-over from the existing watermain to the new one must occur at the end of winter when water demand is lowest. Phil explained the existing watermain

(which cuts through the Link Alliance’s Mt Eden Station construction site, under the rail corridor and runs alongside Fenton Street and around the corner into Porters Ave) needs to be relocated further away from the rail line, closer to Fenton St properties.

•

Sonya said that representatives of the project’s C5 team, including the person responsible for developing the management plan concerned with social impact and business disruption, had visited properties that will be directly affected or in proximity to the utility relocation works in the Fenton St area, to discuss the works and potential impacts.

•

Phil took the audience through four staging diagrams for the works, showing the proposed site and work areas and outlining what key works will happen in each stage. A key impact for Fenton Street is the removal of on-street parking to provide space for the work. Access to Fenton St businesses and apartments will be maintained but space around the constrained work site will be tight.

•

Phil confirmed for CLG members that the Porters Ave level crossing will be permanently closed to traffic from Easter 2020. Pedestrians and cyclists will only be able to cross on the eastern side. The Fenton to Ngahura crossing will stay open until Mt Eden Station closes at Queen’s Birthday Weekend 2020. Some street parking will also need to be removed on Porters Ave for the works and KiwiRail land parallel to the tracks will be used for plant and equipment storage for the works.

•

From May to July 2020, drainage and utility services will be installed in Porters Ave, the new watermain installed in Fenton St, and utilities and drainage installed in Wynyard Road.

•

Around August or September 2020, the crew will cut over the water supply to the newly-built watermain and remove the old pipe.

•

Station R residents present spoke of their concern about parking removal on Fenton Street and asked if any other parking could be made available to them. Phil responded that he couldn’t see a way to mitigate parking loss. However, he is investigating alternative access options for Station R residents during the works, which he will report back on. A Station R resident said they had applied to AT to be included in the Wynyard St residential parking permit scheme with no success.

•

Sonya updated the meeting on the design development of the C5 (CRL/Western Line integration) contract. She said a contractual agreement is expected to be finalised by November 2019, which will enable the design and staging of Western Line works to be finalised. This will give residents and

businesses located along the rail corridor at Mt Eden more clarity about what works will be happening when. Sonya reiterated the two key closures that the CRL project has confirmed dates for: the Porters Ave vehicle crossing in Easter 2020 and the Mt Eden Station in early June 2020. She said the Link Alliance is working with Auckland Transport and KiwiRail to ensure the closures (and detour routes and alternative public transport options) are publicly advertised well ahead of time. •

Phil shared details of the Normanby Road utility relocation works that the C5 team are planning for next year to ensure the overall works programme can be maintained. He explained that there are many utility services that currently cross the rail corridor and these must be relocated out of the way of the rail corridor before trenching for the new CRL lines and construction of a new road-over-rail bridge can take place. Stormwater and sewer relocations will be undertaken down Normanby Road, section-by-section, to minimise overall impact on traffic flow. While on-street parking will be temporarily unavailable in the section being worked on, it does mean that two-way traffic flow is likely to be maintained. o

Between March and April 2020, a site compound will be established in the former Wilson’s carpark area alongside the rail corridor. Alternative car parking will be created for businesses located at 32 Normanby Road while sewer relocation works take place along the eastern side of Normanby Road to connect to the Mt Eden Corrections Facility. New stormwater drainage lines and inlet structures will be installed in low areas to reduce the risk of flooding.

Retaining walls will be built to support the regrading of the carpark area at 32 Normanby Road, as the new Normanby Rd bridge will be two metres higher that the current level crossing to allow clearance over the rail corridor.

o

Over Easter 2020 when trains are not running, foundations will be constructed for a temporary bridge over the rail line, required to get utility services over the existing train tracks so the tracks can be lowered. The sewer pipes from Water St will be diverted into the Normanby Rd sewer at this time, as the Water St sewers currently cross south under the rail tracks.

o

Between May and September 2020, the team expects to finish the relocation of the Water St line, complete the temporary utility bridge foundations and reinstate the car park for 32 Normanby Rd. The temporary utilities bridge will also be constructed, arriving in pre-made

sections and assembled by crane, and a retaining wall built near the Normanby/Boston roundabout to help create work space and reduce traffic disruption on Normanby Rd. By September, we hope to have relocated the utilities over the temporary bridge to allow for the start of piling for the rail trench retaining walls and permanent Normanby Rd bridge foundations.

•

From this week, the team will be talking to directly impacted properties about these utility relocation works and these discussions will help inform the related construction management plans. Summaries of these draft management plans will be brought to the Mt Eden CLG later this year for input and discussion. The industry specialists who draft these management plans will be available at that meeting so that CLG members can ask questions of them and give their feedback directly.

•

Sonya introduced Aidan Kirkby-McLeod, senior planner for the Link Alliance, who gave a recap of the construction management plan process for the Mt Eden Station enabling works and the utility relocations in the Fenton St area.

•

Aidan outlined the different management plans that are required to be produced for council approval. These cover such areas as traffic, access and parking, noise and vibration, air quality, contamination, social impact and business disruption, archaeology and built heritage and erosion and sediment control, amongst others.

•

Summaries of those draft plans were sent to all CLG members ahead of this meeting and the full plans are available on request.

•

Aidan explained that the subject matter experts who drafted the plans are here tonight so CLG members can provide feedback directly and ask any questions they may have about their respective plans.

•

He said that once the consultation process is complete, the plans will then be finalised before undergoing an independent peer review and then lodgement with Auckland Council for final approval.

•

Aidan introduced the 14 subject matter experts present, who were sitting at breakout tables.

•

CLG member Megan Ottley said her two main concerns were noise and vibration and dust. She expressed displeasure about the noise generated by the night-time demolition of the South Pacific

Timber site until the early hours of the morning. Sonya responded that Link Alliance unfortunately did not have control of the site and that South Pacific Timber was deconstructing its yard before it vacated the site and City Rail Link could hand it over to Link Alliance. She said the Mt Eden team regretted the severe inconvenience to local residents and had passed on complaints in the hope that South Pacific Timber would take steps to minimise the impacts of its yard deconstruction on those living nearby. Noise and Vibration Specialist, Craig Fitzgerald, talked about the Link Alliance’s strict consent conditions around noise and vibration. Normal hours of works for the project as 7am to 7pm, Monday to Friday, and 7am to 2pm on Saturdays. Night works would be by exception and notified well in advance but noisy activities at midnight (such as residents had experienced with the SPT demolition) would not be acceptable.

•

CLG member John Fryer from House of Knives added that the Mt Eden team had already shown they were willing to work in with him to find convenient times to get investigation works done and he appreciated that.

•

John Fryer asked if his Mt Eden Road business would be more impacted by wind once the buildings in the future station area were demolished. Air quality specialist Jason Pene said the wind effects on Mt Eden Rd businesses hadn’t been modelled, however it was likely that he would notice a difference.

•

John also expressed his frustration that his request for rates relief from Auckland Council to counteract the impacts of CRL works outside his business had been ignored.

•

CLG members then dispersed to the breakout tables to have conversations with individual subject matter experts about their respective plans for managing construction impacts.

Next meeting to be held: Monday 25 November (TBC)