City Rail Link (CRL) – Waitematā Station (Britomart) Community Liaison Group Meeting
MINUTES
Rā: 22 February 2024
Wā: 4.30pm – 5:00pm
Wāhi: Chief Post Office (CPO)
Attendees:
Project representative Title
Alex Vaineritua (AV) CRL Stakeholder and Communications Senior Advisor
Lily Boyask (LB) CRL Stakeholder and Communications Advisor
Maria Hernandez-Curry (MHC) Link Alliance Communications Manager
Mycenae Watana (MW) Link Alliance Communications Advisor
Simon Lough (SL) CRL Design Manager Urban Realm
Alan Hough (AH) Martinus NZ Construction Manager
Aruna Mylvaganam (AM) Link Alliance Construction Manager
Evonne Geluk (EG) Martinus NZ Communications and Engagement Manager
CLG members
Shelley Noel
Richard Anehera
Stephenie Michael
Ian Joan
Angela Ran
Ivan Mac
ITEM UPDATE/ACTIONS
1 Welcome – Alex Vaineritua
• AV welcomed attendees, introduced the meeting agenda, housekeeping
• CRL project progress update
- CRL expected to open in 2026
- Both 3.45km tracks has been laid through the City Rail Link, connecting Waitematā Station (Britomart) with Maungawhau
2 Waitematā Station (Britomart) works: Link Alliance – Aruna Mylvaganam
• Link Alliance’s Appendix 26 team has mostly finished up. All that remains is the paperwork and some final snags.
• Extends thanks to neighbours for their patience while these works were completed.
• Delivered on time and under budget in a live station environment.
Questions
• Attendee: Did you learn anything from the floods and how to deal with them in the future?
o AM: Waitematā (Britomart) is built with flood defences – it can already cope with significant levels of water. Water is unlikely to get into the station. During the flooding event, there was a very good team who have been here for a long time and could deal with the flooding and associated clean up very easily.
• Attendee: When will you move out of here completely?
o AM: The lease runs until the 31 March but it is unlikely the team will need to stay that long, probably leave early March.
3 Temporary station deconstruction: Martinus – Alan Hough
• Martinus video was shared. Available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPtyRp9fo3c
Questions
• Attendee: Is that video available online?
o SL: It can be.
o Note: The video has since been uploaded to Youtube and is now linked above.
• Attendee: Is there any reason for transitioning to concrete from ballast?
o AH: It’s a more modern railway design to have tracks on concrete sleepers.
o MHC: It is to reduce noise and vibration.
• Attendee: Didn’t use the same specification in the Wairarapa where the tracks ended up being too narrow?
o SL: No
• Attendee: Queried the light rail tunnel in the station.
o SL: There was a short section of tunnel built into Waitematā (Britomart) to futureproof for Light Rail years ago. It’s since been repurposed for the City Rail Link.
• Martinus progress on the temporary station deconstruction was shared. The deconstruction is nearly complete with only a couple more weeks to go.
ITEM UPDATE/ACTIONS
• There have been no official complaints about noise/disruption. The team has tried to keep it as quiet as possible although there is some sound from deconstruction activities and some people have verbally mentioned this. Noise has been monitored and confirmed to still be within acceptable decibel levels.
Questions
• Attendee: Are you [Martinus] doing the streets too?
o AH: Martinus are only responsible for the temporary station deconstruction.
o AV: CRL Ltd are working with Auckland Council to restore the plaza (which is the area where the temporary station building stood). Council will be leading on Tyler Street upgrades. The work is due to start in Autumn.
• Attendee: When will the plaza work be completed?
o SL: Tender has gone out. Would like to have the work finished by Christmas but is going to depend on the contractor, which depends on the tenders.
• Attendee: Will there be night works?
o SL: Probably not. When the tenders come back contractors may propose night works, but it is not the preferred option.