Milestone reached in New Lynn rail trench project

in General by Jon C — March 25, 2009 at 1:46 am | 0 comments

While people have been focused on the debate about what will happen to yet-to-be finished Auckland rail projects now the petrol tax funding has been axed, a milestone in the construction of New Lynn’s rail trench has been reached.

The rail tracks were ‘slewed’ to run along the northern boundary of the rail corridor on top of one of the trench walls being built through the town centre.Trains are now running along the top of the northern wall between Rankin and Ward Sts, through the station area, clearing the way for the contractors to begin underground construction of the other wall. The project managers say that by building one wall first then moving the tracks right over to that side of the rail corridor, they can keep the trains moving through the area while work continues.

The track through the rest of the town centre will be moved across the corridor to run along the northern wall in early May. Extra support structures have been built into the northern wall to carry the trains.

The one kilometre long trench will be up to eight metres deep with about 100,000 cubic metres of material to be excavated from it.

Its walls are being progressively built underground through the town centre. With the northern wall now largely completed, work can begin on building the southern wall and the bridges which will replace the level crossings at the Rankin Ave roundabout and Veronica St. When this is completed excavation of the trench itself will begin, clearing the way for the tracks and the new station to be built inside it.

Excavation works are likely to begin later this year, and the project likely to be finished in 2010.

The Rankin St round-about has been moved slightly eastwards to allow contractors to concentrate on the walls and bridge in that area.