CBD Rail Loop Report: Could Be Built in 7-10 Years

in General by Jon C — February 3, 2010 at 7:20 pm | 0 comments

The first summary report from the team investigating an Auckland inner-city rail loop estimates construction of the link would take 7 to ten years.

The team plan to begin the process of protecting the route by the end of this year. AECOM, Parsons Brinckerhoff and Beca were commissioned to undertake this study.

The steep gradient between Britomart and the North Auckland line around Mt Eden (69.5m vertical height difference) was considered a key constraint by the Auckland CBD Rail link study team.

It meant limited alignment options and also limited to three, the maximum potential number of new stations on the rail link.

During the study, 14 alignment options were developed , including a number of sub options that followed the same route from Britomart but at different depths to accommodate different station depths and connections to the North Auckland Line.

12 station locations (5 in the Newton area, 3 in the Karangahape Rd ridge area), 1 under the central motorway junction and 3 in the Aotea area were developed.

Only routes that could accommodate three stations were shortlisted.

Each of the catchments of the three stations identified would not overlap due to topography and access constraints, even though their distances were only about 600-700m apart.

They are all located close to existing areas of activity.

There are some options within the 3 shortlisted because of issues that require further investigation.

A station at K Rd by the intersection of Queen St rather than Pitt St would raise the issue of the depth of the station and location adjacent to potential unstable land by Myers Park and the impact on the park and St Kevins Arcade.

As far as land requirement and ownership was concerned, all three follow a similar route between Britomart and Pitt St. The routes then split with variances in public and private land requirements.

All options cross under the motorway corridor and there would need to be some investigation into motorway piles.

There is minimal (under 10%) variance between costs between options at this concept stage. All three are considered viable on the corridor from both a patronage and land use viewpoint.
This high level report is phase one of three phases for the team.

The team will now develop a preferred alighnment concept design and undertake technical investigations.

Phase three is to prepare a notice of requirement documentation to KiwiRail and ARTA.

The “key deliverable” is to produce a “robust set of documentation to support the NORs needed to designate the route under the Resource Management Act. The technical investigations undertaken will form the support base for the NOR and include the wider economic, social benefits and business case for the project.

This is a great leap forward.
If this team continues such good work, it will be hard for anyone in Government to argue that the research has not been done to prove the case - especially as the government’s KiwiRail is co- funding it.