Council staff face years of CRL turmoil

Auckland Council staff will experience disruption first hand when the next stage of the $4.4 billion City Rail Link is built outside their central city headquarters over several years.

Next month, early works start on the new Aotea Station between Victoria and Wellesley Sts on Albert St where the council building is located.

The station is in the next block along Albert St where disruption and delays from the construction of twin tunnels have left several small businesses on the brink of financial ruin and staff facing health issues.

Council head of corporate property Rod Aitken said staff can already work flexibly and council has workspaces for staff who may be affected.

He said a canopy on the building was removed this year and council will continue to work closely with the CRL Alliance to ensure staff are regularly updated as works progresses.

City Rail Link Ltd (CRLL) chief executive Dr Sean Sweeney said the company managing the project and the Link Alliance contractors will do all they can to minimise disruption but a project as big and complex as the CRL will “unavoidably impact on life in the city centre for some time”.

The Aotea Station is not expected to be finished until 2023 and Albert St not reinstated until the entire 3.4km project between Britomart and Mt

Eden is completed in 2024.

Aotea Station will be done in three stages. Early works, including moving utilities, start next month. The main works to extend the tunnels to Mayoral Drive start in the first three months of next year. The third stage is landscaping and public improvements.

A 15m pit will be dug for the station and it will be built top-down between Mayoral Drive to just north of the Victoria St intersection on Albert St.

This will allow parts of the road to be opened earlier, and will help keep noise and dust down.

Businesses continue to battle with politicians over financial aid for prolonged delays outside their control.

A spokesman for Transport Minister Phil Twyford said he is still considering a proposal by mayor Phil Goff for a hardship fund.

Auckland Chamber of Commerce chief executive Michael Barnett said news that CRLL had spent $72,000 to help affected businesses “is a shameful response”.

A CRLL spokesman said since it had taken over managing the project from Auckland Transport in July 2017, $72,225 had been spent on business disruption support until June.

A series of meetings with local people and community groups got underway yesterday.

They include open days at Griffith Gardens on the corner of Wellesley St and Mayoral Drive each day until Thursday from 11.30am to 1.30pm.