[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]In a recently published update, the Auckland Council group continues to deliver positive momentum across the Midtown Regeneration Programme while building smarter across agencies.

Work hours are being extended on-site in Victoria Street until the end of December in order to achieve the re-opening of Victoria Street for some traffic movement by the end of 2023, a key milestone in getting the city centre ready for the completion of the City Rail Link (CRL).

Work to expand the city centre’s critical wastewater infrastructure is set to begin early next year, carefully coordinated with street improvements. The new infrastructure will ensure more resilience on the network while enabling growth and capacity for the city’s future development.

“Our city centre is crucial to the success of the whole region, so we need to ensure it’s working well and efficiently, as quickly as possible, while also reducing impacts on businesses wherever we can,” says Deputy Mayor Desley Simpson.

“The city centre generates a fifth of Auckland’s GDP. As it gets more attractive to business owners and investors, with better connections to the rest of Auckland, then its value – and the benefits it brings the whole city – will keep growing,” she says.

In summary, the midtown programme looking ahead:

• Significant Watercare works in 2024, at the intersections of Queen Street with Wellesley Street, Victoria Street and Mayoral Drive, have been incorporated into the programme, ensuring underground services are completed ahead of streetscape upgrades. Underground works will build capacity for future residential and commercial growth, further safeguard the health of the Waitematā Harbour, while also aiming to reduce disruption at street level in the long run.
• After encountering some unexpected complexity underground in Zone 1 (Victoria Street West) which slowed progress, construction of Te Hā Noa on Victoria Street is extending work hours to catch up and enable the anticipated opening of the Victoria/Albert Street intersection by the end of the year as planned. Also in December, CRL will open the Victoria/Albert Street intersection to one lane east-bound and one lane south-bound along Albert Street, through to Wellesley Street. By the end of December, Victoria Street will open to east-west traffic – from Federal Street to Kitchener Street – with one lane in each direction, reflecting the street layout of Te Hā Noa when it is complete. Further detail in editors’ notes.

Auckland Council Director of Infrastructure and Environmental Services Barry Potter says Aucklanders expect us to be nimble and build smarter.

“The works happening in the city centre are vast and complex – including the City Rail Link, streetscape work, transport network upgrades, and attention to longer-term environmental resilience and future-proofing underground services.

“There is strong commitment across the council group, and with other partners such as Vector, to ensure we’re scheduling our works so that we’re reducing disruption wherever possible.

“The midtown area is changing week by week. You can see Victoria Street taking shape, and you already get a sense of how seamless the area is becoming as we prepare it for the opening of Te Waihorotiu Station,” says Mr Potter.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]