201410 – French – 20 Projects, $600M, One Goal – Developing Auckland Rail

In a six-year sprint from concept to implementation, KiwiRail’s $600 million DART (Developing Auckland’s Rail Transport) programme has rejuvenated the rail infrastructure of New Zealand’s largest city, Auckland. The single greatest element of the project has transformed the Western Line, Auckland’s fastest-growing line, from a two-train-per-hour, single-line goat track to a six-train-per-hour, double-tracked system. Two new stations have been constructed, three existing ones upgraded and key junctions enhanced. In conjunction with external stakeholders, substantial work has taken place to create major new transport hubs and Transit Oriented Design (TOD) projects, creating a modern and sustainable rail network for Auckland’s future.

The programme as a whole was developed using a fast-track process in order to meet required timeframes for improving rail services, which meant many stages of work began before detailed design was complete, and often before designs on supporting areas had been taken to full concept stage. Individual elements of the project ranged from $10 million packages to $150 million-plus collaborative contracts.

Accelerating patronage levels and an increasingly sympathetic political environment were instrumental in creating the opportunity for this infrastructure investment. The rapid progress required presented a challenge to the consulting and contracting market, which at the time had little rail experience. At key junctures in the contract process it was essential to deliver up to $1 million per day of design and construction. The fast- track programme and high volume of work left little time for the rail and construction sectors to climb the steep learning curve required for the successful delivery of the project.

During construction, 90 per cent of the works were carried out inside a 10- to 20-metre-wide operating corridor. This presented significant design and construction challenges. The need to nurse legacy systems, which had to be kept operating while the new infrastructure was being constructed, and maintain rail traffic added to the complexity of design and construction. Many sites were less than 10 metres from houses, shops and commercial premises.

This paper examines the challenges encountered and the variety of contracting styles employed, and presents case studies of a number of the projects and how their inherent challenges were managed or eliminated.

While this paper covers the management of a programme of works, particular attention will be paid to the Newmarket area where $200 million was spent from the DART budget and from that of its partner, the Auckland Regional Transport Authority (ARTA). The scope of this project included the construction of three temporary stations, two permanent stations, a new layout for the junction of two rail lines, relocation of a 100-year-old station and upgrade of the old signalling system. All of these works were carried out in a live rail environment with train services still travelling through the main work sites throughout the construction phase.

This paper also focuses on the successful delivery of the New Lynn Rail Trench. A key benefit of the procurement model Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) was that it allowed the project team to achieve an optimised and constructible design, a parallel consenting process, significant enabling works, and the inclusion of the third parties’ enhanced station scope at a later stage of the project.

Value engineering techniques and “best for project” decision-making principles were used throughout the project to achieve optimised rail gradients, rail infrastructure, station location and structural concept and construction methodology, enabling programme and budget expectations to be exceeded.