The grand old lady of Lower Queen Street is the 107-year-old Central Post Office building - renamed the Britomart Transport Centre - which has had another lift in life.
It opened to rail passengers in July 2003 as a state of the art station after undergoing a mega transformation from its post office days.
Now the whole building has faced its most dramatic temporary facelift yet, albeit a cautious 2mm.
The lift allowed excavations for new foundations so the station’s existing dead-end tunnels could be punched through at the beginning of the City Rail Link, now wending beneath Lower Queen Street, the new Commercial Bay tower, and up Albert Street.
The 4000-tonne building will be gently lowered back into position at the end of next year so it can be handed back to the station for refurbishment.
At the CRL’s completion in 2024, the building will once again become a state of the art transport station, no longer just sitting at the end of the rail line.
OurAuckland had the privilege of checking out work beneath the building and met key CRL partners delivering what is New Zealand’s biggest infrastructure project costing around $4.4 billion.
You can meet them here:
