Auckland's City Rail Link is nearing a significant milestone, with the tunnel-boring phase of the project almost completed.
Earlier today the prime minister took a tour from Mount Eden Station through the first of the tunnels to check on the progress.
There's nearly a light at the end of the tunnel for Auckland's City Rail Link.
The boring of the second of the twin tunnels from Mount Eden to Britomart is due for completion by the end of the month, while workers are already starting to lay tracks at the Waitematā end of the line.
Today, the Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Transport Minister Michael Wood were taken on an electric buggy ride of more than 3km from Mount Eden to Aotea, or Te Waihorotiu Station.
Ardern said the journey put the sheer scale of the project in perspective.
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"For residents in Auckland they see the activity above ground compared to the activity under ground - it's just ginormous, so I'm looking forward to the day when New Zealanders will be able to see it for themselves," she said.
Wood said that when completed, the City Rail Link would provide the equivalent passenger capacity of 16 lanes of motorway.
"What you are seeing here is the heart of a new mass rapid transit system for Auckland, this will double the capacity of our city's heavy rail network," Wood said.
The link would eventually integrate with Auckland's light rail, harbour crossing, and rapid transit to the northwest.
But the minister couldn't confirm an updated budget for the project -- which had already increased by $1 billion -- while negotiations were still underway with the six companies involved in its design and construction.
"We have a current project budget of $4.5b. It's been well-signaled that those long months of Covid delays where the site had to be effectively closed down or significantly reduced in terms of its activity are going to create some push-out in terms of the opening date and some additional costs.
"Those are still under negotiations with the main contractor, and we have to allow that process to work through."
Likewise, City Rail Link chief executive Sean Sweeney could not yet provide an updated end-date, with Covid-related delays still being worked through.
"We were advising a December [20]24 completion date - that was the beginning of 2021 ... since then we've had nearly 300 days of Covid-impacted restrictions, we've had two lockdowns, we've had Omicron, we've had about 100 days of Auckland borders - all of those things would have impacted that date."
He aimed to have a clearer timeline in place by the end of the year.
One of the tunnel boring machines at work near Aotea Station late last year. Photo: Supplied / City Rail Link
The Rail Link has had its share of staffing struggles, with the project short of 100 steel workers in January, although Sweeney said the situation had improved in recent months.
"It looked like a set of a sort of horror movie sometimes, you'd come onto site and there was no-on here, and you really started wondering 'where is this going to end?' But they kept turning up."
The project now had about 2000 people working on it, with 21 rangatahi also securing full-time employment through an internship programme.
Meanwhile, the businesses near the station, especially those on Albert Street, continue to be impacted by noisy construction and closed streets.
A Targeted Hardship Fund had been set up for these businesses, but only a quarter had been given out so far.
"They've allocated... $12m and we've spent $3m, so we've still got enough money to keep making payments for some time to come."