Feature steel columns now in place at Anzac Station

An eye-catching feature of the Metro Tunnel is now complete in the most visible above-ground sign yet of progress taking place on the city-shaping project.

The last of 12 massive green steel columns have been craned into Anzac Station on St Kilda Rd as the project powers towards completion in 2025.

The 17-metre-high columns will support an 85-metre-long canopy over the station, which will provide rail access to popular Melbourne destinations, including the Shrine of Remembrance and Albert Park, for the first time.

The striking green columns, which are made of Australian steel to meet rail infrastructure safety standards, will complement the timber tones of the station’s canopy and echo the nearby green parkland of the Royal Botanic Gardens and tree-lined St Kilda Rd.

Crews used cranes to lift the columns into the underground station before fixing them into place at concourse level, with the final support legs installed earlier this month.

Workers will soon begin to assemble the canopy’s 13 curved timber rafters, attaching them to the support columns, before completing the roof panelling and skylights.

Artist’s impressions revealed earlier this year show the station concourse flooded with natural light, providing year-round weather protection for tram and train commuters.

The station, when completed, will be the city’s only direct platform-to-platform train/tram interchange.

At the end of the year St Kilda Rd’s tram tracks and traffic lanes will be realigned for the final time over the station, after being twice realigned already as part of the construction plan that allowed the station to be built underground while traffic and trams continued using the road above.

Anzac Station will be used by about 40,000 people a day and relieve pressure on tram services on St Kilda Rd – the world’s busiest tram corridor.

Travel data shows that it will take passengers about 30 minutes to get from Anzac Station to Melbourne Airport via the Melbourne Airport Rail.

When finished, the Metro Tunnel will create capacity for more than a half-a-million additional passengers per week to travel during peak times across Melbourne’s train network •

For more information: metrotunnel.vic.gov.au