Crews on Melbourne’s Glenroy Level Crossing Removal Project have nearly completed excavation of the new rail trench that trains will travel on, underneath Glenroy Road, as they aim to complete the rail trench, remove the boom gates and open the new Glenroy Station.
In recent weeks the site team has installed half of the 86 solar panels on the roof of the new station, with the rest to be installed in April. This impressive system has been installed in the main station canopy and will be a 38kW system, which is expected to provide 150,557 MJ (megajoules) per year or 41,826 kWh (kilowatt hours) per year.
By installing solar panels (coupled with a generator), Glenroy Station will become a more resilient building, able to withstand power outages and other weather impacts in the future.
With the solar panel system in place, the station will be less reliant on mains power and will offset 41,000kg (carbon dioxide equivalent) of greenhouse gas emissions each year.
The station will also use LED lighting around the precinct and a rainwater tank will be installed for flushing toilets, reducing the demand on mains water by around 55 per cent.
The team at Glenroy has also used recycled plastic in their footpaths and bike paths around the station. Known as e-Mesh, it completely replaces non-recycled plastic fibres or steel reinforcing mesh inside concrete pathways.
The team will also re-use railway ballast (the rocks and stones that support train tracks) crushed underneath the asphalt of the station car park.
Landscaping designs around the station precinct were released recently, with the University of Melbourne’s ‘woody meadow project’ incorporated into the design. The woody meadow will book-end the north and south precincts of the project with a ribbon of water-sensitive urban design which travels through the carparks of Glenroy Station. Work on the landscaping will continue later this year.
The level crossing at Glenroy Road is being removed by lowering the rail line under the road.
The new station precinct will include improved local connections, dedicated shared use and pedestrian paths and new landscaping.