Butler station starts to take shape

Steel posts manufactured in Malaga jut into the sky, ready to bear the lightweight roofing panels that will give the station its distinct shape when it is finished next year.

Although the first passenger trains aren’t expected until late 2014, the station building should be complete early next year, according to Cooper and Oxley site engineer Carthal Finnegan.

‘Construction will be finished by early 2014 (then) we hand it over to Public Transport Authority (PTA) and all the electricals can be synced to their system,’ he said.

Mr Finnegan said the next stages of construction would installing roofing, made from panels of polystyrene between two metal sheets that would be about 250 to 300mm thick.

‘The next job is the roof, then a lot of work can be done through winter,’ he said.

Site manager Ron Richards said container loads of the lightweight roof panels had started to arrive.

‘We’ve got 22 containers coming from Queensland ” (we have) already had two,’ he said. ‘They ship it across and then we bring it by truck from Fremantle.’

The construction company, which won the $22 million contract last year, still have to install windows and glazing, paving, and tiling, but recently poured the concrete for the upper concourse, or ‘sky deck’.

‘Scaffolding holds up the concrete of the sky deck ” we will be taking it down in two weeks,’ Mr Richards said.

Inside the station, there will be an escalator, lift and standard pedestrian stairs on either side, as well as two toilet blocks and a kiosk.

The two escalators have already arrived on site, and are lying wrapped up on the platforms, awaiting installation within a fortnight to link them to the concourse above.

PTA’s senior project manager Roy Sivadason said a building beside the Butler Boulevard road bridge would be for signals and communications, and it included a tall radio monopole.

The tracks currently end under the road bridge, but once the site is clear, more will be laid to beyond the northern end of the platforms.

‘We are now building (platforms) for nine carriages ” at the moment it will accommodate six and have provision to extend the line,’ Mr Sivadason said.

Mr Richards said the bus exchange would sit on the western side of the stations, with 12 bus bays, beside Exmouth Drive. North-west of the train station, a fence encircles one of two carpark sites, where they expect to lay the bitumen in May.