Sky rail project to close train station car parks at Murrumbeena, Carnegie, Hughesdale

SEVERAL train station car parks will be closed for two years as major construction work begins on the $1.6 billion sky rail project in Melbourne’s southeast.

SEVERAL train station car parks will be closed for two years as major construction work begins on the $1.6 billion sky rail project in Melbourne’s southeast.

Two gantry cranes weighing 230 tonnes each will be installed next month near Murrumbeena station to begin building the elevated rail bridges which will remove nine level crossings on the Cranbourne-Pakenham line.

Station car parks along the line will be used as staging grounds for the works, with Murrumbeena station’s car park to be shut down from July 31.

Locals protest against the sky rail outside Carnegie Station. Picture: Mark Stewart

Artists' impression of what the new sky rail would look like from local backyards.

The Carnegie station car park will close from August 7, Hughesdale station’s car park will shut later in the year and there will be partial closures at Noble Park and Clayton stations.

All will remain off-limits until the project is finished in 2018.

“There will be some disruption,” Premier Daniel Andrews said.

“In advance, I apologise to anyone who will have to deal with the challenge of that.”

The closed car parks will be offset by extra spaces made available in Huntingdale, East Malvern, Holmesglen and Sandown Park.

Premier Daniel Andrews and the Minister for Public Transport, Jacinta Allan. Picture: Christopher Chan.

Mr Andrews said the two gantry cranes — which are 150 metres long and 40 metres wide — were part of the “best modern construction methods” used to remove the level crossings on Victoria’s busiest rail corridor.

He said the project would create 2000 jobs and be completed in 2018.

Public Transport Minister Jacinta Allan said the Level Crossing Removal Authority was still in discussions with residents who were considering selling their homes to the government because of the project.

But she said no homes had been purchased yet.

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