The amended Eastern Portal Development Plan was available for public display and comment from Monday 9 August until Friday 27 August 2021.

As part of the amended Development Plan submission to the Minister for Planning, CYP Design & Construction Joint Venture (CYP D&C) provided all written comments received during the stakeholder and community consultation period.

In total, 6 submissions were received for the amended Eastern Portal Development Plan. The key issues raised in feedback received included:

• Architectural design: height and size of the portal building
• Landscape design: height and species of trees to be planted
• Transport: parking and pedestrian access
• Materials and finishes: colours selected for the louvres on the Eastern Portal building.

Architectural design

In response to its sensitive surrounds, the Eastern Portal architecture prioritises a minimal above ground footprint to maximise the useable public open space within Railway Reserve and reduce the portal building scale to a size that relates to the adjacent residential buildings along Osborne Street. The oval shape of the portal building has been developed to be seen as a modestly scaled element that integrates with the height and mass of its local context.

During the detailed design, the above ground building footprint has been reduced, leading to an increase in the public realm area and additional grass and planting. The redesigned portal building also consolidates the mechanical plant and egress core into a single setback form from the Osborne Street footpath which allows continuity of the linear Railway Reserve. This has resulted in increasing the setback from the Osborne Street footpath.

Amendments also include the relocation of the water meter and fire booster external to the building.

Landscape design

To deliver a major project of this scale and complexity, some tree removal is required to allow the safe construction of stations and associated infrastructure. The Project is committed to protecting and retaining as many trees as possible. The design process considers any tree impacts on an individual – tree by tree – basis and methodologies are adjusted wherever possible to protect trees. The Project’s overall objective is to double tree canopy across the entire Metro Tunnel Project.

Throughout detailed design, CYP D&C has continued to avoid tree removals where possible. The amended Eastern Portal Development Plan identifies 52 trees for removal (inclusive of the 49 trees approved for removal in the CYP D&C and Early Works Managing Contractor Early Works Plans), which is one less than the previously approved Eastern Portal Development Plan. One tree will be retained on Osborne Street (north west of the portal building) as a result of design development.

As part of the amendments to design, the traffic island and adjacent kerb alignment in Osborne Street has been altered to accommodate the emergency vehicle swept path. As a result, the existing tree in the traffic island cannot be reinstated due to utilities offset requirements for the 66KV electrical transmission route. This tree was proposed to be reinstated in the previously approved Development Plan.

Transport

The CYP D&C design has been amended to relocate the parking bays from the public realm adjacent to the portal building, to the eastern side of Osborne Street. This has improved the landscaping on the south side of the portal building and resulted in safer pedestrian access to the linear open space located east of Osborne Street. In addition, the emergency bay extent along Osborne Street has increased. This compensates for the loss of loading area, adjacent to the south side of portal building, which was proposed in the previously approved Eastern Portal Development Plan.

Materials and finishes

Materials and finishes have been carefully selected as part of the portal’s design to reflect the surrounding urban environment and tie into the City of Stonnington public realm. The portal building provides a building form and cladding that is recognisable as being part of the line-wide ground level treatments. The oval shape building form, similar to other above-ground structures across the Project, employs a vertical louvred batten treatment as the principal elevation cladding. The lower banded brick work relates to the residential context and surrounding heritage buildings.