Acmena provides requirements management and verification and validation (V&V) expertise for Auckland's NZ$5.5b City Rail Link project.

Challenge

Designed to double the capacity of Auckland’s rail network, the NZ$5.5b City Rail Link project features a 3.45km twin-track tunnel under the city centre, plus two new underground stations and two rebuilt stations. Acmena was engaged in 2024 to provide specialist advice on requirements management and V&V during the project’s final stages. The key challenge was verifying and accepting more than 5,000 contract and interface requirements, while ensuring the necessary evidence and assurance activities could be completed in time for final safety approval.

Approach

Acmena advised on a pragmatic, evidence-based approach to system verification and acceptance, to better align the client, owner/verifier and delivery team on the required verification methods, evidence and outcomes. This included reviewing the approach for 5,000 contract and interface requirements, developing and gaining agreement for a sequenced verification plan, and creating a dashboard to provide consistent visibility of status, risks and priorities. This supported collaboration, accountability and timely decision-making, alongside interface verification, change control and a series of functional compliance audits.

Outcome

Acmena’s approach provided a clear, agreed pathway through the complexity of final verification and acceptance, securing ISA support and giving the operator confidence in the evidence and remaining requirements at handover. By Stage Gate 5, the approach had successfully progressed verification, with the vast majority of design and system requirements verified and accepted by project completion. The structured acceptance case and DOORS Next audit trail supported a controlled transition to day-one operations, helping enable the project to open on schedule and operate successfully from launch.

Profile

• Cost: NZ$5.5b
• Client: City Rail Link Limited (CRLL)
• Objective: To double the capacity of Auckland’s rail network by introducing a twin-track tunnel under the city in addition to two new underground stations and two rebuilt stations.
• Services provided: Requirements management, verification & validation

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