KiwiRail construction delivery chief operating officer Robert Gibbes said good progress was being made on the state-owned enterprise’s more than $100 million South Dunedin project.
Calder Stewart was on site and construction of the new mechanical workshop would pick up over summer.
Mr Gibbes said crews had already installed around 80% of the permanent piles for the new workshop building.
In the coming weeks, crews would continue to pour concrete for the building’s foundation beams and excavate for the locomotive pit areas.
Steel portal frames would also start to go up in the weeks ahead.
"February should also see us start construction of the new traverser, a crucial piece of rail equipment allowing locomotives and wagons to access the workshop," Mr Gibbes said.
"The Hillside Rd frontages of the large foundry and heavy lift buildings have now been demolished and removed."
All demolition work was expected to be completed by the middle of the year, with only a few smaller buildings left to be demolished on the site, he said.
The facility is reportedly planned to be up and running by early next year.
It was funded through $85 million in Budget 2021, to enable wagon assembly, and close to $20 million through the Provincial Growth Fund to upgrade maintenance and other facilities.
Once complete, more than 170 people are expected to be working on site, including some apprentices and trainees among 45 new staff needed to assemble about 1500 wagons.
The facility once employed 1200 people, but it was essentially scuppered in 2012 and reduced to a staff of 27.
