Contractor Taggart is continuing with demolition work.
KiwiRail expects Hillside Rd frontages of the large foundry and heavy-lift buildings to be cleared in the coming weeks.
"After months of demolition work, the focus for the redevelopment project is now shifting to construction," KiwiRail construction delivery chief operating officer Robert Gibbes said.
"Our building contractor, Otago firm Calder Stewart, now has a large crawler crane on-site, the first permanent piles for the new mechanical workshop are in the ground and the steel portal frames for the building will start to go up over summer."
Niven Engineering has been engaged to design and build a traverser, which is a specialist piece of rail equipment to provide access to the new workshop.
Construction activity at the site would continue into 2024, but elements of the new workshop could start operating late next year or early in 2024, Mr Gibbes said.
