After a short 32 months, the Wynyard Edge Alliance is proud to announce that we have completed the new waterfront infrastructure, required to support the 36th Americas Cup to be held in Auckland 2021.
Awarded in February 2018, the project was designed and constructed by the alliance team to accommodate participants and the public for the duration of the Cup and leave a legacy of infrastructure improvements along the waterfront.
Working to an accelerated programme the works have helped to transform the once industrial area into a vibrant entertainment district. The scope also included upgrading marine, landside and civil infrastructure, enhancing streetscapes and the installation of the Daldy Street Outfall to improve water quality and bring long-term benefits to Aucklanders and visitors.
In a feat of coordination and planning, over one Million hours of work across 13 different work fronts went into completing the project on time. The scope of work included:
- Over 70,000m3 of dredging
- Construction of seven wave calming breakwaters.
- Design and construction of fivemarine bases and a wharf structure.
- Building floating berths for superyachts and syndicates.
- Installation of a 500m long, 3m diameter stormwater outfall pipe.
- Relocation and construction of the new Sealink ferry terminal.
- Upgrade of the road and streetscape along Brigham Street.
- Installation of the new Silo Park Extension
Thank you to everyone involved for coming together to deliver a world class project - the project team, the local community, iwi partners, subcontractors, suppliers and our client, Auckland Council, Panuku, and MBIE.
McConnell Dowell is pleased to announce that they have been awarded a contract by BHP Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA) to undertake the main berth construction scope for the Shiploader and Berth Replacement (SABR) Project at BMA’s Hay Point Coal Terminal.
The SABR project is a brownfields project located within the lease boundaries of the existing Hay Point Coal Terminal near Mackay, Queensland.
The project includes the disassembly and replacement of one of the existing Shiploaders and Berths to replace and renew aging infrastructure, improve materials handling throughput, and provide improved cyclonic wave immunity.
The scope of the contact awarded to McConnell Dowell encompasses:
- Off-site fabrication of new berth topside modules;
- On-site preparatory works including modification of the existing concrete caisson berth foundations;
- Disassembly and removal of the existing berth and ship loader;
- Installation of the new berth modules, tie-in and commissioning; and
- Installation of the new ship loader (SL2A).
The award of this contract follows a twelve-month collaborative Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) process led by BMA and involving design engineer Aurecon, and McConnell Dowell.
In reflecting on the award, McConnell Dowell’s Australian Managing Director, Jim Frith, welcomed the collaborative approach embraced by BMA for the project saying:
“Working collaboratively with our customer and their designer enabled us to add value through smarter, safer and more constructable solutions.
“The adoption of a fully modularised fabrication and installation methodology, and use of heavy lift vessel (HLV) for both demolition and construction phases, has significant safety, cost and schedule benefits to our customer.”
“The integrated team focused on engineering out, or controlling risks through elimination or substitution. For example, we have been able to develop a construction approach that eliminates the need for our workforce to travel to the workfront by marine vessel. That’s not just a huge safety benefit, but decreases significant downtime and eliminates weather risks.”
The project schedule sees the first activity on site (establishment of temporary facilities) happening in late 2021. The shutdown work associated with the main shiploader and berth replacement works on site will commence in March 2022 with a duration of approximately 16 months.
McConnell Dowell is proud to have won the Health and Safety award at the CCNZ Canterbury Contractor of the Year Award for the Lyttelton Deluge Upgrade Project based in Christchurch.
Members of the project team attended the awards evening and it was great for our team to be recognised by the industry for what is truly a great reflection of everyone working together to complete this high-risk project.
Due to the live tunnel environment the upgrade was subject to significant HSE risks, the judging panel commended how we continually challenged ourselves to develop a creative methodology in order to achieve the scope, all whilst following the highest health and safety standards. The award was based on our safety record on the contract (60% of marks) and the company in general (40%). The project recorded both zero Recordable Injury Frequency Rate (RIFR) and Lost Time Injury (LTI) Frequency Rates.
The Lyttelton Tunnel Deluge and Associated Works project included removal of 2.2 km of concrete asbestos water supply pipe and replacement with a stainless-steel pipe, installation of a new CCC sewer pressure main to service surrounding communities, installation and commissioning of a deluge fire suppression system within the tunnel including a dedicated reservoir, major upgrades to the tunnel’s communications, public address systems, and new CCTV system, construction of a new fire pump house with two diesel powered pumps and improvements to tunnel ventilation fan drives.
Amīria, McConnell Dowell’s micro tunnel boring machine (mTBM) beat her previous project record by 80-metres on 20 November 2020.
The AVN2500 mTBM once again set a new pipe-jacking record for the longest single drive in the Southern Hemisphere by a TBM greater than 2.6 metres in diameter. The project set a 1,216-metre record on completing the second drive for the pipeline earlier in the year.
Richard Atkin, the Hūnua 4, Section 11 Project Manager, said “I couldn’t have asked for a more experienced tunnelling team to successfully navigate through Auckland’s challenging volcanic fields which comprise of hard basalt (up to 160MPa). To gain another record for this project after 18 months of tunnelling, across three individual drives, has put the team in good spirits as we near the finish line.”
The new record is a hard-earned achievement for the team delivering the 3.5-kilometre watermain upgrade for Watercare. The final 1,296-metre drive consisted mostly of basalt rock and tough clay ground conditions, but despite the geological challenges, the crew completed the final drive in less than three months.
Justin Shepherd, McConnell Dowell’s Tunnelling & Underground Group Technical Director, praises the efforts made on Hūnua 4, Section 11 by saying “McConnell Dowell challenges both the norm and ourselves by thinking creatively, engaging our multi-discipline specialists, embracing new technology, and driving continuous improvement through our teams and projects. This project, which we believe to be the longest large diameter pipe-jacked drive through ‘continuous hard-rock conditions’ in the world, exemplifies McConnell Dowell’s approach to successfully delivering award-winning, and record-breaking, tunnelling and underground work.”
With 2.9 kilometres of tunnelling now completed, Amīria, one of McConnell Dowell New Zealand’s three mTBMs will be refurbished by our in-house mechanical and maintenance team. The next step for the project team is the installation of the 1,575 mm diameter concrete-lined steel (CLS) watermain pipes inside the tunnel which is planned for early 2021.
McConnell Dowell’s proposed trenchless methodology won the contract to design and construct the final section of the Hūnua 4 pipeline in 2018. Rather than digging trenches through some of Auckland’s busiest roads, the tunnelling approach meant traffic continued to flow between Epsom and the city as the pipeline was built underneath.
McConnell Dowell is proud to announce that ‘Piper’ the micro tunnel boring machine (MTBM) and the team have completed tunnelling on the West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island for the Westland Milk Products Marine Outfall project.
Piper was fresh from another McConnell Dowell tunnelling project (Snells Algies Ocean Outfall project) in the North Island, where the team set a new world record of 2,021m for the longest single drive by a Direct Pipe® MTBM earlier this year.
The project team used this world leading experience, completing the 845m of tunnelling and installing the 832m steel outer casing for the wastewater pipeline in just over 1 month, two weeks ahead of the construction programme.
The Direct Pipe® tunnelling method was chosen to mitigate the impact of work on the delicate coastal ecosystem.
The scope of the works includes:
- Constructing a 60m long, 6m wide and 7.5m deep sheet piled MTBM launch trench.
- Completing an 845m micro tunnel Direct Pipe® drive.
- Installing 832m of steel casing pipe through the Direct Pipe® thrusting technique that remains buried and submerged at the seaward end.
- Slip-lining installation of the HDPE carrier pipeline into the steel casing pipe.
- An ocean recovery of the MTBM followed by installation of the marine diffuser.
- Construction of an on-shore deaeration chamber and carrier pipe connections.
To retrieve Piper the MTBM, specialist excavation equipment sourced from Malaysia will be used to expose Piper under the seabed. A dive team will then disconnect Piper and tow her to Greymouth Port where she will be lifted from the water.
Once complete this project will be the first ocean outfall on the West Coast of the South Island and will provide a new ocean discharge point for the treated wastewater from the Westland Milk Products facility.
Final marine operations will be completed in early 2021.