Serious about sustainability

The SH25A Taparahi Slip Remediation project team’s focus on building the bridge quickly and safely isn’t at the expense of sustainability.

Sourcing materials locally wherever possible means we can get them sooner and minimise transport emissions and costs.

The seismic casings were the first permanent components used to build the bridge. They were sourced from another contractor who had a surplus in storage in the South Island. By sourcing locally, the transport distance was 1,070 km from Christchurch instead of +11,000 km by shipping steel from China. Overall, this reduced our transport emissions and procurement timings. In addition, by not procuring 34.7 tonnes of virgin steel casings and finding a use for the surplus supplies, we have saved 101.67 (TCO2-e) tonnes of carbon being emitted into the atmosphere. This is the equivalence of taking 22 fuel-powered passenger vehicles off the road for one year, or the same as using 37,804 litres of diesel.

Going circular to reduce waste

The team has set up the offices at the worksite with furniture from a charity called, All Heart. This charity repurposes surplus office furniture back into the market or to communities. It's a great circular solution for construction projects that set up and pack down site offices every few years.

Using a sustainable power source

The SH25A Taparahi Slip Remediation project situated in a remote location, meant that there was no access to water, power, and wastewater on-site.

To power the site office with a more sustainable source, a battery-powered generator is used. This works as a massive battery bank instead of using a fuel generator during the full working hours (from 6am until 6pm about 12 hours. Also some days the team works 24/7). This means we only use about four hours of power from the fuel generator.

The battery-powered generator allows us to save about eight hours of fuel per day, saving 510 kgCo2-e (kilogramme of carbon equivalent) per day.

The seismic casing being lifted into place