Earthworks' second season now under way
Our first earthworks season concluded in early October, with over 650,000 cubic metres of earth moved since construction began in January. Thanks to a relatively mild winter and a seamless COVID-19 shutdown and restart, we have started our second earthworks season in a strong position.
During Level 4 the site had to close except for essential maintenance. With our safety plans in place to keep everyone on the project safe, we were one of the first major projects to restart on the first day of Level 3. The site is fully operational under Level 2.
A big focus this year has been creating access to the areas where the highway will go. A lot of this work is nearing completion, including access tracks at the western end of the alignment, in the Meridian wind farm area, and a haul road between Cook Road and Morgan Road. With access largely in place across the site, the focus this year is on moving a lot of dirt. We have already moved over 10% of the project’s total and by the end of this earthworks season we plan to have moved around half of the project’s total earthworks.
Te Ahu a Turanga is one of the largest earthworks projects in the country. We currently have around 120 pieces of large machinery onsite, including a Wabco 353 elevating scraper – one of the largest scrapers in the world (see below). This will be primarily used at the Woodville end of the alignment.
At Parahaki Bridge, temporary staging from the south bank to the north bank is complete and we are working with KiwiRail on a permit for the construction of a retaining wall. Further along at the Eco Bridge, the quest to solve the puzzle of extremely high artesian water pressure at a shallow depth continues. Preliminary activities to de-pressurise the aquifer have been added to the programme and we’re co-ordinating the design and consenting efforts to find workable solutions.
Glancing around the rest of the project, good progress is being made with our smaller structures, including the Morgan Road Underpass. The purpose-built laboratory that will test all the soil and materials used on the highway is almost complete, and the ecology team has been busy with vegetation clearance, stream diversions and lizard habitat searches.
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