4 April 2024

Local schools and community groups designed and painted hoarding boards in the theme of Flora and Fauna.

Creating a colourful coast

THANK YOU to our creative community! We collaborated with over 320 people – students, children, artists, rangers, and guides from local schools, community groups, and a retirement village – on a community mural to brighten up our Whangaparāoa construction site. The temporary hoardings are now installed.

Twelve different community groups and schools participated in the design and painting of temporary hoardings to shape their community and create a sense of place. The mural was given the theme of Flora and Fauna by our iwi partners. The community stepped up to this creative challenge and created many beautiful and unique pieces. A big thank you to:

• Coast Kids on Karepiro
• Estuary Arts Centre
• Fame Preschool Stanmore Bay
• Forest and Bird
• Hibiscus Coast Youth Centre
• Long Bay Okura Great Park Society
• Montessori Beginnings Preschool
• Restore Hibiscus and Bays
• The Grove - Orewa
• Whangaparāoa College
• Whangaparāoa Guides
• Whangaparāoa School

The temporary hoardings are made from saveBOARD, a material made from 100% upcycled materials. We're keeping waste from landfill and supporting our target of diverting 90% of our own construction waste from landfill. Read more on our sustainability goals: www.nzta.govt.nz/projects/penlink/sustainability

Please drive to the conditions and if you are on foot, view the community mural from a safe spot.

Casing arrives at the Duck Creek Road construction site.

March construction update

At Top Road, we continued removing soil and material to prepare to build the State Highway 1 (SH1) Bridge temporary structures.

At State Highway 1, we built a temporary retaining wall and started digging the foundations for the SH1 Bridge.

At East Coast Road, we continued stream diversion and culvert works. We have completed 95% of the wick drains. The East Coast Road Bridge abutment construction continues, as well as putting in environmental controls for both the East Coast Road and SH1 bridges.

At Ara Wēiti Road, we temporarily relocated power lines to allow work to continue. Later, the overhead lines will be permanently placed underground.

At Link Road 1 area near our main office, we started construction on two temporary sediment retention ponds and constructed an access track.

At Link Road 2 area near the beginning of the pine forest, we built a second sediment retention pond and started work on drainage systems. Prior to these works over 90 eels were relocated.

At Stillwater, work continues on the temporary diversion road for a section of Duck Creek Road (scheduled to open to traffic in May). Earthworks continue to fill a nearby gully.

Preparation works began on the two marine piles that form the foundation for Pier 3 of the Wēiti River Bridge, including the delivery of two casings pictured above.

Duck Creek Road Bridge construction continues and soon we'll put the bridge deck beams in place in mid-April. This is a top down construction method where the bridge is completed before the dirt beneath is dug out.

The earthworks team working in the pine forest area between Duck Creek Road and Ara Wēiti Road has moved over 160,000 cubic metres of material so far.

At Whangaparāoa, we're moving sewer lines and building drainage systems. Main earthworks started to lower a hill by the Wēiti River by 20 metres and fill a nearby gully.

Bird's eye view of the completed access track in Zone 2.

Ara Wēiti to Stillwater construction connections

We moved about 3500 cubic metres of dirt to construct a 1025-metre-long access track from the Ara Wēiti Road Site Compound to the Duck Creek Road Site in Zone 2. The terrain in this section is steep and gnarly and required adjusting the route daily to suit the ground conditions. The track took 3 weeks to complete including all environmental controls.

This access track is not used as a thoroughfare due to the terrain. Rather, this track:

• reduces time to transport earthworks machinery from Duck Creek Road to Ara Wēiti Road
• saves money by reducing construction water truck movements from Ara Wēiti Road to Duck Creek Road
• provides access for tree felling to begin on the remaining pine forest in Zone 2

Check out the project zone map below to understand where Zone 2 approximately begins and ends.

Project team at the Stillwater Raft Race and their trusty boat named "The Turtle."

Out and about in the community

Stillwater Raft Race

“The Turtle” recently made its debut at the recently held Stillwater community raft race. Our environmental team spent a few hours after work on Fridays to build “The Turtle” out of recycled materials from site. Much to its irony, the slow and steady does win the race, as the Turtle came out in the lead. The winning raft was then donated to the Stillwater race organisers for the community to use in future races.

A sausage sizzle at the event raised $540 from gold coin donations and went to the race organisers for the Stillwater Community Pantry.

ACG Parnell College presentation

We visited ACG Parnell College to present to a group of Years 12 -13 students who are interested in construction and engineering, or a related topic. The presentation was well attended with over 40 students present. We had project team members come along from environmental, structures, and earthworks disciplines.

The team members explained what they do on the project and how they got to where they are today. There was time for questions and answers as well, with students interested in learning more. Through this, we hope to encourage young minds to explore careers in engineering and construction.

Image Below: Students attending the presentation at ACG Parnell College, with one of our earthworks engineers presenting.

For more information on the O Mahurangi – Penlink project, email us at omahurangi@nzta.govt.nz or call us on 0800 7365 465.

Visit our website www.nzta.govt.nz/penlink.