NEW ZEALAND’S CIVIL CONTRACTING INDUSTRY MAGAZINE
Bigger than big the new Cat 637K scraper
INSIDE: Swinging from the job – working at extreme heights Ready for the summer – replacing the Kawarau Falls Bridge Working against the elements – realigning wind-blown SH73 Hydro excavation – investment in large machine pays off
JUNE 2017
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CONTENTS CONTRACTOR
18
INSIDE: Regulars 4 Editorial 6 Upfront 12 Contractors’ Diary 16 On the cover 52 Classic Machines 56 Innovations 58 Civil Contractors NZ update 58 Advertisers index
Comment 44 Alan Peacock & Chloe Smith Fulton Hogan 46 Peter Silcock CCNZ 48 Malcolm Abernethy Ex CCNZ 50 Rod Auton Crane Association
Highlights / Features 18 Company profile: Swinging from the job Abseiling rises from a pastime for the not-so-faint-at-heart to a vital service in the civil construction industry.
24 Ready for the summer
A last link with the gold-rush days, the old Kawarau Falls bridge is in the process of being replaced..
30 Taramakau Bridge project
Progress report on the new West Coast bridge on SH6 between Greymouth and Kumara Junction.
34 Working against the elements
Rain, wind and snow have conspired to delay a major realignment on SH73 between Canterbury and the West Coast.
40 Keeping the city moving
The Connectus JV is constructing a bridge to maintain traffic and people flows while protecting Auckland’s utility services. A CRL update.
ON THE COVER Goodman Contractors’ purchase of two new Cat wheeled tractor scrapers from Gough Cat is a once in a generation addition to its fleet. See page 16
42 Excavating without a bucket
The success of Skevington Contracting and their building of a large hydro excavator for use in civil contracting..
51 Janet Brothers
Life Care
24
34 JUNE 2017 3
CONTRACTOR EDITORIAL
Working at heights Our features in this issue share an unusual focus, for a dirt shifting magazine, in that they involve working at heights. Hugh de Lacy reviews a company led by a mountaineering Scotsman and a juggling Englishman (no they don’t walk into a pub and meet a Welshman), who have turned a passion into a vital service in civil contracting. In work that is not for the faint-hearted they run a professional abseiling company that is booming through a growing demand for its services in the wake of the South Island earthquakes. Hugh also looks at the replacement of our last link with the gold-rush days, the old Kawarau Falls bridge, giving access to Queenstown. The new two-way Kawarau Falls bridge near Frankton should be a reality in time for the Christmas tourism rush in Queenstown. A long time in planning, with the design-and-construct contract awarded to McConnell Dowell in September 2015, the new $22 million bridge on SH6 will free up traffic presently constrained by the old single-lane bridge a little upstream, which has been a throttle on rising traffic movements across the Kawarau River. Following this feature, the NZTA updates its work on the West Coast’s new Taramakau Bridge project, on State Highway 6 between Greymouth and Kumara Junction. This new two-lane bridge is being built downstream of the existing one-lane bridge. A section of State Highway 6 is being realigned and an overpass built to take traffic over the railway line. Lastly, and closer to the ground, the Connectus JV explains how it constructed a ‘bridge’ to maintain traffic and people flows while protecting Auckland’s utility services and working on Auckland’s City Rail Link. It’s essential to keep the city moving throughout the construction works. On H&S matters it is heartening to see the likes of Roger McRae (McConnell Dowell) now chair of the Construction Safety Council governance board. This appointment is part of a wider move by the CSCNZ to refresh its strategic direction to better support the construction industry, and to align with the WorkSafe/ACC joint strategy to target improvements in health and safety across all forms of construction. We are profiling Roger in the July issue of Contractor where this will be discussed in detail. A full-time manager, Jon Harper-Slade, has also been appointed to CSCNZ and ConstructSafe. Jon says his initial focus is “to find opportunities to further develop the ConstructSafe scheme and to reach out to others in the industry to see how we can collaborate to make our industry a safer and healthier place to work”. And WorkSafe needs all the help it can get from our industry. While the agency and Health & Safety at Work Act 2015 is a big step up from the old ‘do the right thing’ days of regulatory control, it will need more than a focus on responsibility, liability and punitive fines. And I don’t know why WorkSafe is spending resources on claims that our workplace H&S stats are higher than other markets around the world in an effort to ‘shame’ us into improving H&S culture. This time last year I wrote an editorial for Q&M magazine explaining that the study this claim is based on actually stresses that you cannot make global H&S workplace comparisons, simply because the OSH data is collected differently. You can read it here: bit.ly/OSH_Statistics Yes, we have a Kiwi workplace safety problem, and I would argue we have a reckless Kiwi culture problem in general (get off that bloody ladder fool!). To fix it might take a bigger stick than any government is prepared to wield. Meantime, please get your back behind all the efforts our industry is doing itself to lift the standard of H&S on our work sites, such as ConstructSafe, and keep on shifting dirt (safely) for a better future.
PUBLISHER Contrafed Publishing Co Ltd Suite 2.1, 93 Dominion Road, Mt Eden, Auckland PO Box 112357, Penrose, Auckland 1642 Phone: +64 9 636 5715 Fax: +64 9 636 5716 www.contrafed.co.nz EDITORIAL MANAGER Alan Titchall DDI: 09 636 5712 Mobile: 027 405 0338 Email: alan@contrafed.co.nz REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS Malcolm Abernethy, Mary Searle Bell, Richard Campbell, Hugh de Lacy, Cameron Officer, Richard Silcock. ADVERTISING / SALES Charles Fairbairn DDI: 09 636 5724 Mobile: 021 411 890 Email: charles@contrafed.co.nz ADMIN / SUBSCRIPTIONS DDI: 09 636 5715 Email: admin@contrafed.co.nz PRODUCTION Design: TMA Design, 09 636 5713 Printing: PMP MAXUM
Contributions welcome Please contact the editor before sending them in. Articles in Contractor are copyright and may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the permission of the publisher. Opinions expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of the shareholding organisations.
www.linkedin.com/NZcontractor @NZContractormag nz contractor magazine nz contractor magazine The official magazine of Civil Contractors NZ www.civilcontractors.co.nz The Aggregate & Quarry Association www.aqa.org.nz The New Zealand Heavy Haulage Association www.hha.org.nz The Crane Association of New Zealand www.cranes.org.nz Rural Contractors New Zealand www.ruralcontractors.org.nz The Ready Mixed Concrete Association www.nzrmca.org.nz Connexis www.connexis.org.nz
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Alan Titchall Editorial Manager 4 www.contractormag.co.nz
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Nelson, Marlborough & West Coast Scott Bonnington 029 200 8382
Waikato James West 029 299 8909
Canterbury Matt Holloway 029 208 0423
Rotorua & Bay of Plenty Shayne Kennedy 029 200 7270
Otago Brent Duncan 029 222 4682
Central North Island Paul Roche 021 954 376
Southland Pete Shaw 021 277 6597
Taranaki & Manawatu Michael Groube 0274 381 850
JUNE 2017 5
CONTRACTOR UPFRONT
NZTA Dunedin work The Transport Agency says it will take a staged approach to the roll out of a $2.2 million safety improvement programme along an eight-kilometre section of State Highway 88 (SH88) between Maia and Port Chalmers near Dunedin. The agency’s Southern Region Business Unit manager Ian Duncan says the programme detail is still being worked through, but is expected to include fitting roadside safety barriers. Other safety upgrades are likely to include high performance road markings, used to improve visibility at night and in wet conditions. “The first stage of the SH88 road safety improvements will focus on the section from Maia to St Leonards, where the shared path already provides an alternative route for cyclists and specific, targeted safety improvements on the section of SH88 from St Leonards to Port Chalmers, taking into account cyclist safety. This work is expected to begin later this year,” says Ian. The second stage of the SH88 project will deliver further safety improvements to the state highway between St Leonards and Port Chalmers. This is expected to coincide with planned work on the final section of the SH88 Dunedin to Port Chalmers shared walking and cycling path, which is currently in the design phase.
2017 Concrete Awards call
Bridging the infrastructure funding backlog
You have until July 27 to enter the NZ Concrete Society 2017 Concrete Awards, which are divided into six categories with an overall supreme winner. The Monte Craven Architectural Award recognises any construction project which displays a significant demonstration of functional suitability, aesthetic appeal, environmental sensitivity and/or is of such form or shape that makes its execution in concrete outstanding. The Infrastructure Award recognises an infrastructure project such as bridges, tunnels, wharves, liquid retaining structures, sewage and water treatment plants and concrete roads which is judged an outstanding achievement in the advancement of concrete practice in design, construction, rehabilitation or research. The Commercial/Industrial Building Award recognises a commercial or industrial building which displays a significant demonstration of functional suitability, aesthetic appeal, environmental sensitivity and/or is of such a form or shape that makes its execution in concrete outstanding. The Residential Award is specifically for residential buildings made of concrete, block-work or other cementitious materials. The Landscaping Award is for the use of concrete in a landscaping situation and may include (but is not limited to) concrete paving, retaining walls and the use of coloured concrete or special concrete features. The Technology Award encompasses entries from individuals, firms, research or educational institutions that have made significant contributions to the understanding or use of concrete as evidenced by new technology, research or technical publications, new equipment, new techniques, design innovations or educational activity.
This year’s budget has allocated a further $11 billion for new capital infrastructure and no one is more pleased than Stephen Selwood, CEO of Infrastructure NZ. “This is a massive increase and the largest capital investment commitment by any government since the 1970s. “But it must be said that New Zealand’s growth challenge is the highest it has ever been and meeting population demands requires the services for a city larger than Nelson to be added every year. “Added to the growth challenge is New Zealand’s historic underinvestment in infrastructure. The reality is that it would not be difficult to spend $11 billion in 2017 alone. “The government’s commitment to the Kaikoura rebuild, along with its $1.5 billion contribution to the CRL, a further $1.5 billion in the East-West link, a billion more on each of Mill Road, the northern busway extension and the northwestern busway, $400 million on Penlink, plus state highway improvements in the regions is enough to consume all $11 billion, let alone much needed investment in health, education and housing nationwide. “To get full value out of national resources, the government is going to need to use its funding to unlock private investment. “A shift to debt funding strategic projects represents good fiscal management and in this regard it is pleasing to see the government looking further at public-private partnerships. “In addition, the government has already demonstrated the value of capital recycling, via the partial sale of the energy generation companies in particular, and a similar strategy could be adopted by Auckland, Christchurch and other councils to bridge the infrastructure funding backlog. “The combination of public and private capital is central to delivering the infrastructure needed to support New Zealand’s growth,” says Stephen.
6 www.contractormag.co.nz
McRae takes over CSCNZ chair The Construction Safety Council of New Zealand (CSCNZ) has appointed Roger McRae as its new chair of the governance board. Currently outgoing managing director of McConnell Dowell’s New Zealand and Pacific business, Roger took up the new position back in April and succeeds David Kelly (CEO, Registered Master Builders) who stood down after having chaired the board for around two and a half years. The new board chair appointment comes as part of a wider move by the CSCNZ to refresh its strategic direction to better support the construction industry, and to align to the WorkSafe/ACC joint strategy to target improvements in health and safety across all forms of construction. “I would like to acknowledge the efforts of my predecessor David Kelly, who has put in a significant amount of energy and effort to get CSC to where it is today,” says Roger. “The Construction Safety Council is looking to help the industry by focusing on issues in
construction such as worker competence, critical health risks, and assistance to small businesses. “My focus will now be to further improve our efforts through a revised governance and delivery structure. We have already appointed a new full-time general manager for CSC and ConstructSafe.” Jon Harper-Slade started as general manager, CSCNZ and ConstructSafe on 8 May 2017. “My passion for health and safety is through helping people to be healthy and safe,” says Jon. “Working with CSC and ConstructSafe there is opportunity to provide help and support to a large number of people and organisations across the whole construction industry. “My initial focus will be to find opportunities to further develop the ConstructSafe scheme and to reach out to others in the industry to see how we can collaborate to make our industry a safer and
Roger McRae, new chair of CSCNZ
healthier place to work. “ConstructSafe is particularly interested in talking to construction clients about the benefits of the scheme and helping them mandate it as the industry standard for health and safety competence.” You can read more about the Construction Safety Council and ConstructSafe at www.constructionsafetycouncil.co.nz.
Final Tauranga link underway The final stage of Tauranga’s Baypark to Bayfair Link Upgrade got underway last month, with CPB Contractors awarded the contract to build the second, and final, phase of the project, which includes two flyovers. The $120 million Baypark to Bayfair Link Upgrade will connect to the Tauranga Eastern Link, completing the Eastern Corridor for the Bay of Plenty. One flyover will take State Highway 29A traffic over the railway line and the Te Maunga intersection, and the other will take State Highway 2 traffic up and over the Maunganui-Girven roundabout. Transport Agency Bay of Plenty Highways manager Niclas Johansson, says stage one, which got underway in December 2015, went well.
“Stage one, which involved enabling works, major earthworks, and the relocation of the East Coast Main Trunk Line railway line, was completed in December 2016. “All going to plan we expect to have traffic using the new flyovers by 2020.” As part of the contract the existing Maunganui-Girven Road intersection will also be upgraded, the Te Maunga roundabout replaced with an elevated interchange, and walking and cycling connections will be improved between Baypark and Bayfair. The proposed walking and cycling facilities are currently being reviewed during the final design phase. The Transport Agency hopes to complete the review and identify any potential improvements to the current design before work starts.
JUNE 2017 7
CONTRACTOR UPFRONT
UPNEXT with Pacifecon Name Location Estimated $$
A $457m tunnel for ships An ambitious construction project in Norway will create a 1700-metre long passageway underneath a rocky peninsula for cruise and freight ships. In what will be the ‘world’s first tunnel for ships’, the Stad Ship Tunnel will be able to accommodate cruise and freight ships weighing up to 16,000 tonnes. Expected to open in 2023 the tunnel will be 37 metres high and 26.5 metres wide, and is estimated to cost at least $457 million. The tunnel is expected to be located at the narrowest point of the Stadlandet peninsula, where the weather has for decades been considered an obstacle for shipping. Terje Andreassen, the project manager, said engineers would have to blast out an estimated eight million tonnes of rock to build the tunnel. Construction is expected to start in 2019.
Civil works for residential development
Estimated start date
Auckland
$32m
Late 2017
Canterbury
$25m
Early 2018
Residential Upper subdivision South Island
$15m
Early 2019
Residential subdivision
Auckland
$15m
Late 2017
Infrastructure (services and carparking)
Auckland
$10m
Late 2017
Land reclamation
www.pacifecon.co.nz
Blurring lines and integrating efforts
The 2017 IPWEA NZ conference theme is called ‘Blurring the Lines – Integrating our Efforts’. It will be held in Dunedin June 22-24. This theme builds on past conference themes around responding to change. The 2017 theme throws a spotlight on how the industry can benefit from an integrated approach to the changes and challenges we are expecting. The association says we are in interesting times and we need to face the challenges together. “We see changes with shared services, information management, project design methods, management and delivery, baby boomers retiring, skill shortages, and an ethos of the customer at the centre. “The theme ‘Blurring the Lines – Integrating our Efforts’, highlights that solutions to changing circumstances can often be found by combining people and teams to work together in new ways. This may be within existing teams, or between regulators, infrastructure owners, designers and contractors.” Inherent in the theme, the conference will also seek to understand what the changes and challenges of the future look like. 8 www.contractormag.co.nz
The conference is being held in Dunedin’s historic Town Hall and conference centre in the middle of the city. The organising committee is also well advanced in confirming a range of national and international keynote speakers. These will both provide a wider perspective of the influences on our industry, and also take a closer look at some of the revolutionary developments that are expected to bring disruptive change to our infrastructure. Technical papers will be complemented by technical tours, with unique local flavour. Evening dinners will be accompanied by entertainment and the Annual Excellence Awards. Service and product suppliers will be on hand to inform you on their latest developments, and there will be time for relaxed discussion. “This will be a fabulous conference,” says conference chair Roger Oakley. “Dunedin City, and the Otago/Southland region are delighted to be the hosts. Join us for unparalleled education, networking, entertainment, and a break from the normal routine.” www.secureregistrations.com/ipweanz2017/
UPFRONT CONTRACTOR
Napier intersection project started Construction on the $13 million Watchman Road Intersection Improvements project in Napier has started. The project is being built by Higgins Construction and is scheduled for completion in June next year. The project involves the construction of a roundabout at the intersection, the widening and strengthening of Watchman Road, and the construction of a new road from Hawke’s Bay Airport to link to Watchman Road. The project is jointly funded from the National Land Transport Fund, Hawke’s Bay Airport and Napier City Council. It is part of a $25 million package of road access improvements to Napier Port, announced by the government as part of the Matariki – Hawke’s Bay Economic Development Action Plan, launched in July 2016.
NAWIC awards beckon Entries for the 2017 Hays National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC) Excellence Awards are open until June 5, with the awards being held in Auckland on August 18. Natalie Thornton, who won last year’s Hays NAWIC Excellence Award for the student/ apprentice category, encourages other women to “go for it and be proud of your achievements”. Since winning the award, Natalie has completed her apprenticeship and is now operations manager and foreman on larger construction sites. Megan Rule, who won last year’s Helen Tippett Award for actively promoting women in construction, says entering the awards helps promote diversity while improving the industry as a whole. “For me the success of this award is about participation and the opportunities to help each other achieve our goals. And Lynne Makepeace, joint winner of last year’s Professional Woman of the Year Award, says winning the award increased her confidence and made her realise that she is actually good at her job and well-respected in the industry. The categories are: •T he Helen Tippett Award, which celebrates
achievement in advancing the interests of women in the construction industry. • Tradeswoman of the Year, which celebrates the contribution tradeswomen are making to the industry. • Professional Woman of the Year, which focuses on women who have managed a construction project or those who operate their own business in the industry. • Rising Star, which celebrates women who demonstrate future leadership potential within the industry. This category is open to women who have worked in the construction industry for less than seven years. • Outstanding Achievement in Design, which celebrates the design aspect of a construction project in engineering, architecture or urban/ landscape design. • Excellence in Construction Services, which honours the contribution of women in administration, sales/marketing or operational roles within the industry. • Student/Apprentice Excellence Award, which is open to all women engaged in constructionrelated study or apprenticeships. www.nawic.org.nz, for nomination/entry.
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JUNE 2017 9
CONTRACTOR UPFRONT
Nailing it with women Back in April some 20 women started an inaugural course dedicated to getting more women in to trades. Called “Nailing It”, the range of real jobs the women did included learning to pour concrete and read site plans. They also had a chance to earn their Site Safe certificate and to achieve the next level of their driver’s licence. Christina Rogstad, Owen Lingard and Veronica White co-founded Destination Trades after recognising a mismatch between our urgent need for more tradespeople during the current construction boom and the huge pool of female talent being overlooked. Less than two percent of women are employed in the building and related trades according to Department of Statistics figures from 2013. Christina has seen a similar trade training scheme for women in Canada produce results that not only changed individual women’s lives, but that of their families and even whole indigenous communities. The first course was based at Auckland’s Manukau Institute of Technology Otara campus, but it had a major difference from usual lessons – the ‘classroom’ had no walls and no desks. Destination Trades had set up a ‘learning building site’ on MIT’s fields that utilised shipping containers for secure storage of equipment and a portacom, just like a normal construction site. Veronica White says the support of MIT, the Ministry of Social Development (MSD), the Ministry of Business Innovation and
Employment (MBIE) and industry was vital to getting the project off the ground. “It might be 40 years on since New Zealand saw the ‘girls can do anything’ campaign, but women still traditionally look to retail and places like call centres,” says Veronica. “There are 49,000 jobs on construction alone in this country and employers are screaming out for workers, yet they mostly overlook the huge talent pool of women. Where they do employ women, they find they are productive, reliable and safer with equipment.” The hopefuls also got an opportunity to go on site visits to potential employers, during the course. One of these was Fletcher Building, which says it would immediately welcome a larger pool of skilled workers. Kate Daly, chief people and communications officer for Fletcher Building, says: “Fletcher Building is focused on supporting women in construction and is passionate about attracting a diverse team of talented high quality employees. “We think it’s great that Destination Trades gives women an opportunity to have a reallife work experience so they are better able to make the choice to join the construction industry. There are many misconceptions about our industry and we welcome all initiatives that show people what a good industry it is to work in.” The Destination Trades trio say they already have interest for other courses, either targeting a particular job or trade, or a group of paying students.
WorkSafe on the back foot With 10 fatalities in the first three months of the year, WorkSafe chief executive Nicole Rosie says the upward trend is “really concerning”. The deaths were also in ‘traditionally’ high risk sectors: three in forestry, two in farming and two in construction. “What we are seeing is that those activities continue to be the major cause of workplace fatalities,” says Rosie. The government introduced new health and safety laws a year ago and has been running a safety campaign on TV that compared our industry deaths with other countries. This stance has been criticised because accurate international workplace H&S comparisons are impossible, as there is no standard in different markets for collecting data. Sceptics also say it is impossible for this country to develop a better safety culture on 10 www.contractormag.co.nz
the worksite when our civil laws (espcially under our ‘no blame’ ACC scheme) outside the workplace are so lackadaisical. Meantime, from last year new laws require all businesses to identify work-related risks and do what is “reasonably practicable” to eliminate or manage them. The act also brought in a $600,000 fine for those held responsible for workplace accidents. Rosie says in the end, the agency has not got the resources to force a work safety culture change and is relying on every workplace and business being “committed” to improving their health and safety. “Yes, as a regulator we have new tools, but ultimately, it does require a culture change and that has to be led by individual businesses and every individual wanting to be safer,” she says.
Fraser Wyllie takes over MD operations McConnell Dowell has appointed Fraser Wyllie to lead its Kiwi and Pacific Islands operations and build on the foundations laid by his predecessor Roger McRae. Fraser has more than 30 years’ experience, most recently as executive general manager projects at Downer. He has a Bachelor of Civil Engineering from the University of Auckland and a Master of Business Administration from Massey University. Fraser is expected to commence in the role in the first week of August. McConnell Dowell group chief executive Scott Cummins says Fraser’s leadership and people skills have been reflected in his successful track record. “I’m confident Fraser will make a strong contribution in terms of successful project delivery, profitability and sustainable growth.” Scott also recognised the service of outgoing managing director Roger McRae, who has decided to step down after more than 16 years in the job and 30 years with McConnell Dowell. “We would like to thank Roger for all he’s done, and we look forward to maintaining an ongoing working relationship with him as he moves into the next phase of his career,” he says.
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Kapiti Coast & Wellington Carl Southee 021 981 850
Auckland South Bryce Mason 021 682 403
Nelson, Marlborough & West Coast Scott Bonnington 029 200 8382
Waikato James West 029 299 8909
Canterbury Matt Holloway 029 208 0423
Rotorua & Bay of Plenty Shayne Kennedy 029 200 7270
Otago Brent Duncan 029 222 4682
Central North Island Paul Roche 021 954 376
Southland Pete Shaw 021 277 6597
Taranaki & Manawatu Michael Groube 0274 381 850
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CONTRACTOR UPFRONT
MetService expands Milford Road Alliance service
MD’s Aussie win McConnell Dowell took out Australia’s pre-eminent engineering construction award for its pivotal contribution to the Port of Melbourne’s $1.6 billion Webb Dock Port Capacity Upgrade Project. The 2017 Australian Construction Achievement Award recognised McConnell Dowell’s $400 million Maritime Works Package. Group chief executive of McConnell Dowell, Scott Cummins, says the project is an outstanding example of collaboration, innovation and creative construction. “Project director Jim Miller and his team are to be congratulated on being awarded Australia’s most prestigious accolade against a field of five other worthy shortlisted contestants.” The scope of work included the design and construction of 1.5 kilometres of wharf, the dredging of over 1.8 million cubic metres of spoil, upgraded navigational aids and the extraction of strongly embedded previous piles weighing up to 80 tonnes. It presented operational, environmental, engineering and geotechnical challenges. In accepting the award, McConnell Dowell’s Jim Miller said: “The award is recognition of years of dedication by many people. They lived and breathed the fundamentals of our team charter displaying and holding themselves true to behaviours around trust, respect, accountability, honesty, empathy and resilience.” The Australian Construction Achievement Award was created by the Australian Constructors Association (ACA) and Engineers Australia to recognise and reward innovation and the highest standard of work in the Australian construction industry. The chair of the judging panel, Peter Godfrey, said of the win: “The maritime package had to be completed adjacent to other major construction activities and a working port. “The Webb Dock East component was complex and multi-faceted, requiring high levels of coordination with an operational dock, undertaken within a constricted and busy footprint.”
Climbing through the Southern Alps, State Highway 94 is one of our highest and most scenic highways and includes the Milford Road, which stretches from Te Anau through Fiordland National Park to one of New Zealand’s major tourist attractions – Milford Sound. The impacts of weather on Milford Road can be severe. The Milford Road Alliance is a partnership between the NZ Transport Agency and Downer NZ to manage State Highway 94 between Te Anau and Milford Sound, including the Homer tunnel, incident response, and an avalanche control programme that is critical in the winter season (May to November). Based in Te Anau, the Alliance operates specialised weather and environmental data acquisition devices at both road and mountain levels. Information from these systems is supplied to MetService forecasters to provide regular expert interpretation. For this winter season, MetService is providing the Alliance with several new and enhanced forecast services, including severe weather threat matrices covering the threat of snow, strong winds, and heavy rain with Free Air Freezing Level (FAFL). In addition rainfall, snow and cloud ceiling forecast maps are being provided. Site-specific rainfall and temperature probability forecasts complete the picture in term of value-added forecast services. On top of this, significant improvements to the distribution and communication of data and forecasts have been made. These new services complement those currently provided by MetService to the Alliance and are designed to assist informed decisionmaking about the management of the road at an operational level including mitigating the risks posed by avalanches.
CONTRACTORS’ DIARY 2017 Date
Event & Venue
Contact
15-16 Jun Society of Construction Law NZ
–
Identifying & Managing Obligations, Te Papa, Wellington
www.constructionlaw.org.nz
17 Jun
CCNZ Auckland branch gala awards, Auckland
auckland@civilcontractors.co.nz
19-21 Jul
AQA/IoQ Joint Annual Conference, Viaduct Events Centre Auckland
www.aqa.org.nz/annualconference
19-21 Jul
Crane Association Annual Conference, Rotorua
www.cranes.org.nz
22-24 Jul
IPWEA Annual Conference, Dunedin
www.secureregistrations.com/ipweanz2017
23-25 Jul
Local Government New Zealand Annual Conference, SkyCity,, Auckland
www.lgnz.co.nz
2-5 Aug
CCNZ Annual Conference and AGM, Dunedin Events Centre
www.ccnzconference.co.nz
16-19 Aug
NZ Heavy Haulage Association, Napier Conference Centre, Marine Parade
www.hha.org.nz
23-24 Aug
NZ Roadmarkers Conference Distinction Hotel, Hamilton
www.nzrf.co.nz
Please send any contributions for Contractors’ Diary to kevin@contrafed.co.nz, or phone 09 636 5710
12 www.contractormag.co.nz
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CONTRACTOR UPFRONT
The Auckland branch of the CCNZ held its first general meeting at the Ellerslie Events Centre last month.
It’s the bloody software again! The rumour mill went ballistic when the NZTA had to delay opening the Waterview tunnel complex. However, the agency says it was caused by software problems – isn’t that always the case? “There has been an intermittent fault in the software for the jet fan and water extraction pump system that are part of the deluge system. Changes are being made to the software to remedy this, and parts of some valves are being replaced. “Testing and commissioning of the complex systems that ensure the safe operation of the Waterview Tunnel are continuing and progressing well. “The testing and commissioning has worked exactly as it’s designed to do. It has picked up a potential issue before opening and steps are now being taken to fix this to ensure the tunnel operates as expected when it opens.” The Waterview Connection has been in construction for five years and “short delays” like this are not uncommon for such a large scale and complex construction programme, the NZTA adds. “Building a project of this size in an urban environment in this time scale is on a par with similar projects worldwide in similar environments.”
14 www.contractormag.co.nz
Eight-decade-old tractor fetches $46,000 Readers will recall news of Euro Auctions in Northern Ireland selling over 100 classic tractors with many historically important models from the 1940s, 50s and 60s in a one-day auction this past Easter. Most of the collection had been amassed by John Flynn over the past four decades, with many of the tractors having been restored and regularly maintained so were in full working order. Over 500 bidders from 25 countries pre-registered for the auction with more than a third bidding online, but the majority of tractors were sold as ‘one off’ purchases to individuals in the UK and Republic of Ireland. Most of the tractors went for really good money, with several in the collection, as expected, selling for just a couple of thousand pounds each, but the star lot was a little grey 1938 Ferguson Brown Type A. It was bought for £24,500 by Cecil Murphy (pictured left with the tractor and his older brother Robert) a retired arable and beef farmer who lives in Hillsborough, just a couple of miles up the road from Euro Auctions’ Dromore site. This tractor (BZ 5845) has a Coventry Climax engine and had its original log book and a wealth of documented Irish history and had originally been owned by Cecil’s uncle and then his father who bought it in 1938 and sold it in 1952. “There was considerable interest in this particular lot which drove the price up a little, but for me it was a must-have purchase and it’s really good to have it back in the family and for it to remain in Northern Ireland,” says Cecil. “According to my family folklore, Harry Ferguson visited the farm on several occasions in the 1940s and will have seen it in operation and may well have driven it himself.” Cecil says the vintage tractor will be exhibited at various regional shows to help promote farming heritage and raise money for cancer charities. The Ferguson Brown revolutionised farming back in its day as it was the first tractor that allowed various implements like ploughs to be connected directly to the vehicle and raised and lowered using a gear system. When originally sold it cost £224 plus a further £26 for a basic range of implements. By contrast the contemporary Fordson cost only £140.
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CONTRACTOR ON THE COVER
BIGGER THAN BIG – the Goodman Contractors’ purchase of two new Cat wheeled tractor scrapers from Gough Cat is a once in a generation addition to its fleet. CAMERON OFFICER explains. THIS KAPITI COAST construction company needed to be one
hundred percent sure it was investing in both the right machine technology for the ultimate performance, and the right distributor for expert technical back-up. There’s big and then there’s Cat big. And if it’s a big Cat machine you’re after, they don’t come much more generouslysized than the legendary manufacturer’s 637K wheeled tractor scraper. This is seriously XXL-sized iron, with suitably serious power and earthmoving abilities to match. Seeing one arrive in New Zealand would be a big deal, but with Waikanae-headquartered Goodman Contractors ordering two 637Ks from Gough Cat to add to its busy machine fleet, it’s a real occasion for managing director Stan Goodman and his team. It’s over 40 years since the family-run company bought a brand-new scraper, highlighting the longevity expected from these sorts of machines on the earthmoving and construction front line. “We’ve been Cat customers for the last few years and as the company has grown, [Cat’s New Zealand distributor] Gough Cat has grown with us,” says Stan. “The scrapers are big ticket items; there’s no two way around that. This was a big decision for us, as in the past we’ve only purchased second-hand scrapers. “That’s why peace-of-mind is everything; we have confidence in the machines, but they also give us confidence we can tackle a greater variety of work on a large scale.” With Goodman Contractors’ previous newest scraper dating 16 www.contractormag.co.nz
back to 1982, Stan says the new Cat 637Ks are an absolute leap ahead across the board when compared with what they’ve run in the past. “It would have been less of a big step to buy a couple of smaller scrapers. But to be honest, I don’t think we would end up as far ahead in the game as a result,” he continues. “These machines are built tough and you just can’t compare the degree of finesse available from the Cat 637s with what you get from a smaller unit. “The 40-ton capacity of the twin-powered machines means they’re really suited to the bigger jobs we have coming up. They can carry more, meaning we can work much more efficiently and quicker too. But they’re also fuel efficient, which is important for us across the length of a project.” Straightforward toughness is perhaps a given. But Stan is quick to point out that the two big yellow machines offer a huge amount of technological advancement to his company too. “These machines have seven separate computing systems onboard; even though they’re at the heavy-duty end of the scale, they’re seriously technical machines,” he says. The Cat 637K wheeled tractor scrapers feature a number of clever features designed to improve performance and operation. There is a two-stage Fuel Economy Mode system onboard, which automatically varies power distribution between the tractor and the scraper to allow operation at lower revs. The Ground Speed Control and Machine Speed Limit systems,
new Cat 637K scraper meanwhile, both work to improve each scraper’s performance during specific tasks, helping to manage fuel burn and engine load. Ground Speed Control allows the operator to set a desired top speed for the machine, ensuring it works in a gear ratio optimised for the best engine performance. Taking the place of top gear selection, Machine Speed Limit functionality is intended for use when top speed needs to be limited for longer durations. Allowing the engine and transmission to select the correct gear to pull the load will, in most cases, lower both the engine load and fuel burn versus using top gear selection. There are also numerous safety features engineered into the Cat 637K tractor scrapers. In addition to Tyre Spin Reduction, which allows the machine to control the slip of the tractor tyres, Engine Over-Speed Protection calculates the acceleration rate and ensures the compression brakes will automatically engage in an engine over-speed situation. Things are comfortable for the operator too, with an ergonomically designed command console and better outward visibility across all points of the machine. What’s more, the interior space on offer is 21 percent greater than in the K Series machine’s predecessor. The Cat 637K also features High Pressure Steering, which reduces the steering effort required to manoeuvre the tractor scraper, helping to mitigate driver fatigue over long work cycles. And speaking of operator comfort, a clever system called Advanced Cushion Hitch is also available on the Cat 637K. Relying on advanced software that reacts with machine movement in real-time, this system has the ability to predict end-
stroke events through the cushion hitch and manage the rate of dampening accordingly. The smart system results in reduced hitch maintenance and improved ride for the operator across rough ground. The two new additions to the Goodman Contractors fleet takes the number of twin-powered scrapers the firm runs to eight. On the question of whether Goodmans will have dedicated operators for the two new machines, Stan says that yes, and for the time being my brother Vaughan and his son Cody will be the operators. “The machines are unique to our company, from both an operator and a mechanical point-of-view, so within the timeframes available to us between project commitments, we’re being very methodical about getting to know how the machines work. “We also need to get our mechanics skilled up on the service requirements of the 637s. But we have a good knowledge base to assist with that in the form of Gough Cat. We wouldn’t have made such a large purchase decision without a solid distributor behind our chosen machines. Goughs has the technical experience to help us get to grips with the machines over the next few months. “Mind you, we would expect each machine to offer troublefree operation for the first 15,000 hours or so and, in reality, that could be 15 years’ worth of work,” concludes Stan. “You have to sort of adjust your expectations with machines like these; everything is on a different scale.” In all, bigger, it seems, really can be better.
•
JUNE 2017 17
CONTRACTOR COMPANY PROFILE
The past quarter-century has seen abseiling rise from a pastime for the not-so-faint-at-heart to a vital service in the civil construction industry. HUGH DE LACY traces its development.
18 www.contractormag.co.nz
B G O N I J G E N TH I W S OM R F ROCK-CLIMBING AND MOUNTAINEERING were
the passion of a Scotsman and an Englishman who migrated to New Zealand in the early 1990s, and they’ve turned that passion into a professional abseiling company which encountered spiralling demand for its services in the wake of the South Island earthquakes. Donald ‘DJ’ Matheson, with a background in computer studies, had served with Scottish mountain rescue teams while doing abseil inspection and maintenance work as a “North Sea Tiger” working out of Aberdeen on the
North Sea oil rigs. He had completed computer studies courses and faced a lifetime in offices, but “I wasn’t an inside person”, he tells Contractor. Martin Wilson was a juggler – yes, and really good at it – while earning an engineering degree in England before both he and Donald wound up independently in New Zealand, in part to escape Margaret Thatcher’s Britain but also drawn by this country’s “gorgeous” mountains, as Donald puts it. A mutual friend, Paul ‘Dodgy’ Rogers, JUNE 2017 19
CONTRACTOR COMPANY PROFILE
Immediately after the quakes that flattened much of the Christchurch central business district in February 2011, Abseil Access was called in to assist with geo-technical surveys of the Port Hills – they had no role in the post-quake rescues which were carried out by specialist rescue teams.
20 www.contractormag.co.nz
another keen mountaineer and rock-climber, introduced the pair in 1992, and the following year they set up their professional abseiling company Abseil Access. They launched into business at a time when demand for abseiling skills was largely limited to high-rise building inspection, window-cleaning and painting in the vertical construction industry, but had only limited applications to horizontal infrastructure. Mundane jobs such as window-cleaning did not appeal much to the pair, but they could
see an increasing role for their skills in slip clearance in the roading sector. Another thing that they could see was that such work was a high-skills specialty area that needed to be covered by industry standards, and New Zealand had none at the time. There were, however, international standards administered by the British-based Industrial Rope Access Trade Association (IRATA) which conducted training worldwide, and under which both Donald and Martin had gained professional qualifications.
From its modest beginnings in the early 1990s, Abseil Access’ Wellington branch has grown to eight full-time employees and 12 contractors, while the Christchurch branch has five full-timers and 18 contractors.
JUNE 2017 21
CONTRACTOR COMPANY PROFILE
Including Abseil Access, more than 50 abseilers from five companies – the others are Rock Control, Geovert, Highway Geotechnical, Geotech Ground Engineering – have been working on the Kaikoura slips.
22 www.contractormag.co.nz
In the absence of them in New Zealand, and needing some form of official recognition for their skills, the pair approached the Department of Labour (DoL) with a pile of paper that included documentation, processes and procedures drawn from their experience and qualifications in the United Kingdom. They got a positive reception from DoL senior inspector Ian Sheppard, who promptly issued them with a letter of approval. Subsequently Standards New Zealand became involved, and Donald was invited onto the committee that in 1997 framed a local unit standard qualification administered by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority, which in turn led to the establishment of the Industrial Rope Access Association of New Zealand (IRAANZ). The first decade of the new millennium heralded an expansive era for industrial ropeaccess services, with Abseil Access hired to install height-safety anchors for abseiling on many high-rises built before it was realised that rope access could in many cases be a less
expensive alternative to scaffolding. Abseil Access was based in Wellington at the time, and worked in close collaboration with Christchurch-based outdoor clothing company, Cactus Climbing, which is still in business. But it was the geo-technical work that really interested Donald and Martin, and this segment expanded exponentially when the still-running sequence of major South Island earthquakes began in September 2010. Immediately after the quakes that flattened much of the Christchurch central business district in February 2011, Abseil Access was called in to assist with geo-technical surveys of the Port Hills – they had no role in the post-quake rescues which were carried out by specialist rescue teams. With a workforce boosted into double figures, they had the job of identifying, stabilising and sometimes shifting by hand loose rocks and boulders threatening houses at the top and bottom of the Port Hills cliffs. The emergency response phase of the
Kaikoura Co-operation The Kaikoura quakes of last November brought new and continuing demand for rope-access services, and Access Abseil worked initially on the slips on SH1 south of the township. Now that road access has been gained from the south, the company is working on the even bigger slips still blocking SH1
Canterbury earthquakes lasted for 18 months, by which time industrial rope access had matured as a core skill for hillside construction, and the company had gratefully shed its more mundane duties like cleaning, painting and putting up advertising banners. By this time too the value of abseilers had been recognised in the roading sector where big slips, like those that kept closing the Manawatu Gorge, required people clearing rocks and spoil from the top as well as the bottom. Another job the company did in the immediate aftermath of the Kaikoura quakes was to assist Opus International in inspecting the Waiau Ferry Bridge, which gives access to Hanmer off SH7 and is also the site of a bungy-jumping operation. The bridge proved to be undamaged. In the meantime, Abseil Access, now referring to themselves as rope-access engineers, expanded into inspection, designing and building swing-bridges for the Department of Conservation and landowners in remote locations. It’s a good little sideline that employs both the company’s
to the north, and which are going to take till the end of this year to clear. Including Abseil Access, more than 50 abseilers from five companies – the others are Rock Control, Geovert, Highway Geotechnical, Geotech Ground Engineering – have been working on the northern slips.
rope-access skills and its formal engineering design-and-build capacity. Today the company operates branches in Wellington and Christchurch, with the northern branch dealing more with highrise maintenance and the southern with geo-tech, much of it for the North Canterbury Transport Infrastructure Recovery organisation (NCTIR, or Nectar) which is cleaning up the mess left by the Kaikoura quakes. From its modest beginnings in the early 1990s, Abseil Access’ Wellington branch has grown to eight full-time employees and 12 contractors, while the Christchurch branch has five fulltimers and 18 contractors. Since moving south permanently with his life-partner three years ago, Donald runs the Christchurch office and Martin the Wellington one. It’s been a fair old journey for both of them since their startup in 1993, but they’ve had the satisfaction of seeing their abseiling, rock-climbing and mountaineering skills elevated to a key element in our horizontal infrastructure industry.
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JUNE 2017 23
CONTRACTOR PROJECT
Project overview The project team will construct a total of five single column piers in the river and abutments on each river bank. Paths will also link via underpasses on either side of the new bridge to connect with the historic bridge, which will be transformed into a walking and cycle route.
24 www.contractormag.co.nz
A park area will be created on the northern river bank and provide a stunning vantage point across the falls and the old and new bridges. Features such as the historic turbine will be reinstated in the park to celebrate both the future and the past.
READY FOR THE SUMMER A last link with the gold-rush days, the old Kawarau Falls bridge, giving access to Queenstown, is in the process of being replaced. HUGH DE LACY reports.
JUNE 2017 25
CONTRACTOR PROJECT
The steel lined up in the staging area is ready to be pushed out to form the skeleton of the new bridge deck.
26 www.contractormag.co.nz
HAVING IT READY by the ski season was asking
a bit much, but two-way traffic across the new Kawarau Falls bridge near Frankton should be a reality in time for the Christmas tourism rush in Queenstown. A long time in planning, the new $22 million bridge on SH6 will free up traffic presently constrained by the old single-lane bridge and dam a little upstream, which has been a throttle on rising traffic movements across the Kawarau River. The design-and-construct contract was awarded to McConnell Dowell in September 2015, for a bridge that will be about 250 metres long and 14 metres wide, built on a curve with a 163 metre radius, and sitting on five singlecolumn piers spaced 45 metres apart. It will have the strength to withstand a oncein-2500-years earthquake. The bridge will comprise two motor vehicle lanes with sealed shoulders for cycling and a footpath on one side. The old bridge, first mooted by Julius Vogel in 1864 and promoted in the great Works Minister’s 1889 novel Anno Domini 2000, was built by private funds in 1926 to dam Lake Wakatipu at its Kawarau River outlet, with the hope of lowering the downstream river level enough to reveal further rich alluvial gold deposits. This proved only partially successful: while some gold was recovered, other rivers feeding
the lake, such as the Shotover, would have also had to be dammed to gain the full hopedfor effect, but the money ran out long before further dams became feasible. Instead the bridge/dam over the Kawarau became more effective as a replacement for ferries than it ever was for revitalising the fading Central Otago gold boom. When the new bridge is opened, the old one with its impressive views will be converted to pedestrian and cycle traffic, linked to the expanding regional cycle-ways and accessed by a pass under the new bridge on the northern bank. It will add to the vista that greets northbound travellers crossing the new bridge. As expected, the sinking of the piles for the new bridge into the bed of the fast-flowing river threw up a few challenges. “In some places in the deeper section it was 12 metres from the water level to the riverbed,” McConnell Dowell project manager Jim Washbrooke says. “On the deepest pile we had to drill four metres into the riverbed to find competent rock, then a further eight metres to secure our socket.” An innovation was to use smaller drilling equipment to stitch-drill the rock for the 1.2 metre piles, rather than one that would drill the full diameter. Reefton-based family firm Speight Drilling
This bridge nose has a major role in placing the steel girders for the new bridge deck.
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JUNE 2017 27
CONTRACTOR PROJECT
Two of the key engineers during a recent deck launch (left) senior site engineer, Bryce Irving and senior design engineer, Paul Lavoipierre.
drilled the series of 178mm diameter interlocking circumference holes, as well as some relief holes to the full depth of the rock socket. McConnell Dowell then drove the casings anywhere between 500mm and four metres into competent rock. “The bulk of the rock was broken up by dropping heavy steel chisels or choppers suspended from a crane, then removing the material with a clamshell,” Jim says. “A 12 tonne reamer then filed off any rock fins and proved the diameter of the pile.” Once enough piers had been built, the steel girders were assembled and braced on the temporary launch platform adjacent to the southern abutment. A temporary launch-nose was bolted to the leading row of girders, which were then gradually pushed out to the waiting piers. The launch-nose was enhanced with a tilting tip which could be hydraulically raised or lowered to ease the approach to the pier. It was a “cool engineering device” that McConnell Dowell engineer Paul Lavoipierre says he’d been looking for just the right project to use on. It was the first time Jim Washbrooke had seen a tilting nose in operation, and it worked a treat. “It just gives us the ability to adjust the front of the nose hydraulically: it’ll go up and down as required for the launching of the girders,” he says. The launching was accomplished in half-span sequences, each one taking about two hours, and the last of the girders was due to be in place by the end of May. No fewer than five crawler cranes are being used in the process, two of 150 tonne, one each of 100 tonnes and 80 tonnes, and a 66 tonne rough-terrain model, all supplied by Rangiora company Daniel Smith Industries. The rough-terrain machine is used to unload the girders 28 www.contractormag.co.nz
as they arrive at the stockpile point the company has leased nearby. The part-finished project comfortably survived its first seismic challenge, the 7.8 magnitude Kaikoura earthquake in November last year, but the plans to transport the girders – the heaviest weighing 16 tonnes – from the Napier factory of prefabricator Eastbridge were severely disrupted. The original idea had been to rail the girders, with a collective weight of 800 tonnes, to Oamaru, then to truck them across the island to the construction site. The quake’s destruction of the Main Trunk rail line between Picton and Cheviot put paid to that idea, and instead the girders were trucked all the way down, the journey for each section taking three to four days. This might have forced further delays, but Eastbridge was able to get the components built and transported without creating any construction holdups. The company that transported the girders to site was Freightliners of Otorohanga, and NZTA met the additional cost. Connecting the new bridge to SH6 will require about 450 metres of road approaches from the south and about 150 metres from the north, and will contribute to work being done nearby at the Frankton interchange to improve access between Queenstown Airport, Frankton Flats and the tourist town itself. The northern approaches are constrained where the new and old bridges converge, while the southern approaches require widening of the existing road and riverbank, and cutting into the upslope batter. The old Kawarau Falls bridge has for decades provided a South Island parallel to the bottleneck at the recentlyreplaced Kopu Bridge, linking Auckland with the Coromandel Peninsula, so while Aucklanders now revel in the easier access to their favourite holiday spots, so too will the skiers and tourists who make Queenstown their winter and summer destination.
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CONTRACTOR PROJECT
Taramakau Bridge The NZ Transport Agency says work on the West Coast’s new Taramakau Bridge project, on State Highway 6 between Greymouth and Kumara Junction, is progressing well. A NEW TWO-LANE bridge will be built downstream of the existing one-lane Taramakau Bridge. A section of State Highway 6 will be realigned and an overpass built to take traffic over the railway line. An off-road cycle and pedestrian link will also be built. The bridge will be built between Greymouth and the Kumara Junction, 30 metres downstream of the existing single-lane road and rail bridge. The new bridge will be 250 metres long, 10 metres high and 15 metres wide. The project will see a section of SH6 realigned and an overpass built to take road traffic over the railway line. A 2.5 metre wide, off-road cycle and pedestrian facility that will link into an existing cycle track will also be built. The existing bridge will remain in place and will be used solely as a rail bridge. The clip-on cycle and walking bridge will be installed at another yet to be determined site. Fulton Hogan has been awarded the contract for the project. Work is expected to be complete by the end of 2018. Transport Agency Highways manager Colin Knaggs says people will start to notice big changes over the next few weeks as work on the project ramps up. “Work on the new Taramakau Bridge project is progressing really well. A work site has been established and fenced off, work on the cycling and walking link is underway, and
permanent sediment control ponds are in place to treat any water runoff from site,” Colin says. “Major earthworks to stabilise and strengthen the ground on either side of the site of the new bridge have also been carried out in preparation for the bridge approaches to be constructed, and the contractor is getting ready to build a temporary staging structure across the Taramakau River. “This will be used as a base to build the new bridge from. A 180-tonne crane will be used to construct the temporary structure, with work expected to start in the next few weeks.” Colin says piling work will get underway once the temporary structure is in place. “This work will see steel casings driven into the riverbed to a 30-metre depth. Pre-constructed bridge columns will then be connected into the piles in order to complete work in the riverbed between the regular flood events. “The new Taramakau Bridge is a long-awaited project for the West Coast that will provide significant improvements for travellers in terms of safety, travel times and journey experience. We know people will be excited to see it take shape.” Work started on the Government Accelerated Regional Roading project in December 2017. The project is expected to be finished by the end of 2018.
“The new Taramakau Bridge is a long-awaited project for the West Coast that will provide significant improvements for travellers in terms of safety, travel times and journey experience. 30 www.contractormag.co.nz
project
JUNE 2017 31
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34 www.contractormag.co.nz
Working against the elements
Rain, wind and snow have conspired to delay a major realignment on SH73 between Canterbury and the West Coast. HUGH DE LACY gets his wet gear on. CONTRACTOR AND CLIENT ALIKE knew that the
5.2 kilometre realignment taking in the Mingha Bluff on SH73, a little to the east of Arthur’s Pass, was going to be weather-dependent, but they never counted on the nine metres of rain that fell in the first 22 months of the $22 million project. Indeed, the wild West Coast weather was deceptively placid during the first winter and summer after work started in May 2015, but it was saving its demons for the 20162017 summer, when it was demonic enough to postpone the project’s completion date till spring this year. The project was originally scheduled to be completed by March, but by then the weather had allowed just 80 percent of it to be finished. The Mingha Bluff to Rough Creek stretch of highway between Greyney’s Shelter and Arthur’s Pass alpine village comprises one of the hilliest and windiest stretches of road across the Southern Alps, and its realignment has been the
biggest project on SH73 in 10 years. Funded through NZTA as one of the government’s five Accelerated Regional Roading Package projects, it realigns the road itself closer to the Midland Railway line. That has required 450 metres of rail line to be moved into the adjacent Bealey River bed to accommodate the new road alignment, which includes extensive river protection works. Hawkins Infrastructure, which on April 1 this year was acquired by Downer, has been the head contractor at Mingha Bluff, supported by Westland Contractors of Hokitika, Truline Civil of Greymouth and Smith Crane and Construction of Christchurch, and between them they have had up to 70 workers on-site at a time. The original contract allowed for 190 wet days over the two-years life of the project, and that seemed more than adequate as a dry 2015-2016 winter and summer allowed the work to surge ahead.
The Mingha Bluff to Rough Creek stretch of highway between Greyney’s Shelter and Arthur’s Pass alpine village comprises one of the hilliest and windiest stretches of road across the Southern Alps, and its realignment has been the biggest project on SH73 in 10 years.
JUNE 2017 35
CONTRACTOR PROJECT
Traffic control, even on such a remote site, has been a major challenge throughout the project. Normal expectations of traffic flows along SH73 went out the window after the midNovember Kaikoura earthquake closed the Lewis Pass, forcing Coast-bound traffic over Arthur’s Pass.
36 www.contractormag.co.nz
But then came the 2016-2017 summer, and with it – as well as some untimely snow – came rainfall of up to 378mm a week that reduced work to two and a half days out of five. The weekly rainfall exceeded 200mm no fewer than 12 times, and during a single month it topped the metre mark – 1085mm, to be precise. The weather was one thing, but traffic control, even on such a remote site, has been a major challenge throughout the project. Normal expectations of traffic flows along SH73 went out the window after the midNovember Kaikoura earthquake closed the Lewis Pass, forcing Coast-bound traffic over
Arthur’s Pass. On two occasions both SH7 (the Lewis Pass) and SH1 were blocked at the same time, once by quake-generated slips and the second time by a huge fire near Hanmer, forcing northbound traffic out of Christchurch to go over Arthur’s Pass to Kumara, then up past Westport to get to the ferries at Picton. Automatic lights were mainly used to control the traffic, but sometimes the lights had to be operated manually to stop traffic backing up too far. To cope, Hawkins Infrastructure split the five kilometre realignment into 11 successive zones, each one representing a part of the project with
different traffic management requirements. Detours of two or three weeks’ duration were imposed twice to guide motorists through the complex work-site. And that was only the road traffic. While KiwiRail took responsibility for actually laying the tracks on the realigned stretch of line, Hawkins had the job of building up the ballast for them to sit on. More importantly, Hawkins had to build no fewer than 25 culverts beneath the 5.2 kilometres of affected rail line – and another
31 on the road realignment – without ever interrupting the schedules of a dozen trains a day taking milk, coal and tourists from or to the West Coast. This called for precise timing of the installation of the 2.5-metre square concrete segments, pre-cast in Greymouth, that comprised many of the culverts, as each one had to be built beneath the railway and made operational within seven to 12 hours. The fact that the crews never had to delay a train throughout the installation of the rail
Hawkins had to build no fewer than 25 culverts beneath the 5.2 kilometres of affected rail line – and another 31 on the road realignment – without ever interrupting the schedules of a dozen trains a day taking milk, coal and tourists from or to the West Coast.
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JUNE 2017 37
CONTRACTOR PROJECT
The weather was a constant threat to the road surfacing: with no silt or clay to bond them, the aggregate was all too easily washed away in the rain. With the Mingha Bluff otherwise likely to slip into the river, taking road and rail with it, no fewer than eight retaining walls of up to five metres high had to be installed.
38 www.contractormag.co.nz
culverts was “something we’re very proud of”, Hawkins’ contract director, Graham Crow, tells Contractor. Back on the road realignment, the weather was a constant threat to the road surfacing: with no silt or clay to bond them, the aggregate was all too easily washed away in the rain. With the Mingha Bluff otherwise likely to slip into the river, taking road and rail with it, no fewer than eight retaining walls of up to five metres high had to be installed. Sub-contractor Smith Crane proposed using a proprietary brand of retaining wall called Stonestrong, comprising hollow concrete blocks 900mm high and 2.5 metres long, and this was adopted by the client. Around 1800 of the blocks, mostly filled with concrete or local fill, but with some also strengthened by reinforcing steel, were used to construct a total of 1450 lineal metres of retaining wall. Inevitably the management of stormwater was a major consideration on so challenging a site. “We were changing the topography, and if you’re not careful you can change the water course and create a dam, or block culverts and cause shingle fans across the road,” Graham says.
Just in case things weren’t complicated enough, the project lies within a national park, so it drew in an unusually wide range of stakeholders besides the client NZTA, including Ngai Tahu, the Department of Conservation, Environment Canterbury, the Selwyn District Council, KiwiRail and the Arthur’s Pass alpine village community. Graham is adamant that despite the challenges, including weather that was “mindnumbingly bad” at times, the project will be completed this coming spring, with work continuing over the winter come rain or – less likely – shine. The last of the retaining walls will be installed over winter, along with guard-rails, wire rope barriers and the landscaping. A temporary seal will be applied to hold the carriageway together, and the final seal and road-marking will be done in the spring. This project, plus the Lincoln-to-Westgate roading job for NZTA in Auckland, will be Hawkins Infrastructure’s last big horizontal infrastructure projects. However Hawkins, one of the country’s biggest vertical construction companies, will see its brand live on in that segment of the market as Hawkins Construction, albeit under the Downer umbrella.
JUNE 2017 39
CONTRACTOR TECHNICAL
The bridge is constructed in four sections, each taking up to three months to complete.
Albert Street excavation area.
40 www.contractormag.co.nz
Keeping the city moving The Connectus JV is constructing a bridge to maintain traffic and people flows while protecting Auckland’s utility services. AUCKLAND’S CITY RAIL LINK (CRL) is the
Above: Before installing the steel structure and backfill with structural concrete. This reinforces the base of the deck section for traffic and will protect the utility services from the excavation of the tunnels.
A timber framework is formed to backfill the deck section up to the road, which is then filled with flowable fill, a low-density concrete.
Final steps are to backfill the deck section with aggregate, several layers of asphalt and then marked up and reinstated, ready for use by the public.
biggest infrastructure project in New Zealand and is taking place in a busy inner city environment full of traffic and people. It’s essential to keep the city moving throughout the construction works. High volumes of pedestrians and traffic use the Customs-Albert intersection, under which the CRL’s twin tunnels will run. Also under this intersection are high volume eftpos and internet cables, electricity cables, stormwater, water and sewerage systems, servicing the high-end retail, hotel, businesses and apartments of a modern global city. Like the road and pedestrian traffic, they must continue to operate seamlessly. So how can this be achieved when a 14-metre-deep trench needs to cut through a location used by a quarter of central Auckland’s public transport passengers and thousands of workers, residents, tourists and shoppers every day? The answer is: carefully constructing a bridge in stages. The challenges faced are not small, as Lance Vazey, bridge deck project engineer, says. “This job needs extra attention as the utility services are live. A moment’s inattention and we can shut down the water, gas, internet or the electricity to Auckland’s CBD or even worse, hurt someone. So we get it right, safely.” The task for Connectus (the McConnell Dowell and Downer joint venture) is to prepare for the excavation of the twin tunnels along Albert Street from Customs Street to Wyndham Street, which will start at the beginning of next month (July). The Customs Street junction deck sections make it look like the Connectus JV is rebuilding the road in pieces. But within two months these pieces will become an underground bridge to protect Auckland’s utility networks and keep traffic flowing. The team will excavate 14 metres under the bridge and the tunnel boxes will then be
built at this depth. The bridge is constructed in four sections, each taking up to three months to complete. Two sections have already been completed. The third section will be completed in July and the fourth section will be constructed from July to September 2017. The first stage of the construction bridge is to excavate each section. A temporary timber retaining wall is built around the section to support and secure the wall against the road. The utility services are then supported and protected to ensure there is no disruption to local residents and businesses. Once this is completed, the construction of the deck section can start. Underneath the utility services, the ground is poured with site concrete before installing the steel structure and backfill with structural concrete. This reinforces the base of the deck section for traffic and will protect the utility services from the excavation of the tunnels. A timber framework is them formed to backfill the deck section up to the road, which is then filled with flowable fill, a lowdensity concrete. Final steps are to backfill the deck section with aggregate and several layers of asphalt before being marked up and reinstated, ready for use by the public. “This intersection is one of the busiest in New Zealand in terms of pedestrians and cars,” says Lance. “Each deck section requires a new traffic management layout, with barriers shifted, line marking, lights and traffic controllers to assist pedestrians. The space is very tight between the work area and the public so we need to be very careful. “The noise is also a big challenge, as this area is surrounded by residents and shops. They are also our priority and we try our best to limit the noise so they are not too impacted by the work.” The result is Auckland keeps moving while the Connectus JV excavates the CRL 14 metres beneath them. JUNE 2017 41
CONTRACTOR TECHNICAL
Excavating without a bucket PETER OWENS talks with Blair Skevington about his success building a large
hydro excavator for use in civil contracting. Hydro excavation equipment combines high-pressure water with air vacuum to break up the targeted material and then a vacuum lifts the slurry from the excavation area. The debris is transferred to a debris tank.
42 www.contractormag.co.nz
SKEVINGTON CONTRACTING formed in 2004, is
based in Palmerston, between Dunedin and Oamaru. It is a now a well-established excavation and heavy machinery operator owned by Blair Skevington who found a niche with a large hydro excavator he commissioned and had made in Canada. Until the Christchurch rebuild started after the 2011 earthquake, the company operated almost exclusively around Otago and the West Coast of the South Island, mostly for the local mining industry. This contractor has enjoyed a long-term relationship with OceanaGold at nearby Macraes, a company Blair worked for before setting up his own company. Its work in this area did not go unnoticed. In 2014 Skevingtons was named in the Deloitte New Zealand Fast 50 Awards as the ‘Fastest Growing Services Business in Otago and lower South Island’. With the opportunity to work on the Christchurch rebuild after 2011, Blair saw the need for specialised extraction equipment and while hydro excavators were already available in this country he saw the opportunity to use
a larger machine on larger, sensitive ground works. In 2012 he had discussions with a number of manufacturers before ordering a large hydro excavator from Canada where hydro excavation was long-established. Larger than other hydro equipment used here, the excavator was built to Skevingtons’ specifications by Supervac, a Canadian company based in Levee, Quebec and with over 30 years’ experience in hydro excavation manufacturing. It took the manufacturer nine months to build the machine under the supervision of the company’s hydro excavator manager, Steve Hall. It had to be specially designed for our roading conditions, with the trailer unit built in a way that dispersed its weight to meet our heavy vehicle regulations. It took another three months to transport it here before being put to immediate work in the mining sector and doing pole foundation work for line companies before it was sent to Christchurch, where it proved ideal for delicate excavation work of underground pipes and cables in Christchurch’s rebuild. The actual operation is quite simple. Hydro excavation
equipment combines high-pressure water with air vacuum to break up the targeted material and then a vacuum lifts the slurry from the excavation area. The debris is transferred to a debris tank. Hydro excavation is said to save time and causes less congestion and traffic in the excavation area because the equipment can be positioned at a distance. The company will not disclose what it paid to buy and transport its hydro excavator, but Blair says that while it was very expensive
indeed, he does not regret the acquisition of this unit. Depending on the type of material it is working, the company charges its operating costs between $480 and $550 per hour. When it is working, the unit uses up to 40 litres of water per minute and the cost of buying water varies considerably throughout the operating areas. Blair concedes hydro excavation can work out to be more expensive than other types of excavation, but it significantly lowers any risk of damage or personal injury, which are invariably expensive and time consuming.
Skevington Contracting, owned and operated by Blair Skevington (above), was named in the Deloitte New Zealand Fast 50 Awards 2014, as the ‘Fastest Growing Services Business in Otago and lower South Island’.
JUNE 2017 43
CONTRACTOR COMMENT
Pressures on infrastructure – time to innovate ALAN PEACOCK AND CHLOE SMITH, FULTON HOGAN
WITH ALL THE CURRENT scrutiny on the cost and performance
of our national infrastructure, greater investment into innovation and better systems for capturing and driving the innovations to completion is imperative. Whether it’s a way to reduce carbon emissions in bitumen operations for a major roading project, cut the maintenance costs on a wastewater facility or keep people safer on a largescale horizontal civil construction – there are answers out there and often enough the people at the frontline know the best way to move forward. Over the past couple of years we have focused on harvesting the innovation opportunities from both our customers and our 6500 staff, and developed our own system for identifying and tracking these initiatives to support innovation within our business which operates in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific.
Bringing ideas to life So far we have been able to fund, resource and complete 45 innovation projects in the 2015-2016 financial year and approve 40 projects for the 2016-2017 financial year. We aspire for our innovations to revolve around our customers and the problems faced by our people in working for our customers and the industry. The innovations we invest in need to service a need or gap in the construction market and deliver projects across our existing, core and future business areas. To date we have made gains through innovation in the areas of quality, sustainability and safety to name a few, and continue to push the boundaries of what we know to improve our business. For example, to improve the quality of small sealing projects such as footpaths and driveways, we invested in the development of the patent pending Vibrating Pneumatic Tyre Roller. This achieves a better looking surface than a traditional compaction roller, with the asphalt appearing smooth, shiny and polished with no visible hairline cracks or imperfections, and the surface actually lasts longer as it reduces the amount of water ingress into the asphalt. In support of our sustainability focus we developed a process to recycle water cutter waste to separate out the waste and reconstitute the binder and fine material into new asphalt pavements. We believe we are the first in the world to achieve this. It improves job quality and safety as well as reducing waste to landfill. In the interests of safety we developed the Moving Plant Proximity System for use on our rollers, which detects when personnel or equipment breach the exclusion zone. The 44 www.contractormag.co.nz
device, which includes a 2D laser scanner, a touch screen display and audible alarm, logs any breach data which can be used to identify high risk sites so we can work to keep our people safe. The common theme in these examples is the strong practical grounding in the day-to-day workplace which is then backed by further research where required. We use an open forum that allows anyone at any level of the business to contribute innovative ideas to provide solutions for our customers.
Keeping innovation at our business core To circulate this innovation strategy across a 6500 strong international workforce Fulton Hogan with UiRevolution developed a multi-faceted communication and interaction platform called ‘Blue Skies’. This tool forms a complete database of every innovation, big or small, that has delivered value for our people and our customers. It enables our people and alliance partners to search through or add to existing ideas, and submit their new ideas for sharing or funding. Every person’s ideas have the potential to be funded, developed and implemented through this process and it is important to us that innovation remains a priority. ‘Blue Skies’ has also been introduced as a kiosk that is available in all of our regional offices and for our customers at request. Innovation is woven into the folds of our management structure through the appointment of a national innovation manager for New Zealand and Australia, and an executive general manager for Engineering and Technical Services to provide continuity for our strategy. We have also appointed an innovations co-ordinator who looks after our ‘Blue Skies’ database. To ensure the innovations we are investing in are on the pulse of industry needs, we are prototyping what we call our Futurescope Workshops alongside Callaghan Innovation. These workshops identify possible changes to our future horizons caused by technology, or shifts in environmental, social or market dynamics. This helps us to challenge our current thinking by identifying disruptors that could influence future innovations. We want to demonstrate that our business is adaptable and continually improving. This makes global connections important for us to stay in touch with the latest technology and harness it across Fulton Hogan’s activities. One way we have done this is through the establishment of a collaboration agreement with Heijmans, a leading Netherlands based company which excels in commercialising innovation.
COMMENT CONTRACTOR
Recognition for efforts We understand that recognition and feedback helps sustain progress so we use the ‘Blue Skies’ platform to share all ideas submitted for our annual managing director’s Innovation Awards. All ideas, regardless of whether they win or not, add potential value to the business. We have also been gratified that our innovation strategy as a whole has recently been recognised by the UK-based Chartered Institute of Building
with the premier award in the Innovation Achiever’s category for the International Innovation and Research Awards. Innovation is an exciting fast-paced space and our customercentric approach is paving the way for the future of the industry. Alan Peacock is Fulton Hogan’s executive general manager, Engineering and Technical Services and Chloe Smith is the national innovation manager.
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JUNE 2017 45
CONTRACTOR COMMENT
Retention better than recruitment PETER SILCOCK, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, CCNZ
GETTING AND KEEPING good staff is the biggest challenge facing
Money
the civil construction industry. The government’s recent budget announcement that a further $11 billion will be invested in infrastructure over the next four years will push the boundaries. CCNZ has said that the industry has the capacity and capability to rise to the challenge but will need assistance from government to get more Kiwis in the industry especially at a trade level and to supplement local workers with people from offshore who have the skills and expertise that we need. With the increased amount of work in the market and an alltime high labour participation rate (the government’s measure of who is looking for work rather than who is collecting an unemployment benefit), we are fishing deep into the barrel. Competition for good people is increasing. Rather than focusing just on recruitment, contractors need to ensure they are
Yes, money is important and if someone feels they are underpaid then they could be demotivated (unproductive) and are more likely to jump ship. If you are cutting staff overtime or regular hours due to weather or project delays be aware of the impacts that might have on your staff member and their family.
Looking after your worker’s wellbeing is not just about health and safety it also plays a huge role in improving productivity and staff retention. retaining and developing their existing people. Looking after your worker’s wellbeing is not just about health and safety it also plays a huge role in improving productivity and staff retention. Don’t just dismiss this as ‘touchy feely’ stuff. It’s about looking out for and looking after your existing staff. Think about how much time and effort that you have put into your current staff, how difficult they would be to replace, the risks of not finding a replacement or having to train up replacements. Keeping the right people adds a lot of value to any business. So, what can you do? Well, one of the first things is to talk to your top people about their wellbeing and upskill your people managers about worker wellbeing. WorkSafe’s material on this subject emphasises that: • work can impact on an individual employee’s wellness (eg, fatigue from working long hours) • an individual employee’s wellness can impact on work (eg, a sick child may mean a worker is fatigued or their mind is not on the job). Either way there are impacts on the business that need to be managed. Here are a few things to get you thinking about how you can retain and develop your people.
Stress, fatigue and burnout This is one of the most common issues for construction. The pressures of completing a project on time are huge and there is often a lot at stake. Your people may do a great job working long hours to deliver the project on time but do you risk losing some of your best people because of long hours and lack of work-life balance? Are people being burnt out because there is too much pressure or because they don’t feel support? Do your people take regular holidays? On their days off do people spend half the day on the phone taking work calls? Some of your managers may be the most at risk.
Training and development Give your people a clear view of where you see them going in the future. Provide training and development opportunities. Make it a career not just a job. Give people a reason to stay.
Diet and hydration Especially when doing physical work make sure that your staff know the importance of good food and hydration to their productivity and safety.
Emotional wellbeing There are many aspects to emotional wellbeing. If people feel threatened at work (eg, by bullying, intimidation or by being excluded) they are not likely to stay around and your work teams may be compromised. With more and more women and workers from offshore coming into the industry this is a very real issue that workplaces need to deal with very quickly. Finally, this is all about leadership and culture. If workers feel they are part of a team that cares about them, you will reap the benefits.
Postal Address: PO Box 12013, Thorndon, Wellington 6144 Physical Address: Margan House, 21 Fitzherbert Terrace, Thorndon, Wellington 6011 Phone 0800 692 376
46 www.contractormag.co.nz
CCNZ thanks and appreciates the support of our Major Associate members
Principal Business Partner
Core Associates
Major Associates
EROAD
Civil Contractors New Zealand
l
Phone 0800 692 376
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www.nzcontractors.co.nz
CONTRACTOR COMMENT
Prequalification – Malcolm’s last word MALCOLM ABERNETHY, EX CCNZ EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
PREQUALIFICATION HAS REMAINED a relatively hot topic over the
many years I have worked with contractors. I can recall as a contractor the huge amounts of paper we produced every time we submitted a tender. And before then when evaluating tenders the vast amounts of material from contractors and consultants that we had to wade through to determine scores. That was back in the ’90s so we welcomed the initiative driven by contractors and supported by NZTA (then Transit NZ) to develop a prequalification system that was intended to reduce the amount of paperwork. A trial was rolled out in 2002 with a launch in Nelson for the new system to be used for all NZTA contracts in the South Island. Once any issues were addressed the intent was to roll prequalification out in the North Island. All of that happened after two or three years. Life was good with industry looking forward to reduced costs and time in tender preparation and evaluation. But unfortunately clients and consultants did not fully trust prequalification and continued, in RFT documents, to ask for all non-price attributes. As an industry we encouraged NZTA to accept prequalification status and to then only ask project specific questions and to evaluate tenders based on responses to those questions along with methodology and price to determine who the contract should be awarded to. It should be noted that industry did not want to revert to Lowest Price Conforming as realistically that is simply a race to the bottom of the bucket and does nothing to ensure sustainability for contractors. So what really went wrong? I believe trust was a big issue even though there was no issue apparent to me about how prequalification was evaluated – it was simply pass/fail – there were no scores associated with prequalification. It seems that clients and consultants wanted some scores so they could determine the winner by weighted attributes (later developed into the Price Quality Method). It really begged the question – why don’t we score the non-price attributes so we can use them for tender evaluation purposes? We could also do that collaboratively so contractors have the ability to discuss the scores with clients before they are used for that purpose! What a great idea! It was not just NZTA that considered prequalification – many Local Authorities developed what they called prequalification systems that unfortunately were only a simple evaluation of a contractor’s health and safety system. These systems did not take into account the non-price attributes suggested by the NZTA 48 www.contractormag.co.nz
It should be noted that industry did not want to revert to Lowest Price Conforming as realistically that is simply a race to the bottom of the bucket and does nothing to ensure sustainability for contractors.
Procurement Manual and so required contractors to submit information about relevant experience, relevant skills, track record, resources and occasionally financial viability. Note that methodology is, or should be, project specific! Indeed Capacity (now Wellington Water) developed a prequalification system that did provide scores that were developed collaboratively and updated collaboratively as contractors completed projects. It works – albeit they have not really nailed the ongoing evaluation part feeding back into the scores. In many respects what Wellington Water had was a system that I believe is exactly what prequalification is all about as it incorporated robust initial evaluations that are updated in a similar way as PACE was meant to do for NZTA’s prequalification system. Then we had the Health and Safety at Work Act introduced that required employing organisations to prove that they had done ‘due diligence’ on their suppliers or contractors – that contractors have up-to-date and workable health and safety management systems that are continually updated. As a result, we have seen the introduction of ISNet, PREQUAL, SHE and SiteWise to undertake essentially desktop audits of a contractor’s H&S system including up to date reviews and incident and accident reporting. When these were introduced industry was told that it was a review of prequalification systems but in my view they are not! What they really are, are supplier or contractor management systems – they manage in the main just one aspect that should be included in a valid robust prequalification system – health and safety! What about the other things that contractors develop, build and nurture to ensure a viable and sustainable business? Relevant experience, relevant skills, track record, resources and financial viability. None of these systems with the exception of
ISNet consider these things and even ISNet is modified only within limits of what it can add on to its standard system. The proliferation of these systems comes at a cost to contractors with some contractors needing to maintain ‘all’ of these systems along with some individual systems – one contractor reported that he was prequalified with 18 different systems. At the very least we need to ensure that employing organisations are aware of a contractor’s status in any of these systems then add a factor for their local conditions or requirements. For example Rotorua District Council has specific H&S requirements for working in geothermal areas. It is interesting to note that many of the systems come at great cost to contractors and to clients. But for contractors that external cost is only a small part as a contracting company needs to provide considerable staff time to enter the information on a continuous basis – both time consuming and costly! It is interesting to note that MBIE’s New Zealand Government and Property recommends that the cost of tendering (cost of being at the table for the game) must be free of charge. “Procurement opportunities are openly advertised online and accessible for all businesses free of charge.” (My italics). These systems are I believe contrary to that simple stated best practice guide! Furthermore, the same NZ Government Procurement paper
for Best practice for facilitating SME participation in government procurement states: “Simple, plain English tender documents are used that are easy to navigate, highlight the evaluation criteria and only request information that is needed for the tender.” (My italics). I reiterate – RFT documents should only ask project specific questions and use these to evaluate tenders along with methodology and price. As stated before, let’s evaluate those non-price attributes and give them scores as part of prequalification – we may need to develop a centralised team of very senior and experienced evaluators complemented by local or regional evaluators to draw on local knowledge and experience. Or we may need to incorporate a local knowledge factor. So, let us call these commercially available systems what they really are – Contractor Management Systems – and recognise they are just one relatively small part of the prequalification matrix. Furthermore, as an industry let us develop a prequalification system that all clients can use whether they are NZTA or any Local Authority or Council Controlled Organisation. And finally provide knowledge to clients so that we don’t have to have a plethora of contractor management systems that duplicate each other at extreme cost to the contracting industry for both clients and contractors.
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JUNE 2017 49
CONTRACTOR COMMENT
Truck loader crane qualifications ROD AUTON, CRANE ASSOCIATION
A TRUCK LOADER CRANE is more commonly known as a
knuckle-boom crane and is one of the most common cranes in New Zealand. They are normally seen within the road transport sector and used for delivering goods to building or construction sites, and in the bee-keeping industry. The more popular brands are Hiab, Palfinger, Cormach, Fassi and Unic. In 1999, the definition of a crane was determined by regulation in the Pressure Equipment, Cranes, and Passenger Ropeways Regulations. Under these regulations, a crane was defined as:
Crane a) Means a powered device – i) T hat is equipped with mechanical means for raising or lowering loads suspended by means of a hook or other load-handling device; and ii) T hat can, by the movement of the whole device or of its book, jib, trolley or other such part, reposition or move suspended loads both vertically and horizontally; and b) Includes all parts of the crane down to and including the hook or load handling device, and all chains, ropes, wires, or other devices used to move the hook or load handling device; but c) D oes not include lifting gear that is not an integral part of the crane. This definition was included in the 2009 Approved Code of Practice for Cranes. A truck loader crane meets this definition and therefore all personnel engaged in operating a truck loader crane are required to be qualified and competent, not only to operate the truck, but also the crane. Truck loader cranes, statistically, have the most incidents and are considered the cranes with the highest level of risk. It is also a known fact that human error is the predominant cause of crane accidents and so it is in the owner’s best interest to ensure that the drivers/operators are fully qualified. As an owner, crane user, operator or dogman/rigger, you are required to ensure that you understand the rules and regulations around safe lifting. Safe lifts create a safe workplace and you can find all of the rules, regulations and best practice resources at www.safecrane.nz.
Qualifications Qualifications required for operating cranes are found in Part 4 of the Approved Code of Practice, 2009. This states that to operate a truck loader crane, a driver/ operator must hold either of: Unit Standard 3795 (configure and position a mobile crane and lift and place regular loads – 22 credits); or Unit Standard 16617 (use a truck loader crane 50 www.contractormag.co.nz
Crane spotting at bauma, Munich 2016
to lift and place loads – 15 credits). NZQA states that a driver/operator must hold a unit standard or equivalent qualification. The equivalent qualification must be through a recognised training establishment that has a NZQA approved programme. Previously, the transport industry relied on Unit Standard 1754 (operate truck mounted load lifting equipment – 3 credits), however this unit standard has expired and is no longer available and is not recognised in the Approved Code of Practice for Cranes as a valid crane qualification. A unit standard is the minimum level of training required and to be deemed fully qualified a driver/operator must complete the New Zealand Certificate in Crane Operation. The full qualification includes knowledge of health and safety, skills required in the crane industry, slinging and communicating during crane operations, applying safe work practices, lockout and reinstate machinery in the workplace and lifting and placing regular loads. Cranes are dynamic machines. They demand and deserve the respect and safety consciousness of everyone associated with their use, maintenance and operation. People are the biggest influence on safe working conditions. The single most important factor in preventing injury and death on the job is having competent and reliable personnel who are safety conscious. Competent and reliable people are those who have acquired through a combination of qualifications, training or experience the knowledge and skill to perform the task required. Effective instruction and training in the basic safety principles of crane operation and accident prevention measures are essential and vital requirements for all people involved with cranes.
COMMENT CONTRACTOR
Get to know your drugs and ask – why would you? JANET BROTHERS, LIFE CARE
I AM REGULARLY astounded when people who are, or love to
think of themselves as, role models abuse drugs and or alcohol. I am a firm believer in the relationship between responsibilities and privileges; one wouldn’t normally have one without the other. These top sports people have the privileges, however often have trouble accepting or living up to the responsibilities which go with the privileges. This isn’t only evident in the sports arena; unfortunately it is also evident in our workplaces. Going back a few years it was quite common to hear an employer say if they introduced drug testing they would have no staff left. In some cases they have opted to introduce the drug test at the preemployment assessment stage and, over a period of time, with staff turnover, this effectively ‘cleans up’ the workplace. Being informed of commonly used drugs can help identify the risks and ultimately bring your workplace to be drug free. Amphetamines are also called speed, amp, bennie, chalk, and black beauties. They are central nervous stimulants that have an effect on alertness, wakefulness, increased energy, reduced hunger and an overall feeling of well-being. Large doses and longterm usage can result in higher tolerance level and dependency. Cocaine, also known as big C, code, snow, flake, candy, crack, and blow, has an effect on alertness, wakefulness, increased energy and gives an overall feeling of euphoria. Cocaine may be smoked, inhaled (snorted), or injected, and can be a very addictive drug. Methamphetamines, also known as crystal, meth ice, and glass, are a stimulant drug used in pill form, or in powdered form by snorting or injecting. Crystallised methamphetamine is a smokeable, more powerful form of the drug. Some of the effects of methamphetamine use include increased heart rate and physical activity level, wakefulness and decreased appetite. Usage can cause irreversible damage to the brain and produce strokes and convulsions that can lead to death. Ecstasy, also known as E, adam, XTC, and X, combines the simulating effects of methamphetamine with a hallucinogen.
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Effects include increased heart rate, wakefulness, increased body temperature and rapid dehydration in certain situations. Psychological effects include confusion, depression, anxiety and paranoia. Use can lead to brain damage, heart and kidney failure. Heroin is an opiate also called H, hair, hombre, horse, jones, scag – and is a highly addictive narcotic drug. The opiates group also includes drugs such as morphine, heroin and codeine. Opiates reduce attention, sensory and motor abilities. Cannabis is the dried flowers and leaves of a genus of flowering plant in the Cannabaceae family and is also called marijuana, pot, weed, herb, bud, mary-jane, doobie, reefer, grass, joint, homegrown, and spliff. It is mostly commonly taken by smoking, but may also be eaten. Cannabis may impair learning and coordination abilities. Low concentrations of THC persist in urine at a detectable concentration for many days after smoking.
Identifying a drug user Drugs can be detected in urine, but each drug is cleared by the body at different rates. Detection times are affected by the amount of a drug in the body, how often the drug was taken and how the drug was taken. The user’s age, weight, diet and metabolic rate also affect the detection time. This chart provides a general guideline to detection times.
Drug
Approximate Detection Times
Amphetamines & MDA Cocaine Methamphetamine & MDMA Opiates – Morphine THC (Cannabis)
Minimum Maximum 2 to 7 hours 2 to 4 days 1.25 to 4 hours 2 to 3 days 2 to 7 hours 2 to 4 days 2.5 hours 2 to 3 days 6 to 18 hours Up to 28 days
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JUNE 2017 51
CONTRACTOR CLASSIC MACHINES
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Early Kato excavators
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Well known for the quality of its mobile cranes, Kato, of Japan, was also a pioneer in the field of hydraulic excavators, and the second Japanese manufacturer to export them commercially. By RICHARD CAMPBELL. A little bit of pre-history. For whatever reason, New Zealand was unusually slow in converting from cable to hydraulic excavators. In actual fact, hydraulic excavators had been around since the 1950s when Demag, Koehring and Liebherr introduced their first machines to the construction marketplace. Hydraulic excavators began to appear here in small quantities from the mid 1960s and the majority of these came from the UK in the form of Hy-Mac, Priestman, JCB and Massey-Fergusson. There was also a smattering of machines from Europe including Poclain and Yumbo. Hy-Mac was the first to really market the hydraulic concept in New Zealand staging demonstrations around the 52 www.contractormag.co.nz
country, impressing contractors with their ease and flexibility of operation compared to the cable-operated types. But all of these early machines had their drawbacks, the most obvious being that they were basically all “mobile oil leaks” due to limitations in high pressure sealing technology and hydraulic hose manufacture which had not yet caught up with the times. The first Asian designed and manufactured machines to reach New Zealand were built by Hitachi and began to appear in New Zealand in late 1966. At the time, there was a certain stigma to any goods “made in Japan” inferring that they were of sub-standard or poor quality. In Hitachi’s case, this was simply just not true and those New Zealand contractors
that bought the first UH03s imported were very pleasantly surprised by the machines’ toughness and reliability. The brand has thrived in New Zealand ever since. Kato was the second Japanese manufactured excavator to appear here, arriving on the local NZ market in 1973. Kato Works was a very long established Japanese company having been founded in 1895, and specialising in steel fabrication, locomotives, mobile cranes and street sweepers. It began building excavators for the Japanese marketplace in 1967 with exports beginning the following year. Australia in particular was very fond of Kato excavators where at one point they held 40 percent market share in that country.
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1. View of the Kato production line in Tokyo, Japan, some time in 1972. Machines on the line are model HD350s. The very boxy structures were a feature of early Kato excavators and subsequent machines were more rounded off as the years went by. While not the most modern of assembly lines, the staff are really turning them out. PHOTO: AUTHOR’S COLLECTION
2. New Zealand’s first Kato sale, to GJ Hart & Sons, was a model HD550 seen here working in Kelson, Western Hutt in 1973. The bank of vertical control levers is visible through the cab front screen. A careful eye will spot mounting lugs under the boom. These were a standard feature which allowed the machine to be converted to a face shovel configuration with little difficulty. PHOTO: AUTHOR’S COLLECTION
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3. Another view of George Hart’s Kato HD550 working in Kelson, which was a huge subdivision situated in the Western Hutt hills. Your author worked there with Taylor & Culley in the 1970s. The view on a sunny day was spectacular. PHOTO: AUTHOR’S COLLECTION
4. Pemberton Drainage’s Kato HD1100G working in the Waikato on a rural drainage project in 1975. Unlike most Katos imported into New Zealand, which either had Perkins or GM engines, the HD1100G was powered by a 200hp Cummins diesel. The HD1100G was replaced by the model HD1200G that same year. PHOTO: AUTHOR’S COLLECTION
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JUNE 2017 53
CONTRACTOR CLASSIC MACHINES
Right: Installing services on a housing subdivision at Akatarawa, north of Upper Hutt is a model HD550 belonging to Regan Bros of Wellington. The lugs allowing conversion to a face shovel are clearly visible in this photo on the back of the arm and underneath the boom. Photo taken early 1975. (PHOTO: AUTHOR’S COLLECTION)
Left: Clearing flood water from a clogged open drain near Masterton in 1974 is Masterton Metal Co’s HD550. The HD550 was powered with a Perkins 4.236 diesel and weighed around 14 tons. Rather austere in appearance, the HD550 did a good job nevertheless. (PHOTO: AUTHOR’S COLLECTION)
Clyde Engineering was the first New Zealand importer of Kato excavators and offered the models HD350 and HD350G (both around 10 tons), HD550 (14 tons), HD750 (18 tons) and the top of the range at the time HD1100G, which had a one cubic metre capacity bucket and weighed around 22 tons. (The HD1100G was replaced by the HD1200G in 1975.) For the Japanese domestic market, Kato offered Isuzu or Mitsubishi engines, however, for exported machines the engines specified could be Perkins or GM Detroit Diesel, which suited Clyde Engineering perfectly as it was the NZ agent for both. The first buyer of a Kato excavator was a Mr George Hart of GJ Hart & Sons, who bought a model HD550 and put it to work on the Kelson subdivision in the Western 54 www.contractormag.co.nz
Hutt hills. By the end of 1973 Clydes had sold 11 Kato excavators – really good going for a new product and one made in Japan to boot. One of the great beauties of the Kato excavator was its simplicity. The diesel engine directly drove a double pump which supplied pressurised oil to the main control valve assembly. Mechanical linkages from the control levers opened and closed the valves allowing oil to flow to the appropriate cylinders – it was as simple as that. Cylinder activation speed was directly affected by the engine’s throttle setting; the more revs you had the faster things went! Throttle activation was via a Bowden cable attached to a control lever in the cab.
Only minimal instrumentation was usually installed relating to oil pressure, water temperature, amps and hydraulic oil temperature. There were no computers to worry about as everything was analogue! The interior of the Kato cab was very Spartan compared to excavators of the present day, with only the most necessary of items installed and little, if any, insulation. Control levers were all long throw, aligned in a row in front of the operator. Seating was usually a bench type with a heater installed beneath it for cold weather operation. The front screen could be lifted up and stowed inside the cab to allow a better view of the work area or to permit airflow into the cab on a hot day, and the cab rear window could also be opened out for
Right: If you’re after a model of a Kato excavator, this 1:65 scale HD750G by Shinsei is a good starting point. Although a bit of an odd scale, the model is quite accurate and represents one of the second generation of Kato hydraulic excavators. You can find examples of this model reasonably cheaply on eBay.
Above: Although of poor quality, this is the only photo the author has of H Allen Mills’ Kato HD750. It is seen here excavating for culverts at a site near Te Kauwhata in 1974. H Allen Mills was a big customer of Clyde Engineering and owned a lot of Euclid scrapers and dozers. (PHOTO: AUTHOR’S COLLECTION)
(PHOTO: BUFFALO ROAD IMPORTS)
better ventilation. Interior noise levels of these firstgeneration machines were in excess of 88dB so some kind of hearing protection was usually required. Notably, Kato was one of the first earthmoving machines in New Zealand to offer an AM radio for the operator. Hydraulic pumps were predominantly double gear commercial types although variable incidence types were beginning to appear on the later models. A lot of the first generation Katos, including the model 350G, had chain drive to the sprockets like the older cable excavators of the day. Despite all this austerity, the Katos got the job done well, day in and day out with little mechanical fuss and far less effort on the operator’s part, which naturally endeared them to many.
Unfortunately for the brand, with the demise of the dealer Clyde Engineering in the mid 1980s, Kato was left looking for a new home and lost its impetus somewhat. The brand is still represented in New Zealand.
First owners As mentioned previously, the first owner of a Kato excavator in New Zealand was GJ Hart & Sons. Others included JB Contractors (two machines), Taylor & Culley (two machines), F Stubeli, H Allen Mills, Pemberton Drainage, Masterton Metal Co, Regan Bros and Goodman Earthmovers, which bought the first HD1200.
For the model collector Although there are no models of the
very early Kato machines, there are two models available of Kato’s excavators. The first is of a model HD850G and is to 1:65 scale by Shinsei of Japan. This was first released in the mid 70s and is the closest you will get to an early representation. Although it is an older model, it is accurate and quite appealing. The other model is to 1:43 scale and is of a HD820. It is manufactured by Goodswave of China and is a simple, accurate model of a second-generation Kato excavator. Although both models have been discontinued by their respective manufacturers, both are frequently available on eBay. Expect to pay around US$30 for the Shinsei 850G model and US$45 for the Goodswave HD820 model. JUNE 2017 55
CONTRACTOR INNOVATIONS
Bridgestone finance offer
BossTek – new name from America
Bridgestone commercial tyres and Bandag premium retreads are now more affordable thanks to several new finance options available to commercial customers across the country. Bridgestone New Zealand director John Staples says: “Due to cashflow restraints many businesses are currently opting to use cheaper alternatives, but at the end of the day there is no alternative for the level of quality Bridgestone products deliver.” The commercial finance offer also extends to retreaded casings, maximising business cashflow throughout the whole-of-tyre lifecycle. “The Bridgestone Bandag combination was already the smartest business solution available on the market and now with finance we have added another string to the bow in terms of accessibility to our products,” says John. “With several recent initiatives – including the roll out of BMobile, our new tablet reporting technology, and Mobile Wheel Alignment into the New Zealand market – Bridgestone’s total tyre solutions are better than ever and now with finance options, more customers can access our industry leading products and services.” The new finance offer is available for all truck and bus, OTR and agricultural tyres through selected Bridgestone commercial retailers across the country.
After pioneering atomised mist dust control cannons more than a decade ago with its powerful DustBoss designs, Dust Control Technology has changed its name to BossTek to reflect all the company’s product lines. These include the OdorBoss odour suppression technology, with its line of environmentally safe topical and airborne odour treatment agents, and the KoolBoss crowd-cooling technology for large outdoor events. BossTek president Laura Stiverson says that over time the company began to realise that it wasn’t simply a supplier of dust suppression equipment, but rather a solutions provider with the expertise to address a much wider range of applications. “These new segments of our business are growing far beyond our initial expectations, and our updated company name more accurately reflects the firm’s commitment to the expanding needs of our customers.” For more information, visit www.bosstek.com.
Komtrax success
Brian Johnston of Civil Construction Hire in NSW who bought the 10,000th Komatsu machine in this region featuring Komtrax. 56 www.contractormag.co.nz
Over 10,000 Komatsu machines across Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia now beam information skyward in a constant exchange with satellites, control centres and customers. In January this year, the number of Komatsu machines in the region equipped with the Komtrax remote monitoring system, operating across multiple industries, ticked over from 9999 to reach the magic five-figure mark. From its inception in late 2008, Komtrax has progressed from a leading-edge technology to become a vital part of machine ownership that
Komatsu customers depend on. The amount of time, inconvenience and cost avoided through Komtrax’s ability to provide early warning on potential issues or unsafe use, as well as alerting customers and Komatsu support technicians to upcoming service requirements is said to be immeasurable. In addition, a large proportion of Komatsu equipment that criminals have stolen from jobsites and private premises nationwide has been recovered at a strike rate of 72 percent – well above the 38 percent industry average for recovery of stolen equipment.
INNOVATIONS CONTRACTOR
Bobcat excavator range The Bobcat excavator of today is certainly not the same machine it was 10 years ago. This is a direct result of the acquisition by Doosan in 2007. The Korean manufacturer injected substantial resources, beginning with upgrades of the factories with the latest manufacturing technology. Research and development became a key component of strategic growth. Product development and innovation involved feedback from existing Bobcat users. Ward Demolition has been a very long-term supporter of Bobcat skid steer loaders and is now a fan of the Bobcat excavator range, in particular the Bobcat E45 model. Among its recent excavator purchases has been the 1.8 ton Bobcat E20. “The Bobcat excavators are pretty good – no issues,” says Peter Ward, managing director of Ward Demolition. “We don’t have to modify them too much either, maybe put on a boom hitch for a little grapple but otherwise we just take them out and drive them. “The excavators are used for selective partition demolition and ceiling removal and are often required for digging cabling trenches in preparation for a rebuild.” The latest generation of Bobcat excavators features a complete new hydraulic system, increasing reliability, efficiency and precision control, yet retaining the well-known Bobcat digging and lifting power. The retractable undercarriage reduces the Bobcat Excavator E20’s width to less than one metre for working in confined areas. For more information or a demonstration of the new Bobcat E20 excavator, contact AB Equipment on 0800 30 30 90.
Online logbook and refresher course DT Driver Training has added a logbook and work time refresher module to its Fleet Driver Training Plan. It helps companies ensure their drivers know how to fill out their logbooks and calculate their work time, and therefore avoid fines and demerits. “With NZTA recently changing the logbook rules again, now’s the time to ensure your drivers are aware of their obligations,” says Darren Cottingham, director. “Company managers can monitor driver progress through the modules and create a certificate when the driver has finished.” The module is available online at www.drivingtests.co.nz and explains how to fill out the logbook properly and identify mistakes, cumulative work periods and work days, variations, secondary employment, penalties, exemptions, employer obligations, calculating work time, unavoidable delays and more. Used in conjunction with the existing fatigue module, it can assist drivers studying towards unit standard 24089 (Demonstrate knowledge of fatigue management, work time, and driver logbook requirements). The Fleet Driver Training Plan can also be accessed via DT’s free iOS and Android apps, along with modules for driver health and safety, advanced driving, heavy vehicle training, and the Road Code.
RDS Technology industrial weighing systems Position Partners now has a distribution agreement for RDS Technology industrial weighing systems that will see the company sell and support industrial scales for construction, mining and quarrying markets. Pat Dougherty, owner of former distributor RDS Systems, made the decision to take a break after some 15 years in the business. As a result, and to give greater focus to the separate markets of construction and agriculture that RDS solutions are designed for, the product lines will be distributed and supported by companies that specialise in these sectors. “I’d like to congratulate Pat on his success in building and managing the RDS brand in New Zealand,” says sales manager Jamie Nelson. “We are thrilled to have the opportunity to continue this success and with branches in Auckland and Christchurch, Position Partners is well placed to support customers throughout the North and South Islands. “Along with the support we have from our Australian colleagues who have been distributing the RDS range for some time, we have a team of experts locally with extensive experience in machine systems to ensure customers’ needs are well met.” Former RDS Systems technical specialist Lochlan Hammond has joined the Position Partners team. Based in Napier, Lochlan will provide support to customers in the lower North Island, while also assisting nationwide with his advanced knowledge of the product range. RDS on-board scales are designed to provide accurate weight information to operators and site managers, using an easy-to-read in-cab display and optional printer. With a range of solutions to suit wheel loaders, excavators, telehandlers and forklift trucks, RDS Technology systems offer scalable, highly accurate weighing to reduce machine wear, fuel usage and wasted material. JUNE 2017 57
CONTRACTOR CIVIL CONTRACTORS NEW ZEALAND
CCNZ update Welcome to new CCNZ contractor member J K Construction, Auckland Branch Rohit’s Civil & Infrastructure, Auckland Branch
CCNZ welcomes the return of Porter Hire as a Major Associate Porter Hire is part of a NZ family owned group of businesses with over 50 years’ industry experience and is the largest privately owned rental company for construction equipment in New Zealand. Supplying heavy equipment to the construction, mining and forestry industries, Porter Hire is continually investing in new solutions to meet its customers’ requirements with a wide range of equipment from light to heavy through a nationwide network of 23 branches. Check out Porter Hire’s website: www.portergroup.co.nz.
Ongoing support from Major Associates We would like to acknowledge and express our sincere appreciation for the ongoing support of the following Major Associates which have renewed their CCNZ Major Associate membership status for the 2017/18 year. Please support these companies that are supporting your organisation: • Hynds Pipe Systems • AECOM • UDC
Early Bird Registrations now open for CCNZ Conference SMART CONTRACTING – Developing Capability and Capacity. 2 to 5 August 2017, Dunedin Centre, Dunedin. Register online today at www.ccnzconference.co.nz. This will be an event to remember and we are anticipating a record number of attendees and trade displays.
Infrastructure funding boost welcomed CCNZ and Connexis have joined forces to welcome the government’s recently announced $11 billion investment (over the next four years) into infrastructure, highlighting the need for government and Local Authorities to help the industry develop people and attract them into civil construction careers. Minister of Infrastructure Steven Joyce said: “The $11 billion is additional spend on top of investments already planned by the government. If you add the government’s budgeted new capital investment together with the investment made through the
baselines and through the National Land Transport Fund – the total is around $23 billion over the next four years.”
Safe Handling of Bituminous Materials Code review The review of a key Industry Code of Practice (CoP) has recently been initiated by CCNZ. The CoP for the Safe Handling of Bituminous Materials Used In Roading, currently in its fourth iteration, was last fully reviewed in 2006. While it is now well out of date because of changes to legislation, National and International Standards, training and operational methodologies, the current CoP has stood the test of time well. The overall purpose of the CoP is to collate the enormous amount of information relating to the safe handling of bituminous binders, in a form that is user friendly. In this way, individual organisations across the sector can limit the need to wade through the numerous acts, rules and regulations that relate to health and safety, environmental, storage, transport and equipment manufacturing requirements, while also gleaning valuable information on best practice operational systems and procedures. The CoP target audience is senior management/supervision personnel. The accompanying Bitumen Safety Book, is developed for operational personnel and is based on the CoP. The Bitumen Safety Book will undergo a review upon the completion of the updated CoP. Wide consultation and engagement with government agencies and other industry sectors will be undertaken throughout this review process. For further information, contact Alan Stevens on alan@civilcontractors.co.nz or by phoning 04 496 3275.
Latest Certified Civil Tradespeople announced Congratulations to NZ’s latest Certified Civil Tradespeople, who have all achieved their certification through Recognition of Current Competence (RCC). Kevin Calder of KB Contractors, Mosgiel – Civil Trades Certified in Pipeline Construction and Maintenance, with an endorsement in Trenched. Mark Taylor of Downer NZ, Auckland North Harbour – Civil Trades Certified in Road Construction and Maintenance, with an endorsement in Road Maintenance. Robert McLean of Downer NZ, Warkworth – Civil Trades Certified in Road Construction and Maintenance, with an endorsement in Road Maintenance. Interested in Civil Trades Certification for your crew? Talk to your Connexis Customer Service account manager, or go to www.civiltrades.co.nz to find out more.
A DV E RTI S ERS IND EX Allied Petroleum Budget Rent A Car CCNZ Counties Ready Mix Concrete
43
Hirepool OBC
Stevenson Construction
9
13
Hynds 39
Super Tyre Warehouse
45
46, 47, IBC
Hytools 23
Synergy Positioning
Power Equipment
Tidd Ross Todd
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Connexis 37
Prime Pump
Gough Cat
Robur Attachments
58 www.contractormag.co.nz
OFC, 5, 11, 16, 17
27 32, 33 15
7 IFC
Transdiesel 29 Youngman Richardson
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EXCAVATOR LIGHT SHOW To support our boys in black, we created a one off “go black” video featuring our excavators.
VISIT OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL TO SEE THE STUNNING RESULT.
YOUTUBE SEARCH: HIREPOOL GO BLACK
Disclaimer: Hirepool excavators do not come with LED lighting as standard.
hirepool.co.nz | 0800 15 15 15