NEW ZEALAND’S CIVIL CONTRACTING INDUSTRY MAGAZINE
FEBRUARY 2015
THE RIGHT GEAR FOR THE JOB QRS has taken delivery of three new Hyundai excavators from Porter Equipment.
INSIDE: Auckland Transport’s Dr Lester Levy talks about himself and his job Comprehensive coverage of the ever-expanding bauma China Margo Connell on small businesses and working families A Mt Maunganui company’s international award for road maintenance
CONTRACTOR CONTENTS
6
INSIDE: Regulars
Highlights / Features
4 Editorial 6 Upfront 16 On the Cover 64 Classic Machines 68 Motoring 70 Innovations 70 Contractors’ Diary 72 Civil Contractors NZ Comment 72 Advertisers Index
22 In from the cold A Caterpillar D8R Series II bulldozer was hauled from its decade-long duties clearing snow off the runways in Antarctica to undertake a well-earned makeover.
24 Bauma China A report on the biennial feast of gear and culture that makes up China’s biggest international trade fair for construction machinery, equipment and vehicles.
32 The contractor’s new best friend A look at the life of a Gisborne-based consulting engineer and his integral part in projects throughout the country.
Profiles 18 Dr Lester Levy Auckland Transport chairman opens up about business ethics, management, his career and society in general.
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Constructing a $6.8 million culvert for the Whakaruatapu Stream near Dannevirke is one of the most important Transport Agency projects in the Tararua District for years.
40 M argo Connell The power behind CCNZ president Dave Connell talks to Gavin Riley about her key role in the family business.
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46
59 Janet Brothers
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60 Doran Wyatt Greenwood Roche Chisnall NZ Transport Agency
62 Rob Stummer IFS Australia and New Zealand 2 FEBRUARY 2015
Science triumps on the highway A Mt Maunganui company’s world-class laboratory expertise won a major award for enabling efficiency gains and cost savings to be made on a long-term road-maintenance contract.
Life Care Consultants
61 Tommy Parker
In Arthur’s footsteps Of all the mountain roads in New Zealand, none matches Arthur’s Pass for the complexity of its engineering.
58 Arie Moore Kensington Swan
Women to the rescue The critical shortage of skilled truck drivers has been well documented, but not so well known is an equally threatening shortage of construction machine operators.
Comment 56 Malcolm Abernethy Civil Contractors NZ
Opening up a dangerous bottleneck
54
Roading lesson from the UK After years of neglect, the UK government is spending an unprecedented £15 billion on Britain’s roading infrastructure in improvements, expansions and repairs.
ON THE COVER As part of an ongoing capital replacement programme Wairoa contracting company Quality Roading and Services has recently taken delivery of three new Hyundai excavators. See page 16
Cover photography: Jenny Forbes, QRS Wairoa www.qrs.co.nz
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CONTRACTOR EDITORIAL
First world problems; 21st century solutions As the prices at the pump continued to drop over summer, the usual traffic congestion was exacerbated by people – like me – taking that one extra trip before heading back to work. The weather certainly helped make that choice a little easier too. And so I set out on a very hot summer’s day. In surprisingly light traffic – or so I thought until I saw the familiar signs of roadworks ahead. The summer sport of negotiating roadworks isn’t something I am bothered about normally: the work has to be done, it’s always going to be inconvenient to someone and NZTA had given plenty of warning through daily media (see page 8). What I didn’t expect was a broken windscreen, headlight, parking light, tar splatters and paint chips as I watched a 22-kilometre queue of cars and trucks crawl through freshly laid seal, each throwing loose aggregate at me. In my bid to avoid further damage, I didn’t notice whether this was skid-resistant M6, or regular T10. The local glass repairer was no doubt delighted with the carnage – but wouldn’t be able to give me a replacement windscreen for seven days, such was the level of work created. Less impressed were the police who had been called in to help direct traffic. I could only imagine the tone of the “debrief” after the crowds had gone. I also pondered whether such work would proceed more smoothly at night – perhaps a topic for discussion with the NZTA in a future issue of Contractor. And so with apologies to poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson, who was writing about the real horrors of the Battle of Balaclava in the 1854 Crimean War in which many real men died, here’s what editors do when there are no deadlines approaching. Graders to right of them, Tar trucks to left of them, Log trucks in front of them Overload’d and struggling; Splattered with tar and stone, Windscreens crack’d, scores of cones, Queues of cars miles ahead, Into the works of dread, Drove the six hundred. Less poetic, but with long-term implications for civil contracting, are some evolutionary changes that will improve performance, reduce costs, increase diversity and challenge the thinking of some who don’t like change. These changes are reflected in our content this month: an interview with Margo Connell, a partner in Connell Contractors along with husband Dave; the introduction of apprenticeships to attract new talent into contracting; the application of award-winning technology which can diagnose sub-strata faults for targeted repairs and long-term solutions; and changes to working relationships between contractors and consulting engineers which help find solutions together for the benefit of all. In less positive news, we’d hoped to bring you a Waikato story next month; J Swap Contractors (Matamata) tell us they’ll be subcontracting to Fulton Hogan on an upgrade which will triple the capacity of the Fonterra dairy factory in Lichfield. The quirk is that Swaps will be using the same two Terex TS14 A motor scrapers they used 35 years ago when they helped build the Tirau dairy factory, just up the road. Unfortunately, Fonterra is media-shy, and won’t allow any photos or articles to be published. Here’s hoping that’s a trend that doesn’t develop as 2015 progresses. Meanwhile, please let us know of your interesting projects, so we can share them with our enthusiastic Contractor readers. Kevin Lawrence, Editor
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 GENERAL MANAGER & EDITOR Kevin Lawrence DDI: 09 636 5710 Mobile: 021 512 800 Email: kevin@contrafed.co.nz EDITORIAL MANAGER Alan Titchall DDI: 09 636 5712 Mobile: 027 405 0338 Email: alan@contrafed.co.nz REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS Richard Campbell, Hugh de Lacy, Peter Gill, Gavin Riley, Lawrence Schaffler, Jeremy Sole. 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.
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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
ISSN 0110-1382 4 FEBRUARY 2015
CONTRACTOR UPFRONT
Transport funding until 2025 The Government plans to spend $38.7 billion over 10 years in land transport, paid for mainly from fuel taxes and vehicle registration fees. The announcement was made by the Minister of Transport, Simon Bridges, after the Government approved the draft ‘Government Policy Paper 2015’, setting funding bands for each year to 2025. While roads will take almost 75 percent of spending over the next decade, Bridges says funding would for the first time go towards regional improvements, providing up to $90 million a year to non-urban areas to develop their strategic transport networks. This follows submissions from local councils that were concerned funding has been too focused on main urban centres at the expense of public transport development in rural towns. Funding will mainly come from fuel taxes and vehicle registration fees, plus further annual increases in fuel taxes, including 3c a litre hike in July. The tax on a litre of petrol is already around 68 cents, plus another 10 cents GST (effectively a tax on a tax). We pay much higher tax on petrol than they do in Australia (38 cents a litre plus 10 percent GST). The paper did not discuss the expected increase of electric vehicles at the expense of fuel revenues. Bridges say most submissions received on the draft policy statement sought more money for cycling. Although he has not adjusted the budget in this sector, the Government committed $100 million from asset sales over four years for urban cycleways, outside the normal land transport budget, for walking and cycling improvements between now and 2018. He says the Transport Agency has also identified $80 million of walking and cycling investments in association with projects in roading and other budget categories.
Gough Business Development manager Gough Group appointed Stuart Bell to the newly created position of National Business Development manager, based out of the Gough Cat branch at Wiri in Auckland. Stuart brings over 15 years of experience with capital equipment sales, key account management, sales management and business development gained in a variety of industry sectors. “It is a real pleasure to be able to accept this exciting new role with Gough and a chance to contribute to the company’s long and proud history. Both Gough and Caterpillar’s recent advances in Equipment Management Solutions are truly industry leading and the wider Group capabilities are second to none in the industry,” says Stuart. 6 FEBRUARY 2015
Anyone got a chisel? The celebrated, award-winning, $32 million Te Matau a Pohe bridge across the Lower Hatea River in Whangarei, has a problem. It doesn’t like intense summer heat and is unable to rise to let boats with tall masts slip up and down the river. On numerous occasions over the past summer when temperatures got over 26C, the bridge’s steel bascules expanded in the heat and risked jamming (on average the area experiences about18 days a year when temperatures are higher). Whangarei District Council says it fixed the problem by taking a thin slice of concrete off between the crash rail and footpath of the bridge. In January 2014 a council contractor shaved off 30mm from the steel lip of the bascule.
Tauranga highway upgrade design approval The NZ Transport Agency has approved $5.4 million in funding to cover the initial design of the Bayfair to Baypark link, a roading project that is set to reshape a stretch of State Highway 2 in Tauranga. The funding allocation is an important milestone in the project says the Transport Agency’s Bay of Plenty highway manager Niclas Johansson. It will see two flyovers built on SH2; one will take SH2 over the Maunganui-Girven intersection and the second will take State Highway 29 over the railway line and the Te Maunga intersection. The Transport Agency’s tender calling for initial designs to support the project as it moves forward closed on December 16. An evaluation period follows with the contract due to be awarded this March. “The initial design contract provides an opportunity to create the concept design and work alongside the Transport Agency as its principal agent and monitor the construction phase of the Bayfair to Baypark link,” Johansson says. The design phase is expected to take approximately 12 months, with a tender for the physical works to be released after that. Subject to funding approvals, construction of the Bayfair to Baypark link is expected to start in early 2017.
Waitomo intersection underway The SH3/SH37 Waitomo intersection job went to Higgins and works started January 19. The existing intersection at SH3/37 – the turnoff to the Waitomo Caves – is being replaced with a three-legged roundabout, relocated about 60 metres north of the existing intersection. Construction completion date is May, with an estimated cost of $3.6 million.
Waikato updates The first of eight bridges to be finished on the Cambridge section of the Waikato Expressway opened to traffic last month. The 6.1 metre high Peake Road overbridge includes an extra-wide shared pathway, suitable for pedestrians, cyclists and horses to use, and provides access to the nearby Cambridge Jockey Club. Downer has started work on a one kilometre rebuild of SH1 at the northern end of Putaruru. Work is expected to be completed by the end of March.
Hirepool ACC accreditation CCNZ’s principal business partner Hirepool has had its ACC Workplace Safety Management Practices (WSMP) tertiary accreditation renewed. Hirepool has held the accreditation since 2004 and has maintained it following its merger with HireQuip. Hirepool health & safety manager, Robert Stewart, says the accreditation is a significant factor for customers when choosing suppliers for major project work where onsite health and safety is paramount.
Ripping good yarns John Breen’s Don’t’ Look Down is a book full of construction adventures in an era before health and safety became top priority. Breen Constructions is a long established and successful business based in Alexandra in Central Otago. From there, John and his like-minded construction adventurers migrated as “moths to flame” to interesting, difficult and downright dangerous jobs, from erecting radio masts to building a T-bar ski-lift on Ruapehu in the middle of winter. Published by The Halcyon Press, www.halcyonpublishing.co.nz
$1.4m pathway underway
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Wellington based Civil Contractors New Zealand (CCNZ) represents the Civil Engineering, Construction and General Contractor sectors in New Zealand. CCNZ aims to contribute toward creating a safe, viable and progressive sector, meeting the needs of all its members and presenting a strong unified voice. The member businesses that make up CCNZ play a vital role in the development of our country. They build and maintain our roading, transport, energy, public services infrastructure, as well as provide services to the residential and commercial construction sectors. We are looking for a strong and inspirational business leader. You will be a successful senior executive, potentially with a membership organisation background. Politically savvy, with lobbying and advocacy experience in central and local government, you will be a natural networker, able to build influential stakeholder relationships. An excellent communicator, you will need to be a down to earth and pragmatic leader, with a full complement of CEO level business leadership skills, including strong financial management capability. Knowledge of the civil construction environment would be helpful, though is not imperative. APPLICATIONS CLOSE: Tuesday, 10 February 2015 APPLY OR VIEW THE POSITION DESCRIPTION: www.jacksonstone.co.nz REFERENCE: 42466 FURTHER ENQUIRIES: Darryl Templeman or Russell Spratt on 04 550 8000
Work has begun on a three kilometre long, three metre wide, $1.4 million shared pathway for cyclists and pedestrians, alongside Kahikatea Drive and Greenwood Street in Hamilton. The NZTA said it received three tender submissions for the final design and physical works and, after assessment in November last year, the design and construct contract was awarded to Schick Construction with AECOM as their designer. FEBRUARY 2015 7
CONTRACTOR UPFRONT
2015’s biggest safety event A comprehensive workplace health and safety event in 2015 will address some of the most pressing issues around improving workplace health and safety, occupational health and wellbeing and managing hazardous substances. Four parallel conferences at Safety 360 on March 16-17 at SkyCity, Auckland, will address the impact of the new Health and Safety at Work Act on different roles, as well as covering industry-specific occupational health best practice and the latest research into physical and emotional wellbeing in all workplaces, including bullying. Delegates with a conference ticket can attend any of the presentations. A free industry exhibition will also showcase the latest innovations and technology from suppliers to the health and safety sector. The four conferences incorporated into the WorkSafe NZ endorsed event are: Safety Leaders’ Summit (16-17 March): Provides advice and case studies on creating high performing safety cultures and reducing workplace harm from organisations including WorkSafe, Kensington Swan, Fletcher Building, NIWA, McLeod Cranes, Civil Contractors NZ and NZISM. Australian transportation company Transdev, recipient
of a National Safety Council of Australia Award for effective safety communications, will present the international keynote address. HSNO (16-17 March): Investigates the regulation, risk management and safe use of hazardous substances in light of the new Health & Safety at Work Act. WorkSafe and the EPA will provide legislation updates with case studies from AECOM, Fonterra, ChemWaste, Northland Regional Council and the National Poisons Centre. Occupational Health Conference (16 March): An industry-focused look at reducing work-related injuries and disease and improving work health and safety performance from a practitioner’s point of view. Speakers include specialists from the New Zealand Society for Safety Engineering and CCNZ. Health and Wellbeing Conference (17 March): Addresses the opportunities an organisation has to improve the overall emotional and physical wellbeing of its employees, and how this can influence a company’s performance. Full programme details, ticket prices for the four conferences and how to register for the free expo can be accessed at www.conferenz. co.nz/safety360.
Great social media network idea
Northern traffic mess
Talk.build, a new social media network developed for the UK construction industry, was launched late last year. “We know that construction professionals want to talk to each other but many see existing social networks as being too frivolous or merely offering an outlet to advertise employment opportunities,” says Colin Felton, chairman of the CFA Group, a British marketing organisation. “It is the main reason why we have developed Talk.Build, which can only be used by construction professionals such as architects and surveyors, specialist manufacturers, contractors and others involved in the building business.” Talk.Build is said to offer “safe and secure real time conversation” for construction professionals to exchange ideas and make comments. Other facilities include space for blogs, images, videos and the opportunity for polls on various subjects that affect the industry.
Plenty of warnings from the NZ Transport Agency concerning a large programme of work on the Auckland and Northland state highway network didn’t stop chaos for holiday traffic, which at one point was snarled for 22 kilometres, according to news reports. Loose aggregate also caused a lot of vehicle damage with glass repairers up north experiencing boom business. NZTA highway manager Brett Gliddon says the amount of work underway reflects the huge investment in place to improve transport infrastructure in both Auckland and Northland. “In Northland for example, we’ve kicked off a $13 million maintenance renewals programme at a number of different sites around the region. Northland’s network has seen a lot of wear and tear, particularly after last winter’s storms, and keeping it in good shape is crucial.”
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CONTRACTOR UPFRONT
Originally planned for July 2014, the 80-metre long, 110 tonne pedestrian and cycle bridge reconnecting Onehunga with the Onehunga Bay Reserve has finally been moved into place. The delay was caused by an NZTA-requested design change to incorporate safety screens on the bridge, which moved the completion date to December; and then twice installation was postponed because of high wind. The bridge is part of the Onehunga foreshore restoration project (see “Suburban bay’s beauty restored”, Contractor March 2014). Lead contractor is Fulton Hogan.
Christchurch rebuild moves into top gear The post earthquake rebuild of Christchurch will be at its busiest this year but then is expected to taper off while construction activity in Auckland will continue to charge ahead, according to the latest National Construction Pipeline report. The value of all building and construction in Canterbury is expected to peak at $7.4 billion this year and then steadily decline, according to the report. Further north activity in Auckland is forecast to increase steadily to a peak of $13.1 billion in 2017. It will then reduce slightly in 2018 and 2019 but continue at a very brisk level, with Auckland forecast to provide over a third of all New Zealand building and construction work, by value, from 2012 to 2019. The National Construction Pipeline report points to the biggest construction boom this country has seen in decades totalling $100 billion over the next three years, says Minister for Building and Housing Nick Smith. “We are looking at the longest sustained period of growth in construction activity in 40 years,” Smith says. While residential activity continues to drive growth in Auckland, non-residential building and construction is forecast to grow by 49 percent from 2012 to 2019. Contributing significantly to this will be civil infrastructure projects including water/wastewater projects such as the Mangere biological nutrient removal, busways, rail stations and the early stages of the $2.4 billion Auckland City rail link, the Auckland Manukau Eastern Transport Initiative (AMETI) and Roads of National Significance. 10 FEBRUARY 2015
Fire challenges for TEL It’s business as usual for the Tauranga Eastern Link (TEL) team after a fire late last year at the Domain Road interchange destroyed around a five metre section of the expanded polystyrene blocks and concrete deck of embankment two, damaged some of the concrete facing panels, the concrete deck beams and the columns of one of the Domain Road bridge B abutments. Design engineers and insurance assessors carried out inspections of the damaged section of the interchange and undertook a range of tests to gain a better understanding of the extent of the damage. The contractor, Fulton Hogan HEB Construction Alliance (FHHCA), assessed a range of ways to dismantle and rebuild the damaged areas. Preliminary estimates put the cost of repair in excess of $2 million.
Preserving important history A background in and a passion for earthworks and roading has led to Ray Cannon setting up a Facebook page about the history of road transport and contracting within New Zealand. Over the past 40 years Ray, currently working for the Tararua Alliance, has collected articles and brochures on major earthmoving projects. With contractors from the eras of Benmore and other major projects disappearing, he saw a need to record this important history. It was thought that the NZ Road Transport and Contracting-Archives page would attract 100 to 200 followers, however since going live in August 2013 there are now over 1800 people following the page both within New Zealand and overseas. Over 3000 photos have been loaded, many from past contractors such as Baker Construction, H Allen Mills, Egmont Land Developments, McBreen Jenkins, Feast and McJorrow, plus others from the transport sector – T Doidge, Graham Manson, Dales Heavy Haulage to name a few.
CONTRACTOR UPFRONT
Sir Graham Henry, Rugby World Cup-winning All Black coach speaking for the company at the book launch.
Paying respect Of the handful of family names indelibly etched in the history of our civil contracting industry is Downer, founded by engineer Arnold Downer over 80 years ago. Arnold passed away in 1984 but had lived long enough to celebrate the company’s 50th anniversary. The company (Cable Price Downer) at that time turned over $146 million and had $43 million of assets, was a major force in the field of civil engineering in this region, and had an enviable reputation for completing projects on time. To celebrate the company’s 80th anniversary, it recently produced a book; Building Futures – The Downer Story, looking back on its history and dedicated to Arnold Downer and all those who have worked to enhance the reputation of the company he founded. This is a beautifully published book; excellent read, and generously illustrated with stunning historical photos. The last quarter of the book focuses on the company’s more modern history and ‘building futures’ (in 2009 Downer EDI and Downer EDI Works merged to create the new ‘Downer’ brand). As Downer CEO Cos Bruyn says in his introduction; “While it gives me great pleasure to be associated with the tremendous achievements documented in this book, it is the potential of Downer that stirs me the most. Within the last 15 years the company has strengthened its capability, not only through targeted acquisition and international alliances, but also by building strong relationship with New Zealand’s leading infrastructure providers.”
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However, for most readers it is the historic perspective that makes this book a ‘must read’. The building of the nation through the public works departments provided a rich ground for talented engineers, and Arnold Downer (who started his engineering cadetship with the Public Works Department in Otago/Southland) had a reputation for building tunnels. Even the Minister of Works in the 1930s, Bob Semple, referred to him as “a good man with a tunnel”. It was a tunnel project, the Mt Victoria Tunnel (opened in 1931) that brought Downer into contact with other engineers and builders who joined Downer & Co, which was registered on July 5, 1933 to tender (successfully) a job with the Dunedin City Corporation on the Waipori Hydroelectric Scheme. That job “started a trickle of work that soon became a torrent”. The book covers a number of fascinating projects such as a major airfield in Fiji for the US forces in 1941 with work continuing during the night under huge arc lights (interestingly, this military airfield was started before the US was attacked by Japanese at Pearl Harbour in late December 1941). The war years also saw Downer & Co pioneer opencast coal mining in Huntly and Stockton. Then there were the joint ventures in the 1950s with overseas partners. In 1954 the company merged with William Cable Holdings, with Downer becoming its major subsidiary, and in 1964 WCH merged with A&G Price. Cable Price Downer was bought by Brierley Investments during the country’s infamous corporate ‘assetstripping’ period. It was during the 1950s and the 12 year partnership with US company Morrison Knudsen Inc that Downer carried out some of it most impressive projects. These included the Rimutaka Tunnel (1954); the Roxburgh Dam; and the Wellington-Porirua motorway (our first motorway). Later came the Wairakei power station, Dunedin’s Momona Airport, Marsden Point refinery, Motunui Synthetic Oil Plant, and Starship Children’s Hospital. “While those first 25-years would have been a matter of quiet pride for Arnold Downer, his philosophy would have always been to look forward rather than back. He was, he said, ‘more interested in where we could get to’.” An outlook that Downer still works on today. By Alan Titchall.
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CONTRACTOR UPFRONT
Applying for BESS registration Bridge Engineering Self Supervision (BESS) is a necessary qualification for drivers who want to self-supervise when crossing restricted bridges with overweight vehicles. Many older bridges and culverts through the country are not designed for modern heavy vehicle axle weights. Consequently they are at more risk of damage from the extra weight, which in turn is a risk to both drivers of heavy vehicles and other road users. To reduce these risks, the NZ Transport Agency requires that overweight vehicles crossing bridges and culverts be supervised by suitably-qualified individuals. Drivers of heavy vehicles can be registered and approved to self-supervise crossings on certain bridges which would normally be supervised by an engineer – this is referred to as BESS. BESS registration currently last for five years. Drivers and companies wishing to become BESS-registered must complete the required NZTA application form, which is available from Overweight Permit Issuing Officers (OPIOs). The form then needs to be sent to the OPIO in the driver’s or company’s region: Auckland Andrew Morrison, ph (09) 487 7527 or (09) 387 2508, opermits.auckland@nzta.govt.nz Tauranga Brie Lucas, ph (07) 577 7989, Opermits.tauranga@nzta.govt.nz Hamilton Pam Cootes, ph (07) 834 8530, Opermits.Hamilton@nzta.govt.nz Napier Tracy Clarken, ph (06) 976 6504, Tracy.Clarken@nzta. govt.nz; and Julie Rodgers, ph (06) 974 6505, Julie.Rodgers@nzta.govt.nz
14 FEBRUARY 2015
Palmerston Nth David Jensen, ph (06) 953 6076, Opermits.PN@nzta.govt.nz Wellington Rosemary McGregor, ph (06) 349 6653, Opermits.wellington@opus.co.nz Rochelle Doherty, ph 027 216 7856, Opermits.wellington@opus.co.nz Nelson Chelsea Brooks, ph (03) 546 0119, overweights.nelson@opus.co.nz Marlborough Chris Parnell, ph (03) 520 8336, chris.parnell@nzta.govt.nz Christchurch Peter Mulgrew, ph (03) 964 2840, peter.mulgrew@nzta.govt.nz Dunedin Kathy McEwan, ph (03) 955 2929, kathy.mcewan@nzta.govt.nz On receiving the application, the OPIO informs the NZTA National Office who carry out background checks on traffic and driving histories. NZTA also requires that drivers disclose any criminal history held by the Ministry of Justice. Undergoing assessment for unit standard 23436 is a requirement for drivers. Details of NZTA-approved assessors are below. A company must be BESS-registered if it wishes to employ BESS-registered drivers.
If you are a BESS-registered driver whose ID card will expire soon, please read on. My BESS ID card is expiring soon. What do I need to do? You’ll need to contact a NZ Transport Agency-approved BESS assessor (see list below) to book on a renewal course. When should I book into a Renewal course? We recommend that you book at least eight weeks before your card expires. What do I need to bring to the Renewal course? You must bring your current Driver Licence and current BESS ID card for the assessor to witness. If you don’t bring these you cannot sit the Renewal course. What happens after I do the Renewal course? Straight after you’ve done the course the assessor will give you a Temporary Renewal of BESS Certification. Please ensure that you carry this certification with you at all times when driving on an overweight permit that requires BESS, until you receive your new BESS ID card. Consequences of not renewing BESS registration You must sit the renewal course before your card expires. Once your card expires you no longer have BESS registration. Drivers who do not renew their BESS registration by the expiry date are not entitled to perform BESS duties. If you have any questions, please contact NZ Transport Agency’s call centre on 0800 699 000.
Contact details for NZTA-approved assessors: Allan Collins Digital Training and Assessment Ltd,
ph (07) 544 7476 or 027 715 8980, digital.cranes@gmail.com Bill DeRenzy Pilot Services Limited, ph 027 478 8594 or (07) 574 4241, bill.derenzy@xtra.co.nz Danny Stephen Crane Industry Training and Assessing, ph 027 227 6716, cita@xnet.co.nz Gary Pearce Gary Pearce Limited, ph (027 459 4058), pearce.anderson@xtra.co.nz Greg Sheehan Sheehans Transport Assistance Ltd., ph 027 293 6206, sheehanstransport@xtra.co.nz Henry Schdroski H & H Enterprises, ph 027 695 1157, henry.assess@gmail.com John Sutton Nottus Over Dimentional Piloting Services Ltd, ph 027 278 7049, nottuslogistics@xtra.co.nz Kenneth Claydon Claydon Training and Assessing Limited, ph (03) 355 6342 or 027 276 6317, ken@claydontraining.co.nz Pat Power Tranz-Assist, ph 027 208 4215, pat.janine@xtra.co.nz Peter Douglas Ph 027 221 9816, douglastransport@xtra.co.nz Peter Jacob P N Jacob Limited, ph 027 443 0304, peternjacob@gmail.com Tina Ware J P Ware Transport Limited, ph (06) 329 6724 or 027 443 2065, JPWT@xtra.co.nz
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FEBRUARY 2015 15
CONTRACTOR ON THE COVER
QRS’ new 8-tonne, Robex R80CR-9, Hyundai midi excavator on retaining wall excavation on the East Coast Road, Mahia, Northern Hawke’s Bay.
The right gear for the job As part of an ongoing capital replacement programme Wairoa contracting company Quality Roading and Services has recently taken delivery of three new Hyundai excavators. THE UNSTABLE HILLFACE above the Nuhaka River Road in Northern Hawke’s Bay has been on the move since heavy rain in 2012 reactivated the slip between Mangaone Road and Nuhaka River Roads. The affected area of hillface is around two kilometres in width and covers some 100 hectares. The clean up, by Quality Roading and Services (QRS), involved making safe a section of the Mangaone Road affected by the giant slip and moving 10,000 cubic metres of material to realign the road. For such a job you need good gear and QRS has an eye for machines that are suited to the job. Recently, the company bought three Hyundai excavators from Porters Equipment: a 2.8 tonne Robex R27Z-9 mini excavator, an eight tonne Robex R80CR-9 midi excavator and a larger Robex R145CR-9, all of which were delivered prior to Christmas to replace three older machines. The smallest of the three, the R27Z-9, is to be used by QRS for underground service repairs, dealing with water, storm water, and sewerage problems. It is powered by a 24.7hp three-cylinder Mitsubishi S3L2 engine delivering maximum torque of 8kgf.m at 1800rpm through two joysticks 16 FEBRUARY 2015
and a safety lever. It features Hyundai’s new advanced hydraulic system with arm flow summation, boom holding and swing parking brake systems, plus hydraulic dampening in the travel pedal, swing-reducer hydraulic oil lubrication, and a leak-free grease chamber for the swing bearing. Both smaller excavators have been spec’d with rubber crawler tracks to comply with local authority requirements for operating within Wairoa Township to minimise damage to paved and concrete surfaces. The larger R80CR-9 is powered by a 59.6hp Yanmar 4TNV98 four-cylinder water-cooled diesel and is to be used for Network maintenance work. This machine has been specifically set up to operate a rotating rock grab to improve worker safety when repairing dropouts and retaining walls. The strength of the R80 is ensured by an X-type centre frame and reinforced box section track frame, while the cab features new steel tube construction that gives the operator improved safety. The biggest of the three machines, the R145CR-9, has a 119hp Mitsubishi DO4FD-TAA power plant delivering 45.4kgf.m and like the
The 14-tonne Robex R145CR-9 excavator at Whangawehi at work on the Mahia East Coast Road, Mahia Peninsula.
The 2.8-tonne, Robex R27Z-9 mini excavator working on the banks of the Wairoa River.
“The biggest of the three machines, the R145CR-9, has a 119hp Mitsubishi DO4FD-TAA power plant delivering 45.4kgf.m and like the R80 has also been specially set up to operate a rotating rock grab.”
R80 has also been specially set up to operate a rotating rock grab. All three new machines have ROPS compliant cabins and the R145 has also been fitted with a F.O.G (Falling Object Guard) kit to further enhance operator safety. The R145’s new patented hydraulic control system features improved valve design for added efficiency and smoother operation, with a new auto-boom and swing priority system, coupled with a new auto power boost feature and an improved arm-in and boom-down flow regeneration system for added speed. Hyundai claims to be the industry leader in the pump compartment with the R145 having powerful Kawasaki-designed, variable-volume inline axial piston pumps. Additional features include a new 18cm colour LCD display with a simplified design (including a standard rear-view camera) enhanced self-diagnostic capacity and GPS download capability. The cabins on all three models reflect Hyundai’s focus on operator comfort and minimising stress, and the R145 also has an enlarged cabin with a see-through skylight and a larger right-side glass for better visibility. With a staff of over 90, QRS is responsible for the maintenance of the unsealed roads in the Wairoa district roading network and to support this a sizable quarry division extracts and processes aggregates from 14 sites around the district. Outside of its core roading business QRS also has contracts for Wairoa’s solid waste (Landfill), Water reticulation and Sewage / Storm water, working closely with the client to ensure a consistent high level of service, and travelling far and wide to meet their needs. As a diversification to the usual roading and maintenance contracts,
Quality Roading and Services is poised to successfully complete the Mahia Community Sewerage Scheme On Lot project which was won by tender. The installation of the individual property STEP (Septic Tank Effluent Pump) Systems has been very challenging but the new environmentally friendly scheme that replaces the old and damaged septic tanks, will ensure the future good health of the Mahia Community and ecosystem. The current staff at QRS have a massive wealth of experience working in civil construction, maintenance, waste and utilities. Five QRS staff members have been with the company for more than 25 years, two of them for more than 30 years, starting their working life at the Wairoa District Council. Right from the beginning QRS has supported the Wairoa community and its projects, in 2013 putting its machinery to good use for the DIY Marae makeovers. A local business employing local people – moving forward with our community. To support this diverse range of activities QRS operates an extensive plant portfolio. These are all cared for by a workshop staff of eight mechanics, including a fitter-welder, panel beater and auto electrician. QRS chief operations officer, Rob Beale carried out extensive research in the market before choosing Hyundai for the first time. “One of our key company drivers is Health and Safety and these machines meet all the criteria of our safety committee”, Beale told Contractor. “Porter Equipment was very competitive on product pricing and had a warranty as good as if not better than many, and were very accommodating in regard to the overall future servicing.” l FEBRUARY 2015 17
CONTRACTOR PROFILE
DOORS OF OPPORTUNITY Contractor magazine talks to Auckland Transport chairman Dr Lester Levy about business ethics, management, his career, and society in general as the city deconstructs and reconstructs its public transport service.
AUCKLAND TRANSPORT HAS big plans for
its future public transport infrastructure and services, offering enormous opportunities for contractors. “I see us having much more public transport – heavy rail, possibly light rail, buses and more active transport. “We have lots of challenges, not the least of course is money for capital development,” says Auckland Transport chair, Dr Lester Levy. “It’s work in progress and we’ve got a long way to go, but we’re a long way from where we were. “We will still have a multi-modal solution, but it needs to involve public transport with active transport playing a 18 FEBRUARY 2015
much larger part than most people will even consider at this time. That is a big strategic intent.” Levy expresses a desire for greater “alignment” between transport and local government objectives. “People in politics pick on issues often because of self-interest. I think we should all be focused on the same objective, but that is the nature of politics. “In Auckland we have a highlyunderdeveloped public transport system, yet public transport has the capacity to move the most people, most easily and most quickly. “We need to have transformational
transport solutions in Auckland, we can’t just have incremental solutions any longer because the city is so far behind in its transport solutions and is growing so quickly. It is a pretty unhealthy cocktail – we’re unable to handle the population we have and the population is growing quickly. “If Auckland is going to prosper economically, there needs to be a significant, ongoing investment in public transport. “Less ideology, more logic and more rational thinking would be a huge help. To do this takes resources, people and money and will cause disruption.”
“I have a saying, ‘management is a jacket you put on when you go to work and take off when you come home, but leadership is a skin that you live in’.”
Close to his heart Ethics, leadership and governance are subjects close to the heart for Dr Levy, who is also the foundation chief executive of the New Zealand Leadership Institute at the University of Auckland, a Professor (Adjunct) of Leadership at the University of Auckland Business School and Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Management. A frequently-invited speaker and advisor on the subjects, he emphasises the importance of personal authenticity. “To be authentic, you need to clarify what it is you believe in and what your values are. Most critically, you’ve got to have a transparent and consistent link
between how you behave and what you say your beliefs and values are. I think that is where people often come adrift – they say certain things, but do others. “The thing that people you directly and indirectly influence do best is observe you. It is also important for trust, because part of trust is reliability or dependability – so if you make a promise, you keep it.” While acknowledging that striving for such ideals requires considerable discipline, Levy believes the behaviour of leaders in their private lives therefore also “counts”. “I have a saying, ‘management is a jacket you put on when you go to work
and take off when you come home, but leadership is a skin that you live in’. “No-one can be perfect and that doesn’t mean you can’t have fun and do slightly crazy things. But you can’t be one person in your leadership role and another person in other areas of your life. You have to be consistent; your ‘true north’ has to be in all of your domains of life. “Some people would say that’s a little idealistic and it’s very hard, but that’s what I believe our aspirations should be. I believe integrity is an all or nothing – you can’t have quite a lot of integrity – you either have integrity or not. “That can be very difficult and I’ve had FEBRUARY 2015 19
CONTRACTOR PROFILE
lots of uncomfortable situations in my career where I have got isolated in some shape or form because I’ve adhered to principles that I’ve thought were important. Group think, going with the crowd or fitting in can make you actually cross the line. I will go with my principles regardless of whether I’m liked or fit in – that’s not important to me. What is important to me are the principles.”
Not a fan of ideology That said, Levy, who was born in South Africa in the mid-1950s before emigrating to New Zealand in the late 1970s, does not consider himself an ideologist and hence has no aspirations to turn his hand to politics. “Just because you’re on one side and I’m on the other, if you’ve got a really good idea, why wouldn’t I want to work with you? But in politics, I couldn’t. “I’m not a big fan of ideology. That comes very much out of my childhood where I saw the sinister side of ideology in apartheid. I prefer freedom of expression and that’s why I like research and ideas. “I also don’t see everyone as an adversary. I’m really interested in wise outcomes; what are the wisest outcomes we can get that are going to do the best for whomever we are serving in terms of product or service? I also believe a leader’s job is to absorb pain and not inflict it.”
Career reflections Levy is also the chairman of the Auckland and Waitemata District Health Boards and Tonkin & Taylor, as well as a director of Orion Health. His career has previously included roles as a clinical researcher with 3M, general manager of the Bay of Plenty Area Health Board, advisor to the department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, chief executive of South Auckland Health, a founder of Ascot Hospital and chief executive of the New Zealand Blood Service. “I started as a clinician, drifted into management, ended up being a chief executive, went through an entrepreneurial phase and then into an academic and governance phase, then I’ve ended up being chairman of some very large and significant organisations with an opportunity to make a difference.” Married for 23 years and with a 20-yearold university student son currently on his OE, and an 18-year-old daughter who recently completed secondary school, Levy says he has maintained a strong focus on his family as well as his work. “I work really hard … there wouldn’t be a weekend that doesn’t go by where I don’t work many hours in each day.” Acknowledging that over the years he has had increasingly-less time to commit to his own recreational and social environment, Levy nonetheless says he and family continue to enjoy domestic
and international travel, and he also walks a lot as a personal leisure activity. Having enjoyed considerable reach with his book Leadership and the Whirlpool Effect among many other research literary works, he is currently authoring another book on the subject of leadership. Reflecting on his career, Levy says he recalls from an early age having an aspiration to “do something that was useful and made a difference”. “It is a huge motivator for me and that’s why I like being involved in very large organisations because you can make a difference for more people. “I also like academia because the other interest I have is helping people to think. If people think then they are likely to make different choices and see things differently. “But to be perfectly honest, I’ve had a totally unplanned career. Opportunities have literally arisen and I’ve taken them – the doors of opportunity are marked ‘push’. It has been more of an adventure than a career from my point of view. “On the one hand I have quite a commercial, progressive viewpoint, but on the other hand I have a deep sense of social conscience. “We need a society that is gentler and fairer. It is a worrying trend that people think more about themselves as individuals than society in general.”
The elephant in the room We couldn’t interview the person at the top of Auckland’s transport agency without alluding to another recent challenge facing the organisation – that is allegations of illegalities in procurement and contract-management procedures levelled against some staff, as reported a year ago in Contractor magazine. While considered in his comments, given the matter is still before the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), Dr Lester Levy praises the actions of Auckland Transport’s senior executives – singling out the chief executive and chief operating officer – in ultimately uncovering issues. “In this particular case, our executives have done an exceptional job in detecting that something wasn’t quite right, which led myself as chairman and the chairman of the audit and finance committee to support them to investigate and take it right to the point where it has been handed over to the SFO.” One consequent action taken by Auckland Transport has been to introduce a fraud line through which callers can provide information on alleged improprieties on an anonymous basis. Lamenting that any organisation is likely to have “bad apples” and
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with fraud often not easily detectable, Levy says those in governance need to be asking insight as well as oversight questions and “be on the alert for very, very weak signals”. “It is all very well to have external audits, but often their nature will not detect any or all potential fraud in an organisation. I think that in an organisation, particularly a larger one, you need an independent internal audit function that is of high competence, properly resourced and supported by the audit and finance committee. “The committee itself has a critical role in asking questions, ensuring the internal audit programme is diverse enough, that investigations are careful enough and that ‘dives’ are deep enough to make sure you are doing everything you can to pick up anything untoward that might be happening. “You simply can’t have a structure and process around it and expect to detect when anything goes wrong, because there will always be people who will try and throw the system. “You need to have a very low threshold for this when you’re dealing with taxpayers’ and ratepayers’ money. You just have to be constantly on the alert. You just need to be over lots of things.”
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In from the cold A Caterpillar D8R Series II bulldozer was granted a respite from its decade-long duties clearing snow off the runways in Antarctica to undertake a well-earned holiday and makeover in the Canterbury sun. HUGH DE LACY explains. THE D8R, TAKEN to the ice new by the United States Antarctic Program (USAP) in 2004, has just completed a ground-up makeover at Gough Group’s Christchurch headquarters. The machine was flown up to Christchurch in November on a Boeing C17 Globemaster, and headed back to Antarctica by resupply vessel from Lyttelton in mid-January. Its total rebuild further cemented the service relationship between Gough Group and the USAP which has been operating since 1957. Among other roles, the bulldozer’s job in Antarctica is establishing and maintaining the Williams Field and Pegasus runways at McMurdo Station to keep them open for the vital supply flights from Christchurch that continue for much of the year. It had done 13,000 hours’ work in its decade on the planet’s driest continent, dozing with an unusually wide blade designed primarily for shifting bulk materials such as stacks of coal or woodchip around in the warmer parts of 22 FEBRUARY 2015
the world. Weighing around 38,000 kilograms, the D8R is fitted with a 305hp 3406E engine and travels on unusually wide, lowground-pressure tracks. The standard cab gives it a height of 3.5 metres, and it’s 4.95 metres wide and 6.5 metres long. The makeover was carried out by three of Gough’s Christchurch divisions, with the workshop performing the disassembly and inspection, the replacement of the cab, hydraulic hoses, the undercarriage group and the wiring harnesses, the rebuild of track frames/ cannons, reassembly, testing and run-up, and painting. The Component Rebuild Centre stripped and rebuilt the engine and transmission, and the Engineering Group re-bored all of the ripper linkage and track frame mounts, and made repairs to the blade. John Gillman, Gough national parts manager, told Contractor that the most obvious wear on the machine was to the hydraulic hoses which had been subjected to more than a decade of
successive freezing and thawing. “Anything rubber deteriorates in the cold from the constant temperature recycling, and this can present a major issue in such a pristine environment as Antarctica,” Gillman says. “The machine’s kept outside and at the season start-up they have to thaw it when they want to use it, using specialised heaters. “Once thawed the machine is equipped with fluid compartment heaters for daily use.” The machine was “generally in good condition for its age, hours and operating environment, and had been well maintained by [USAP’s] site technicians”. For operator comfort, and as part of the cab refurbishment, a Webasto diesel-fired heater was fitted. To reduce unnecessary idling time, the heater works without the engine running – something now quite common in machinery working in extreme cold, though it was the first one the Gough Group had fitted in Christchurch. Also fitted during the overhaul were a
heavy-duty capacitor, on-board battery tender, special batteries, battery heaters and a high-output alternator – all accessories to help cold weather starting in one of the world’s most challenging environments. “Gough were extremely pleased to be engaged with the US National Science Foundation’s USAP in the rebuild of the Caterpillar D8R,” Gillman says. “We’re pleased that we have been able to meet their requirements and turn the machine around in the timeframe of three months.” Gough Group also has an ongoing relationship with the New Zealand Antarctic programme, having recently supplied a Caterpillar 312DL excavator which is used in general service at Scott Base. A Caterpillar 924K wheel-loader was also supplied to the Kiwis on the ice recently. Gough’s lower South Island regional manager, Dean Heney, says the refurbishment of the USAP’s D8 gave the company the chance to showcase its technical skills, especially at the
Component Rebuild Centre, “which is designed to cope with this highly technical work”. The centre’s manager, Gavin Hoyland, says the most satisfying part of the process was hooking the engine up to the
dyno “to really test it”. “McMurdo Station is a long way away, and the last thing you want is an untested engine failing in that environment – it’s not like one of our technicians can jump into the ute and drive out to fix it.”
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CONTRACTOR BAUMA CHINA 2014
Bauma China
– a biennial feast of gear and culture A report by ALAN TITCHALL who was a guest of Messe Reps & Travel IT WAS THE BIGGEST international trade fair for construction machinery, equipment and vehicles held in China, despite the downturn in the local market. Run by Messe Munchen International, the 12th bauma China was held in Shanghai back in November and was attended by Contractor magazine and a sizeable group from the Kiwi contracting industry. The huge event attracted 191,000 visitors, up from 180,000 in 2012, and international visitors were up by 12 percent. Compared to 2010, the 2012 show was an increase of 46 percent in terms of exhibitors and 16 percent in terms of visitors. At the 2014 show, the 3104 exhibitors (2000 of them Chinese) and their machinery and equipment took up the entire 300,000 square metres (comparable to 42 football fields) of the Shanghai New International Expo Centre. For the first time, the organisers used a ‘business matchmaking system’ to facilitate contacts between visitors and exhibitors. This saved a lot of time ‘exploring’ the vast event, which is spread over 17 indoor halls of 200,000 square metres, an outdoor area of 100,000 square metres, three main entrance halls, and 51 meeting rooms. The next bauma China takes place again in Shanghai in November 2016. 24 FEBRUARY 2015
BAUMA BRIEFS
The 12th bauma China was held in Shanghai back in November at the new International Expo Centre. The show attracted 191,000 visitors, up from 180,000 in 2012. International visitors were up by 12 percent.
Planning a trip to bauma THE CIVIL CONTRACTORS association promotes the programme through Messe Reps & Travel in Auckland. Robert Laing of Messe Reps is an expert on the show and the destination. He favours hotels in the centre of the city where the tourist action is. Having stayed at the Renaissance Shanghai Yu Garden Hotel under his direction I can personally vouch for the five star, faultless quality of the hotel he chose for us Kiwis and the convenience of the area – right next to the stunning, 400-year-old Yu Gardens/Old Town (more shops and eateries than gardens), and within walking distance of the famous East Nanjing pedestrian road, the Bund and the river. You can catch a metro out to the showgrounds but it is easier to grab a metered cab outside the hotel (the concierge will make sure the driver knows where to take you) and off you go for the ride of your life – never will you bitch about Auckland’s traffic again. The extraordinary thing is how cheap the taxi fare is – around $8. I don’t know how they made any money. On the way back to the hotel from the showgrounds – you walk over to the front of the Kerry Hotel and get the concierge to get you a cab back. Easy-peasy.
LiuGong Metso deal A joint venture agreement between LiuGong and Metso, unveiled at bauma China 2014, will see mobile crushers specifically designed for the Chinese market with electronics and software (designed by LiuGong) to improve integration between the engine and hydraulics for better fuel economy. While mobile crushers are not common in China, the two companies say sales will improve as older, fixed plant equipment comes up for renewal.
Volvo 17 tonner Volvo introduced its new EC170D excavator at bauma, which, at 17 tonnes, fills the gap between the popular 14 and 20 tonne weight segments. Power comes from a D4E Volvo engine delivering 90kW for a combination of high performance and low fuel consumption.
Extra tough Rammer Sandvik launched a new hydraulic hammer under its Rammer brand. The 3750kg Rammer 4099 PRO is designed for carriers in the 34-55 tonne weight class. Based on the field-proven Rammer 4099, the new model for extreme conditions such as underground, features a sealed and sturdy housing, and is designed for horizontal work. FEBRUARY 2015 25
CONTRACTOR BAUMA CHINA 2014
New excavators Hitachi unveiled a new range of hydraulic excavators: the powerful 69 tonne ZX690LCH-5A; 16.8 tonne ZX170LC-5A; 34.1 tonne ZX360K-5G; and the 20.3 tonne ZX200-5G. The 69 tonner is suited to quarry applications for truck loading with power from a 345kW diesel and wielding a four cubic metre bucket. The ZX360K-5G is also ideal for earthmoving and quarrying and features a 1.6 cubic metre bucket, while its engine is rated at 184kW. The ZX200-5G is aimed at a popular size class used in a wide array of applications, with power from a 125kW diesel and featuring a 0.91 cubic metre bucket. The ZX170LC-5A has a 79kW diesel and a 0.7 cubic metre bucket and is a highly versatile machine.
Longking excavators Shanghai-based Lonking is growing its excavator business and moving away from its reliance on wheeled loaders. Three new, high performance models at bauma were the LG6485H, CDM6365F and CDM6235. The LG6485 is top of the range, weighs 48.2 tonnes, is powered by a 269kW diesel, and featured a 2.2 cubic metre bucket.
Volvo Tier 2 and 3 Volvo Penta displayed a number of new lines of Tier 2 and Tier 3 engines that share a common design with Tier 4 engines, which means OEM manufacturers can fit an engine suitable for the customer and the applicable emissions standards without having to do a major redesign to accommodate a different engine. The stage II and IIIA engines use an advanced cleanburning fuel injection system, which means that they don’t need an after-treatment system to lower emissions levels. The Volvo Penta range consists of a complete line of 5, 8, 11, 13 and 16 litre engines for off-road use, and on display was the new TAD1350VE which is certified to China III standard.
Above right: Performing young Chinese women competed at exhibits across the venue. Right: Big toys at work.
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The 12th bauma China in Shanghai at the new International Expo Centre hosted 3104 exhibitors (2000 of them Chinese). Their machinery and equipment took up the entire 300,000 square metres (comparable to 42 football fields) of the event centre.
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CONTRACTOR BAUMA CHINA 2014
Komatsu Tier 3 compliance Komatsu showed off four new excavators that are Tier 3 compliant and meet China’s imminent new emissions requirements. The Komatsu engines feature electronic injection and can work efficiently even with low-grade fuel. Top of the range is the PC360-8MO weighing 33,550kg and powered by a 187kW engine and featuring a 1.6 cubic metre bucket.
Sandvik’s latest screen Left: David and Matthew Calvet from Wedgelock at the Hitachi stand. The brothers attended bauma China to market their safety coupling for excavators. It was their first time to China and they knew they had an uphill battle, as the Chinese market is not known for its use of couplers.
Sandvik unveiled its latest screen – the new SK2462 and the latest in its SK&SC range. It new circular motion screen is 2.4 metres by six metres and weighs 7.3 tonnes. A 22kW motor allowing rotation speeds of between 780 and 900rpm provides power. It is designed for heavyduty medium and fine screening applications especially after primary and secondary crushing. Dust encapsulation is incorporated to satisfy clean air regulations. The number of parts has been reduced and bearing lubrication improved. In addition, the vibration mechanism can be removed and installed as a fully assembled module.
1. A shiny new Volvo 2. Lunchtime delegates take advantage of the unseasonal sunshine. 3. Little toys work. 4. Wirtgen display. 5. Kobelco display. 6. Big always works. 7. The Volvo Compact TAD873VE weighs only 737kg. 8. Komatsu display. 9. There were a lot of Chinese made cone crushers.
Big loader LiuGong’s biggest ever wheeled loader, the 17.2 tonne CLG8128H (one of its latest generation H-series machines) is one of the biggest selling machine classes in China. Power comes from a diesel delivering 162kW.
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Demand for quality roading machinery Bomag says that demand for its soil compactors, asphalt pavers and rollers, and reclaimers/ stabilisers is increasing as long-term roading contractors look for better quality machines. Bomag’s BF300 and BF800 asphalt pavers are now finding steady sales into China. Its RS950 stabiliser is said to be the most powerful reclaimer/stabiliser on the market, with power from a diesel delivering 708kW, and wellsuited for large road recycling jobs where road structures typically feature a cement base.
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The XCMG 4000 – China’s first 400 tonne extractor with a 22 cubic metre bucket. Paired up with a XDE240 dumpster.
Left: Roger Mahan, Milburn Lime, Milton and Irena from JYM, a Chinese company that makes a range of equipment including crushers. Roger has been attending bauma China since it started and is a big fan of the show. One year he bought 300 tonnes of explosives. “Each show just gets bigger and the range of equipment and its quality improves. Exhibitors use young women to front their business, but they are very informed about their products and know their stuff. “In general I find the Chinese hard working and on the ball. Nothing is a problem for them and they are very trusting once they get to know you.”
Above: Shanghai’s Old Town – 400 years old, restored and a huge tourist attraction for shops and food. You will be pestered with hawkers – ‘watches’, ‘bags’, ‘massage’ – who can be politely dismissed. Unfortunately, decades of Western tourists looking for cheap junk has encouraged a vibrant hawking industry, but never accept an offer to have a drink in a bar or you will find it an expensive and embarrassing exercise.
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CONTRACTOR BAUMA CHINA 2014
Economical Volvo paver Volvo unveiled its new mid-sized P6820C ABG paver, which features lower fuel consumption and produces less noise than the model it replaces, and is designed to deliver smooth mats in demanding conditions such as steep hills. Volvo’s D6E COM IIIA Tier 3 compliant engine provides power of 142kW.
Wirtgen roading gear The Wirtgen Group is now offering variants of its latest Vogele asphalt paver and Hamm asphalt compactor. The new Vogele Super 2100-3 and Super 1900-3 pavers and Hamm HD12VO and HD10VO compactors are all now built at its Chinese plant. Wirtgen’s new Hamm 318 soil compactor weighs 18 tonnes and features a 2.22 metre wide drum and can generate compaction forces of 242kN or 331kN, with power from a 153kW diesel. The machine can be teamed up with the recently introduced Wirtgen WR250 recycler.
Hammer drills Sandvik introduced its new Tiger range of top hammer drills, which feature a low centre of gravity and (track driven) good stability on uneven terrain. The DG700 and DG800, the two models currently launched, are designed with road cutting, pipeline drilling, foundation drilling, and production drilling in mid-sized quarry applications in mind. A joystick in the cab controls drilling. The cabin is soundproofed to keep noise levels well below 85dBA and it is ROPS and FOPS certified.
TAXIS AND TRAFFIC – He who hesitates gives way on Shanghai’s congested streets where there are many signal lights, but few rules. A lot of the motorbikes are electric so you can’t hear them until they are tooting behind you. Like the migration of the wildebeest, pedestrians are safer in numbers, before weaving their way from one side of a street to another. And never trust a bus thundering towards a pedestrian crossing. But – you will never complain about Auckland’s traffic again! Taxis are dirt cheap. From the city centre hotels to the expo, which is half way to the international airport and next to the high speed train (300kmh plus that travels directly to the airport), costs about $8. However, you must get into a metered cab (they are coloured two-tone and most are 1.8 litre, manual, VW Santa Vistas) and the best way to do that is to get the concierge outside a hotel to get you one. Best place for a metered cab at the expo site is at the Kerry Hotel. Avoid unmetered cabs, as they will try and charge you up to five times the normal fare depending on how gullible you look. THE KERRY PARK SHOPPING COMPLEX also houses a fantastic modern supermarket, cafes, restaurants and shops – great for escaping the teeming hordes at the show. Even though November, the month the show is held, is the start of winter, the weather can be surprisingly warm.
Changing China Visiting China these days you can literally see the old China going and the new, very 21st century China taking over. This manifests in vast inner city demolition sites where old housing has been gutted to make room for more high rises. On Saturdays, when the working traffic is off the roads and motorway, you see it in the number of wedding cars that are dolled up luxury vehicles such as Ferraris. You experience it in the new shopping malls in the pristine supermarkets and upmarket shops such as Hugo Boss where the price is the price and a far cry from the multi-storey shopping complexes with hardly room to walk and where the price is as good as you can bargain. You see it in the spotless and very efficient transport system and airports which make Auckland Airport look third world. And lastly you see it in the young folks and their perfect English as they swap comfortably between two worlds. And what a difference the lack of alcohol makes to youth enjoying themselves in China, compared to our raucous, alcohol-fuelled, reckless lot on a weekend binge. Like post-war Japan, China is emerging as a powerhouse of productivity and expansion into the big wide world with wealth, imitation and improvements, and through sending its sons and daughters to the west to be educated in our ways. Soon, we’ll be sending our sons and daughters to learn from them. 30 FEBRUARY 2015
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CONTRACTOR COMPANY PROFILE
The contractor’s
NEW BEST FRIEND A milestone was reached in the civil-construction industry last year when contractors and consulting engineers held a joint annual conference – mutual recognition of being members of the same team striving for the same goal. In the light of this welcome détente, GAVIN RILEY takes a look at the life of one consulting engineer.
ENGINEERING GEOLOGIST and geotechnical
engineer Georg Winkler isn’t certain when contractors and consultants started working together more closely but he thinks it may date back just a couple of years and be due largely to the Christchurch rebuild. While others might also credit project alliances for the new-found teamwork, Georg says the cost and urgency of the southern-city rebuild has placed heavy emphasis on “constructability”, which by definition requires contractors and consultants to work collaboratively to achieve the most cost-effective result. He says it’s easy for a consulting engineer to recommend foundation designs in accordance with government guidelines, but sometimes the cost can be sky-high and a better solution has to be found – often with the help of the contractor. And not just in Christchurch. “We do a lot of retaining walls and 32 FEBRUARY 2015
landslide repairs around the Far North, Wairoa and Gisborne and we try to get contractors to cast their eye over constructability matters, because they’re the people who know how easy or how hard it is to construct things,” Georg says. “We know things they might not see straight away, like this little section of road is actually on a huge landslide, or that little retaining wall has to hold up that huge landslide. It’s about understanding costs.” Georg Winkler is in his mid-40s and has headed his own consultancy for the past 10 years. Raised in Wairoa, he did a double major degree in geology and physical geography at Victoria University in Wellington and a master’s degree in engineering geology at Canterbury University. After he had worked for environmental and engineering consultants Tonkin & Taylor in Auckland for 10 years, he and
his wife decided in early 2004 it was time for a change. They moved to Gisborne where Georg set up Land Development & Exploration Ltd (LDE) as a small specialist company making use of his background in complex engineering technology and offering geological, geotechnical, civil, structural and environmental engineering services throughout New Zealand. Georg misses Auckland for its big-city buzz and concerts, “but I definitely don’t miss the traffic”. “We set up in Gisborne for a lifestyle change, and for the sunshine of course. The principle or mantra of the company is to allow people to live where they want to live and still do cool, interesting and challenging work. It’s working really well.” So well, in fact, that LDE now has 30 staff and offices in Gisborne, Warkworth, Whangarei and Napier, and a presence in Christchurch. Georg sees no drawback to having a
A large in-ground retaining wall that LDE designed. The piles are 10m deep and 750mm in diameter. Georg Winkler is pictured walking along the crest.
Gisborne-based head office in terms of providing services. “We have a spread of qualified people on the ground around the country who do the testing. Where it’s tricky and requires a more senior person’s or specialist’s eyes, we fly people in. Because our overheads are low by having a Gisborne head office, flying senior guys in is still cost-effective.” So is using Skype constantly for communicating. “We have meetings with four or five people all at once in all the different offices. They might as well be in the office right next to each other, because that’s how good it is.” A tonne of work – in fact, many tonnes – came LDE’s way last July when severe rainfall in the Far North produced flooding and massive landslides on SH1 and the only detour road, closing Northland to heavy traffic and costing millions of dollars. The complex underlying geology saw Georg in his element.
“All contractors in Auckland who deal with earthworks will know of a group of rocks called Onerahi Chaos,” he says, referring to a sheared mudstone which is particularly prone to land movement. “That’s what I focused on in my master’s thesis.” Nearly 400 slips had affected the roading network and LDE undertook a triage assessment of ranking the landslides based on their severity and consequences to the network. Because much of the Far North has the problematic Onerahi Chaos underneath it, the landslides were waiting to happen, Georg says. “The situation was dire. I was standing on the detour road and a logging truck went over it and before our eyes the whole road moved sideways, due to unstable ground beneath the road and the vibrations and loads of heavy traffic.” SH1 was closed for about two weeks.
Some of the landslides are several hundred metres wide and caused massive damage. LDE carried out investigation and design of remedial measures for about 60 of the worst-case slips and had nearly completed this work at year’s end. “There are some huge retaining walls, up to 11 metres high, with construction costs of $500,000 to $700,00 for one or two of them. There are all types of remedial solutions – there’s no one standard fix. Everything needs to be carefully considered and weighed up.” Limited Transport Agency (NZTA) funding means the cheapest option is to repair the road surface at low cost. But because heavy rain in the future will cause the slips to occur again, LDE has been striving to produce solutions within the agency’s budget which are costeffective. In the Christchurch rebuild, under subcontract to Tonkin & Taylor, LDE has FEBRUARY 2015 33
CONTRACTOR COMPANY PROFILE
Above: A view of a slope underlain by a reasonably large landslide that threatened the house below it. Deep soil anchors were designed and installed by LDE to stabilise the slope. Above right: LDE’s CPT (cone penetrometer test) rig in action. The rig has the capability to reach into difficult access areas normally not able to be tested by conventional CPT rigs.
Right: A large anchored retaining wall under construction in Northland. The retained height is actually 6m, although most of the wall structure is beneath the ground surface.
34 FEBRUARY 2015
been carrying out modelling beneath suburbs affected by liquefaction and lateral spreading, and mapping the extent of lateral spreading throughout the city and Kaiapoi. “We had a team tracking cracks through properties to work out how far back from the river the land had moved. It had moved much farther than anyone imagined,” Georg says. “The good thing about that was the experience we got in co-ordinating a team of up to nine people in getting that information into a database. We applied that work to the Far North and helped the Far North District Council and NZTA to assess the actual cost of the [flooding and landslip] damage.” Georg says repairs are still not completed following Gisborne’s 6.7 earthquake in 2007, and that long time-frame leads him to believe LDE will be involved in the Christchurch rebuild for a number of years yet.
With global warming producing erratic weather patterns and rising sea levels, he also foresees his company gaining work opportunities arising from major landslides and in coastal engineering. “We do quite a few coastal structures. That [work] will continue to grow and contractors will be interested in that. Some of the projects are quite tricky. Sea levels rose about 15cm last century and you have increased storm events. Rising sea levels are eating away at the coasts and a lot of our roads in this country go round the coastline. “Also, the sea level rising will raise the groundwater table in low-lying cities and towns. It will affect places like Napier, a lot of which is built on ground close to sea level and the groundwater table is already quite high. “Another 15 to 20cm of rising sea level will raise the groundwater table close to the foundations of buildings, making all those areas much more
prone to liquefaction and lateral spreading.” LDE’s only problem is attracting sufficient highly qualified staff to be able to expand to capture current and anticipated future work. But Georg says that with the Australian mining boom over, Kiwi engineers are returning home. Added to that, he has succeeded in recruiting two English, two Irish and two German staff “and they’re all exceptional”.
So he’s looking forward to the future – and he thinks contractors should be too because of new technology and construction techniques on offer. “The advance in construction methodology is really interesting. It’s exciting for contractors. There’s a lot of interesting new techniques being used in other parts of the world which contractors might like to have a look at for themselves and import and use.”
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Above: A large-scale, deep-seated landslide that severed access to a small community north of Gisborne. LDE was involved with assessing the stability of the landslide and the design of a new road across it. Rising sea levels, increasing storm surges and rainfall from extreme weather events appear to have caused the landslide.
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CONTRACTOR PROJECT
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DANGEROUS BOTTLENECK
36 FEBRUARY 2015
“The new culvert will be located at the base of an existing steep sided gully, with Stringfellows and subcontractors complying with the strict environmental controls for working in and around the stream.”
Constructing a $6.8 million culvert for the Whakaruatapu Stream near Dannevirke is one of the most important Transport Agency projects in the Tararua District for years. BY NEIL RITCHIE. THE WHAKARUATAPU STREAM culvert for
the Whakaruatapu Stream will bypass the old, almost dilapidated, Whakaruatapu Bridge known locally as “the skinny bridge”, as a welcome relief for traffic. The supply and installation of the first Super-Cor Arch Culvert in New Zealand is a key part of this technically challenging project, which main contractor Stringfellows Civil Engineering Contractors started in late 2014. It is due to be completed by late 2016. The new culvert will be located at the base of an existing steep sided gully, with Stringfellows and subcontractors
complying with the strict environmental controls for working in and around the stream. A number of erosion and sediment control techniques have already been implemented to restrict run-off and prevent sediment build up in the stream. Once preliminary earthworks have been completed, approximately 20 metres of fill will be placed on top and the existing meandering stream diverted in three places to enable the construction of the culvert foundations. This work will also include the construction of a flood wall between the diverted stream and
the new concrete foundation for the arch culvert. The arch culvert will be six metres wide, 116 metres long and will have two 15 degree bends in it. It will be constructed from galvanised steel corrugated plates – in parts, two plates thick to provide extra strength. The foundation of the culvert will be 9.3 metres wide and 800mm thick and contain over 1000 cubic metres of reinforced concrete. The majority of the steel components are being manufactured in South Korea and will be shipped to New Zealand early this year. FEBRUARY 2015 37
CONTRACTOR PROJECT
“The design will widen the road and direct the stream through a culvert underneath, with the effect being that motorists will hardly know they are travelling across a stream”
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Once the concrete work is complete a series of weirs and groynes constructed from river stones will be cast into the invert of the culvert to duplicate a natural stream environment. The project is also located adjacent to a local cemetery, with NZTA and Stringfellows working closely with local iwi and having blessing ceremonies undertaken before site work started. The narrow, aging Whakaruatapu Bridge and its approaches are key parts of State Highway 2 for most motorists travelling between Napier and Palmerston North, or between Napier and Wellington, as they nearly always use this particular piece of the state highway. The bridge, built about 1927, is a level viaduct type structure with a reinforced concrete deck. However, the deck is only 5.79 metres wide between kerbs. It has plate girders supported on steel trestle piers, each resting on concrete pedestals, and mass concrete abutments. But all pedestals are now showing signs of extensive cracking, with some extending into the concrete foundations. There is also concern about the bridge foundations relating to any movements during moderate to severe earthquakes. So the sub-standard condition of the bridge itself and both bridge approaches pose significant safety concerns for motorists, particularly heavy vehicles. This part of SH2 has a history of high crash statistics, including some fatalities. Some drivers slow down to give wider vehicles the right of way across the bridge knowing there is not enough width for both vehicles to pass each other. There is also particular concern regarding heavy vehicles approaching the bridge from
opposite directions at the same time. So the NZTA decided to replace the bridge with a culvert and secured funding for the Whakaruatapu Bridge and Approaches Reconstruction Project during the 2014-15 financial year. NZTA’s highway and network operations project team manager, John Jones, says the bridge will be demolished on completion of the culvert and new road alignment. The project involves over 150,000 cubic metres of earthworks and 22,000 square metres of new pavement. The majority of work over the past summer involved constructing the new culvert, which did not affect the old traffic lanes. The most noticeable changes to road users will occur during the 2015-16 summer as traffic is shifted onto the new alignment. Jones says the initial stages of this project have gone very well. “The design will widen the road and direct the stream through a culvert underneath, with the effect being that motorists will hardly know they are travelling across a stream. “It’s more than just replacing a bridge. It’s a 1700 metre project that will also improve the safety of the approaches.” The primary objectives for the project are: to remove the existing seismically deficient Whakaruatapu Stream Bridge and install a suitable culvert solution; construct a new realignment of SH2 surrounding the Whakaruatapu Stream Bridge to incorporate a 100 kilometre per hour speed environment; improve safety and route efficiency for all road corridor users in the area; and widen this section of SH2 to the Standard Regional Link width.
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CONTRACTOR PROFILE
Dave and Margo Connell – a formidable team and passionate about the industry.
The power behind the president Civil Contractors leader DAVE CONNELL is not the only smart operator in his family. His wife Margo talks to GAVIN RILEY about her key role in their company and helping others.
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MORE THAN A FEW delegates at last year’s civil contractors’ annual conference would have been surprised to find a seminar on the challenges facing small businesses being hosted not by the president, Dave Connell, but by his wife. Margo Connell’s speaking spot (“I was as nervous as hell”) came about because of what she had experienced two years earlier after the couple’s civil-construction company moved into Christchurch to become involved in the post-earthquake rebuild. Hamilton-based Connell Contractors went south in search of work because the effects of the global financial crisis had shrunk contracting opportunities in and around the Waikato. “The earthquake appeared to be that pot
of gold,” Margo recalls. But soon she felt as isolated as she had when helping found their company in 1985. “It was setting up all those office systems basically from scratch. Dave was out doing construction business and I was in my office, trying to get that established in a new city, and I had no support. “I thought I can’t be the only one who feels like this. I think in today’s climate the challenge that we face in SMEs [small-to-medium enterprises] is compliance. It’s absolutely massive. You can’t actually do it all yourself. I thought there must be lots of people out there feeling exactly like me – wives that are there in the business or guys operating on their own, thinking what the hell do I do?” What she did was get together with a couple
Margo Connell: “We’ve always wanted to be volunteers and give something back”.
of fellow Civil Contractors NZ members in the Waikato to put on an advice-for-SMEs seminar, which CCNZ chief executive Jeremy Sole then asked her to head at the 2014 annual conference. Margo says other challenges facing SMEs are attracting and retaining the right kind of staff, rapidly changing technology, and an evershifting market. “You’ve just got to be adaptable in what you do. If you’re not adaptable you quickly get relegated.” The Connells believe that while there are subcontracting opportunities for SMEs, a business cannot grow far in that role and eventually becomes one-dimensional. But to progress to being a lead contractor is difficult, not just because of restricted local-authority spending but because an SME often does not
have a dedicated person to spend the time necessary to prepare tenders and attend to compliance issues. “The life of the subcontractor sometimes isn’t a very happy life,” Margo says. “We’re just finishing a job in Tauranga where at long last we’re back in there as a head contractor with quite a sizeable contract, and we’ve performed exceedingly well.” Margo’s early work experience gave her a solid grounding for her eventual role as Connell Contractors’ financial manager. The daughter of a bank manager, she spent eight years with the then Housing Corporation in Hamilton after leaving school, starting as a cashier and moving through the accounts ranks into the large tenancy department before becoming the manager’s personal assistant and human
“I thought I can’t be the only one who feels like this. I think in today’s climate the challenge that we face in SMEs [small-to-medium enterprises] is compliance. It’s absolutely massive. You can’t actually do it all yourself. ”
FEBRUARY 2015 41
CONTRACTOR PROFILE
resources officer. “It was really good training in terms of robust systems, which is something I suppose I’m really pedantic about. On the financial side I’ve just carried that through into the business.” Margo believes men and women bring different strengths to running a business and modestly sees herself as “just an organiser who is systems-focused and tries to keep things on the straight and narrow”. However, husband Dave disagrees. He claims, mock-complainingly, that over the past 10 years his wife has set up a network of “female dictators”. The company’s lawyer, accountant and bank manager are all women. “She’s quietly gone about doing this and she’s got a group of ‘friends in business’ that grows by the year and they all get together – and it’s marvellous! That kind of networking Margo does so well.” The Connells, parents of three adult daughters and a son, are a formidable team. When Dave took on the Civil Contractors’ presidency in 2013 it was on the understanding that “Margo comes with me to all the functions … we work as a partnership … the deal is you get two for one”. It was that understanding that indirectly led to Margo’s speaking role at the 2014 conference. Margo says: “I don’t have all the answers. You don’t know everything, but if you can be easy to talk to and approachable, share your experiences, and if you can help somebody to make a difference to themselves, then that’s the reward. “The thing about us is that we’ve always been volunteers, right from helping with the kids’ schools. We’re both very passionate about the industry
we’re involved in and we’ve always wanted to give something back. We’ve met so many wonderful people along the way. “There’s no particularly good time to commit to what Dave’s doing [the presidency and steering the recent Contractors’ Federation-Roading New Zealand merger], but it’s very rewarding. It’s been very challenging and very timeconsuming, but I try to take on more of the business matters to free him up from those sorts of issues if I can.” Their cumulative responsibilities have been eased by appointing separate managers and office managers in Hamilton (17 staff) and Christchurch (28) to keep Connell Contractors operating efficiently. “But,” Margo says, “we’re still the face of the business and if you’re not visible, not out there, then it does create some problems. Strategically, you still need to keep your finger on what you’re doing. With having the name ‘Connell’ out there, if you’re not visible that has its risks.” Two years ago the couple came very close to selling Connell Contractors. They now say it would have been a huge mistake to have done so as they have since made more money than they could have sold the business for. For all that, they maintain Canterbury has not been “the land of opportunity” and they have probably taken 10 years off their lives by having to borrow hugely against their assets to turn survival into profit. “And that’s what happened down there [companies going broke] – so many people have gone in undercapitalised,” Margo says. “The continuity of work wasn’t quite there for a period of time, though the
company is really hitting its straps now. It’s really starting to hum down there and we’ve got a really good relationship with the SCIRT [infrastructure rebuild] delivery teams.” Christchurch’s infrastructure rebuild will last about another two years, after which Connell Contractors will remain in the area working on local-body and private developments. The Connells are now back in Hamilton but still visit their Christchurch operation once a month. “We went down to Christchurch two weeks ago and the crew were really pleased to see us, which was really neat,” Margo says. “There’s nothing better than when we go to Christchurch and I sit down with the office staff and see how things are going. You get such valuable feedback in that relaxed environment.” The Connells feel their company is well positioned to face the future. Their Hamilton and Christchurch managers are also shareholders, they have added two independent directors to their board, and they are avidly pursuing Dave’s long-held policy of recruiting bright and reliable youngsters, including four male civil-construction apprentices and two female office workers. Margo comments: “One of my friends said to me, ‘You’ve got to groom your business as if it’s for sale, even though you might not want to sell it’. Which is probably where we are now.” Does her obvious enthusiasm indicate she and Dave plan to remain in the industry for the foreseeable future? “Definitely,” Margo responds. “I’m just as passionate as Dave about it. It’s been a huge part of our lives. To not have that involvement would be quite difficult.”
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CONTRACTOR RECRUITMENT
Women to the rescue The critical shortage of skilled truck drivers has been well documented in the news media, but not so well known is an equally threatening shortage of construction machine operators. BY TOM CLARKE. ACCORDING TO DAVE CONNELL, president of Civil Contractors NZ, the shortage couldn’t have come at a worse time, with the country involved in one of its biggest-ever phases of infrastructure and property development which has been estimated at well over $10 billion. Connell says the chronic shortage of both truck and machine operators is the result of a lack of training over the past few years, because of a lack of confidence in the construction industry. Under John Key’s National led Government, we are embarking on seven massive lead infrastructure roading projects – that is, roads that enable economic growth rather than simply respond to it, known as the Roads of National Significance. Added to that is a huge number of construction projects in the Auckland region involving new government buildings, new commercial, retail and housing property developments, and
44 FEBRUARY 2015
projects like the 30-year $2.4 billion development at Auckland International Airport. On top of that is the Christchurch rebuild, which is now estimated at $40 billion. Connell says there is real demand for capable, experienced machine operators. His company, Connell Contractors, has bases in Hamilton and Christchurch and is handling projects from the Port of Tauranga to the Christchurch rebuild, and is currently bringing in operators from the UK to fill the skills gap. “There’s a hell of a shortage,” he says. “A lot of good operators went to Australia to work on the enabling works to build the mines – the rail and roads and the development of the mines themselves – but now that has been done, around 20 percent of that workforce has been absorbed into permanent jobs to run the mines, but there’s no work for
the rest. “Australia is now having a recession in civil works and they’re behind us, while John Key has invested in infrastructure which is a real kick for our economy. But in Australia, guys are waiting for three months to get work, so they’re starting to trickle back. Some of them you wouldn’t want to employ in our type of work, because coming from the mining environment, they might be good with big machines and bulk stuff, but they’re no good digging around utilities.” Until now, Connell Contractors has relied on recruiting operators and training them themselves to their required standards, but Connell is hopeful that the new infrastructure industry training organisation, Connexis, will result in the industry lifting its profile, and attracting more talented and capable youngsters. “We’ve always picked the low hanging fruit and the under-performers, and we’ve
and rollers, and civil plant operators and at the end of their apprenticeships, they will have some great skills and a great future in a great industry, and with no student loan. The new training regime starts in the first quarter of this year, and Connell says it will lift the whole profile of the industry. He is keen to encourage more young women to consider careers in the industry, believing they can be better operators of trucks and heavy construction machinery than men. “I’m really a fan of them in our workforce,” he says. “In Australia some of the women driving those big 200-tonne dump trucks are much more gentle, so there’s much less wear and tear on the gear. Women think differently, they relate better, they’re more consensus-based – and they tend to get their way, not by yelling and screaming, but by negotiating.” There are currently very few women operators in the industry, and Connell believes if more could be encouraged
never had anything to offer NCEA Level II kids that is practical,” he says. “The dairy industry and the armed forces have excellent recruiting and they offer fine careers, but we’re better and we just need to sell ourselves. “And we need to value drivers more. For years we’ve taken warm bodies off the street and thrown them on half-amillion-dollar machines, and that has got to stop. We need to wean out the cowboys and lift the profile – it’s a high compliance industry and we need smart, professional people.” There are plenty of good people with the right skills he believes. It’s a matter of attracting them into the industry and then into training, and then retaining them. The industry is crucially important to the economy, so it’s important that it develops broader appeal. Connell says the beauty of Connexis is that it will – for the first time – offer trade training that will enable young people to enter construction industry apprenticeships covering wheels, tracks
to enter the industry, it could have a snowball effect. If a young woman could leave school and be earning $50,000 to $60,000 a year operating a construction machine, that could be a huge incentive for other equally capable youngsters earning $25,000 as a shop assistant, to consider joining the industry. “Trucking is a little different because it’s a nice clean environment – the question is how do you sell the role of a digger driver to women? Is it attractive to them? “There’re plenty of women who can do it – I’ve seen women drive motor scrapers and they’re excellent. We just have to convince them that as a woman there is a future for you in this industry. There is a growth path and it’s a good safe environment. “That’s just another bit of work we have to do as an industry,” he says. “And I think the new apprenticeship is going to open a lot of doors and solve a lot of problems.”
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CONTRACTOR LOOKING BACK HE
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TRAILS
IN ARTHUR’S FOOTSTEPS Of all the mountain roads in New Zealand, none matches Arthur’s Pass for the complexity of its engineering. HUGH DE LACY finds out why.
46 FEBRUARY 2015
A FEW NOSES WERE put distinctly out of joint in the little engineering community of colonial Christchurch when a teenager fresh out of a local church school landed the job of surveying the wild West Coast of the South Island for a way to link it by road to the east. It was 1859, two years before Gabriel Read would ignite the nascent country’s gold fever by discovering bits of the stuff shining “like the stars of the Orion” in his fabulous gully in Otago, thereby triggering the exploration that led to further phenomenal discoveries up the length of the West Coast. The Otago gold all filtered out through
the vigorous Presbyterian settlement of Dunedin, bringing untold development benefits with it, and the Anglicans of the Canterbury settlement were determined that the West Coast’s riches should similarly endow Christchurch. But there were only isolated reports of gold on the island when the Canterbury Provincial Government sent 19-year-old Arthur Dudley Dobson, not long graduated from what would become upper-crust private school Christ’s College, to survey the almost unexplored northern West Coast to see what treasures it might hold. The murmurings about his appointment
PHOTO: Whites Aviation Ltd :Photographs. Ref: WA-51241-F. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand.
The Otira Viaduct was completed in 1999, a 445-metre long pre-stressed concrete box girder bridge of four spans, of which the 134 metre main one is the longest in New Zealand.
“The outcome of this third of the great Arthur’s Pass engineering challenges is a beautiful ribbon of a man-made structure, seemingly floating above the rock-strewn riverbed.”
arose because his father, Edward Dobson, was the Canterbury Province surveyor. Nepotism and his youth notwithstanding, Arthur and his younger brothers George and Edward, similarly favoured with employment as surveyors by their father, all produced superb exploratory work, as had the Edward senior and his brother Alfred, who was surveyor for the Nelson province. Young Arthur Dobson spent seven months on the Coast before returning to Christchurch to report, and was then sent back up the Waimakariri River in 1864 to see if he could find a way across the Southern Alps to link Canterbury with the West Coast. Reaching the Great Divide, Dobson climbed a thousand-metre peak above the Otira Gorge, and saw it as a place where a road might be pushed through between the Waimakariri on the eastern side and the Taramakau on the western. By the time he’d completed this task and again reported back, the Gabriel’s Gully goldrush was in full swing, and reports of both placer and quartz gold discoveries had begun flooding in from the West Coast. Keen to emulate Dunedin’s effective clipping of the golden ticket, a group of Christchurch businessmen put up a stake of £200 ($400) for anybody who could find a suitable route to the Coast. Arthur Dobson’s younger brother George checked out every possible pass at the headwaters of the Taramakau, Waimakariri and Hurunui Rivers, and returned to say that the pass Arthur had discovered was
by far the most suitable. So it was by way of Arthur’s pass that the provincial government decided to build a road to the Coast over Porters Pass, west of Springfield, up the Cave Stream to Cass on the Waimakariri, up the Bealey River and over the pass, then on to Otira and down the Taramakau. The youngest Dobson brother, Edward, then got the job of building the 200 kilometre road, and he set a precedent for extraordinary engineering feats at Arthur’s Pass by completing it to a standard fit for stage-coaches by July 1866. This was just a few weeks after the middle brother, George, working at the western end of the road, was mistaken for gold-buyer Edwin Fox and murdered by a gang of four cut-throats – they also killed four other men just a fortnight later in what became known as the Maungatapu murders, the country’s only incident of Australian-style bushranging. Where a road crossed the Alps to the Coast, demands soon followed for a railway, leading to the building of the Midland Line between Lyttelton and Greymouth. After decades of agitation, work on the railway line began in 1907. The key passage over the great divide was to be by way of an 8.5 kilometre tunnel from Arthur’s Pass to Otira at a gradient of one in 33. At the time one of the longest rail tunnels in a world obsessed with trains, it became the second great feat of engineering in Arthur’s Pass after the road, but taking 16 years to build and not opening until 1923. FEBRUARY 2015 47
PHOTO: Mueller, Mildred Violet, d 1969 :Albums. Ref: PA1-o-354-40. Alexander Turnbull
CONTRACTOR LOOKING BACK
Above: Summit of Arthur’s Pass Right: Otira Tunnel railway from the west side, c1910
In the meantime, the road through Arthur’s Pass depended at the eastern end on a zigzagging route to get it above a massive and constantly moving slip which saw everything from pulverised sand to massive greywacke boulders tens of metres thick plummeting into the stream bed below. As ferocious seismic forces – including a major earthquake in 1929 – extended the slip further up the 700 metre mountainside behind it, new zigs and zags were added to keep the road above it. By late last century, however, with the slip stretching ever higher up the mountain, the potential of the zigzagging strategy had been exhausted, and a new carriageway had to be built between Arthur’s Pass and Otira. A long bridge would be at the heart of it. With the bed of the Otira River deep in avalanche rubble, more-or-less constant seismic movement triggering repeated rockfalls, the 800 metre elevation above sea-level ensuring extremes of weather that included five metres of rain a year, and that particular part of SH73 sitting within the Arthur’s Pass National Park and accordingly dotted with Maori cultural features requiring preservation, the challenges to designers Beca Carter Hollings and Ferner were 48 FEBRUARY 2015
without precedent even in the challenging New Zealand environment. What they came up with, and what was built by contractor McConnell Smith, was a 445-metre long pre-stressed concrete box girder viaduct of four spans, of which the 134 metre main one is the longest in New Zealand. The construction method was balanced cantilever, with the pier foundations of the elegantly curved structure driven 25 metres into the streambed, and the slender piers rising to 35 metres above them. The piers had to be protected from rockfalls by deflector structures, and the viaduct rises along its length at a gradient of nearly 12 percent east to west. And defying the Otira rail tunnel’s record of repeated delays and cost over-runs, the Otira Viaduct was completed in November 1999, a month ahead of its 36-month timetable and comfortably within its $25 million budget. The outcome of this third of the great Arthur’s Pass engineering challenges is a beautiful ribbon of a man-made structure, seemingly floating above the rock-strewn riverbed, enhancing the savage natural beauty of the place and making it the highlight of the spectacular road trip across the island.
The key passage over the great divide was to be by way of an 8.5 kilometre tunnel from Arthur’s Pass to Otira at a gradient of one in 33.
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CONTRACTOR TECHNICAL
SCIENCE TRIUMPHS on the highway
How a Mt Maunganui company’s world-class laboratory expertise won a major award for enabling efficiency gains and cost savings to be made on a long-term road-maintenance contract. BY GAVIN RILEY.
AN IMPORTANT AND LASTING contribution to getting more value from the
roading dollar proved a winning entry in the “maintenance and management of assets” category of Civil Contractors NZ’s 2014 Hirepool construction excellence awards. Winning company Road Science’s advanced design, testing and investigation methodologies enabled significant savings to be made on the Transport Agency’s East Waikato hybrid-model maintenance contract. Developed from the doctorate studies of Road Science’s Greg Arnold and Transport Agency research over the past 15 years, the methodologies using repeated load triaxial and flexural beam tests are considered the most advanced in the world in the area of granular and stabilised pavements. For the 2006-2015 East Waikato contract, the Transport Agency has a requirement to reduce the total budget by about 10 percent each year. In addition, due to the fixed lump sum for pavement renewals, sites that were low risk and low cost were treated. So the problem sites with the greatest pavement distress were avoided due to the extra cost to repair them falling on the contractor (Downer) and the high risk of their early pavement failure. Another imperative for change was the agency’s need to reduce the number of early failures the contract was experiencing. As a result, Road Science’s Mt Maunganui-based pavements team was asked to use its advanced testing and design techniques to create the optimal treatments for the renewals. The process that has evolved contains a number of steps: • Site identification. Each year the worst sites (about 12) are identified by the contract asset management team for a full design and pavement rehabilitation. • Site investigation and test pits. Pavement distress type and existing pavement depths are determined along with samples of the existing pavement taken for advanced testing. This work is carried out by Road Science in conjunction with the operations team of Opus and Downer. • Advanced laboratory investigation. Road Science conducts repeated load triaxial and flexural beam tests on the pavement materials and proposed stabilised mixes to determine performance criteria for the pavement design. 50 FEBRUARY 2015
Above: Repeated Triaxial tests determine the rutting life of the pavement and the flexural tests estimate the fatigue life of any proposed stabilised pavement treatment. The testing and analysis is carried out by Road Science’s specialist team. Left: Pavement distress type and existing pavement depths are determined along with samples of the existing pavement taken for advanced testing. This work is carried out by Road Science in conjunction with the operations team of Opus and Downer.
FEBRUARY 2015 51
CONTRACTOR TECHNICAL “The initial investment in this testing and design process is quickly recovered in finding out the optimum treatment for each site with the certainty of performance to ensure the pavement-renewal treatment will meet the agreed design life.”
Each year the worst road pavement sites (about 12) are identified by the contract asset management team for a full design and pavement rehabilitation.
• Pavement design using advanced laboratory test data. The triaxial tests determine the rutting life of the pavement and the flexural tests estimate the fatigue life of any proposed stabilised pavement treatment. The testing and analysis is carried out by Road Science’s specialist team. • Writing the pavement design report. This contains various options and predicted lives from the advanced lab testing. • Collaboration with the client, contractor and consultant to obtain agreement on the best pavement treatment solution. Selection is based on available funding, risk of early failure, constructability, and agreed design life. • Production tests on site to confirm design assumptions. This work is carried out by Road Science in collaboration with the infield construction team. • Monitoring performance on constructed pavement rehabilitations. This is done by Road Science in consultation with Opus and the Transport Agency. A prime example of challenges on the East Waikato contract to determine the cause of early failure and the best solution can be found on the Waikato side of the Kaimais.
52 FEBRUARY 2015
Here the climbing lane had significant wheel-track rutting. The road site already had 600mm of aggregate over a subgrade CBR (California bearing ratio) of 6 percent, and current Austroads pavement design rules could not determine why the road had failed early. The pavement depth had been deemed to be sufficient for both past and future traffic. Thus, for a neighbouring road section the design was simply to stabilise in situ with 1.5 percent cement to a depth of 200mm which, using Transport Agency and Austroads design rules, was considered to have a 25-year design life. Yet this newly stabilised road section has 50mm ruts after three years and is also in need of repair. Road Science undertook repeated load triaxial (RLT) tests on both the basecourse and subbase aggregate, which identified a weakness in the latter. Using the RLT test data in design it was found the subbase aggregate had the shortest life. These results were discussed with the Transport Agency, along with several other design options. A suitable treatment was designed and constructed to remove the subbase aggregate and replace it with better quality aggregate. The RLT test of the
Award-winning Road Science line up (from left): Anthony Stubbs, technical service engineer; Dr Greg Arnold, technical manager pavement; and Graham Mudgway, laboratory inspector. Road Science won the category 5 – Excellence in the maintenance and management of assets in the 2014 Hirepool Construction Excellence Awards. Specifically, Road Science won the award for its NZTA East Waikato Maintenance Contract: Pavement Renewals, Waikato. Developed from Dr Greg Arnold’s doctorate studies and NZ Transport Agency research conducted over the past 15 years, the design, investigation and performance material testing using Repeated Load Triaxial and Flexural Beam Tests are considered the most advanced in the world in the area of granular and stabilised pavements.
top 150mm of basecourse was found to be of good quality and was stockpiled and then re-used in the pavement. A number of first-rate results have been delivered from the innovative changes that the East Wakaito maintenance contract adopted. These benefits include a 20 percent saving on reseal costs in the 2012-13 season, a 12 percent saving on rehabilitation costs over the same period, an average saving of 10 percent on the total contract budget, the production of cost-effective and suitable treatments, greater confidence in the design process using Road Science’s advanced methodologies, and an option to reduce costs and accept greater risk. Savings have been made in reducing the length of reseals to what was actually needed based on network conditions, along with some sites needing only low-cost pavement-renewal treatments as determined by the Road Science team. Some of the savings have been used to undertake more exhaustive treatments as recommended by the team on problematic and weak pavement sites, while other savings have enabled the team to meet the Transport Agency’s reduced budget. Road Science says the quality-control sampling carried out postconstruction in East Waikato not only confirms the effectiveness of its innovative approach to pavement rehabilitation but helps refine future design and construction methods. “The initial investment in this testing and design process is quickly recovered in finding out the optimum treatment for each site with the certainty of performance to ensure the pavement-renewal treatment will meet the agreed design life.” The Transport Agency is enthusiastic about Road Science’s East Waikato input. “This is the most comprehensive design and testing process I have seen, which is surprising on a contract that has been squeezed the most in terms of reduced budget,” says the agency’s network maintenance and operations adviser, Alan Burkett, quoted in Road Science’s Hirepool-award submission. The agency has commissioned Greg Arnold, Road Science’s technical manager pavements, to rewrite the agency’s pavement rehabilitation design guide and its training notes to include his team’s advanced testing.
It’s a feather in the cap of a company which was formed in 2005 from Downer’s bitumen supply-and-operations businesses, and in mid-2012 adopted its present name to reflect its expertise and role as an independent, standalone supplier of products and services to the New Zealand roading industry.
FEBRUARY 2015 53
CONTRACTOR INTERNATIONAL
ROADING LESSONS from the UK
After years of neglect, the UK government is spending an unprecedented £15 billion on Britain’s roading infrastructure in improvements, expansions and repairs. ALAN TITCHALL explains.
“When 90 percent of journeys are taking place on our roads this work is vital to help people get on and get around,” says their transport ministry.” 54 FEBRUARY 2015
JUST BEFORE THE END of last year the UK government announced an ambitious £15 billion plan to triple levels of spending by the end of the decade to increase the capacity and condition of Britain’s roads. The UK is investing in more than 100 road schemes over this parliament and next, 84 of which are brand new. Over 1300 new lane miles will be added by schemes being delivered over the next parliament on motorways and main highways, tackling congestion and fixing some of the most notorious and longstanding problem areas on the network. “When 90 percent of journeys are taking place on our roads this work is vital to help people get on and get around,” says their transport ministry.
The ambitious, long-term roading programme is set out in that country’s first ever ‘Road investment strategy’ (www.gov.uk/government/ collections/road-investment-strategy), which is designed to keep the population mobile and connected and the economy growing. This includes £1.5 billion of investment to add an extra lane onto key motorways to turn them into what is called “smart motorways” and boosting connectivity between London, Birmingham, Manchester and Yorkshire. Smart motorways use technology to change lane patterns (like opening a hard shoulder to provide an extra lane) and speeds (computer sensors along the road system calculate the appropriate speed) to keep traffic flowing and control congestion. Speed limits are displayed along the motorway on overhead signs, and in
the event of an accident lanes are closed down. Transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin said at the time: “I am setting out the biggest, boldest and most far-reaching roads programme for decades. “This government has a long term plan to secure the country’s future and this £15 billion roads programme is demonstration of that. Better roads allow us to travel freely, creating jobs and opportunities, benefiting hardworking families across the country.” Spending during the next parliament on England’s roads network will be boosted further by maintenance funding worth more than £10 billion across the local and national road network, he adds. Specifically, new projects announced include setting aside £290 million to complete the dualling of the A1 all the way from London to Ellingham, just 25 miles from the Scottish border, to “make the Great North Road truly great again”. Another £350 million will be spent on improvements to the A27 along the south coast, and investing £300 million to upgrade the east-west connection to Norfolk, by dualling sections of the A47 and improving its connections to the A1 and A11. Chair of the Cabinet Infrastructure Committee and chief secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander says: “World class infrastructure is vital if we are to build a stronger economy, but it matters in other ways too. It invigorates communities and gives people more opportunities to get on in life. This is why I have ensured that this government has prioritised funding roads, and railways, at a high level for future generations.” For decades UK roads have suffered from under investment, he adds. “So I’m particularly delighted to be able to announce this expansive range of new road schemes. Investment on this scale is only
possible because we have taken the difficult decisions needed to control our public finances and stuck to our recovery plan which is now delivering strong growth and record numbers of jobs. “These projects, like the (upgrade) scheme on the A303 (notoriously congested main road in Sth West England), will help unleash the economic potential of both the regions they serve and of the overall economy.” Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, says: “Now that this government is fixing the economy, we can afford to invest properly in our roads – unlocking jobs for the future and local growth by creating a road network that is fit for the 21st century.”
A new highway agency As well as increasing capacity and transforming the busiest sections of the network, the UK government is transforming the Highways Agency into a government-owned company with funding allocated on a longer term basis, which is expected to save the country’s taxpayer at least £2.6 billion over the next decade. The strategy also contains measures to improve the lives of communities affected by road upgrades, including £100 million to improve cycling provision at 200 key locations across the network, as well as a commitment to cycle-proof any new schemes being developed. Another £300 million has been allocated to an environmental fund to reduce the number of people affected by serious noise by 250,000. This fund will also be used to create new charge points for electric vehicles every 20 miles across the road network, as well as enhance the landscape, protect sites of cultural or historic heritage, and reduce the impact of roads on wildlife, countryside and habitats. It is estimated that the 84 new road projects across Britain will create over 6000 new jobs.
“Now that this government is fixing the economy, we can afford to invest properly in our roads – unlocking jobs for the future and local growth by creating a road network that is fit for the 21st century.”
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FEBRUARY 2015 55
CONTRACTOR COMMENT
A hell of a ride MALCOLM ABERNETHY, EXECUTIVE OFFICER, CIVIL CONTRACTORS NZ.
BUSINESS IS AS USUAL for 2015 albeit with many challenges and changes to manage and communicate to members of Civil Contractors NZ. But let me acknowledge Jeremy Sole – over the last five years it has been a hell of a ride and I mean that mainly in a good sense as it has been exciting, stimulating and rewarding. This column outlines some of the work streams we are currently involved with and of course there are many more. The review of health and safety legislation is the most comprehensive in almost 25 years and requires considerable input and work to get it right. We have recently been advised that the legislation will be passed late in the second quarter of 2015. The compliance issues associated with the new legislation will present many challenges and so we are working toward putting considerable effort in informing members of their duties. Significant changes include the new term and role of a Person Controlling a Business or Undertaking (PCBU) to manage the health and safety risks. Construction sites will have multiple PCBUs meaning that contractors will need to work closely with all other PCBUs to manage the H&S risks. But there is much work to be done in this area leading up to the legislation being passed by Government. Civil Contractors NZ is working closely with WorkSafe NZ on general concepts and worker representation regulations in preparation for the new act. We are also working on, or where not actively involved, commenting on the many supporting Approved Codes of
Practice and Best Practice Guides currently being written by WorkSafe NZ. Included in this work we are actively involved with the NZ Transport Agency’s Zero Harm group developing minimum H&S requirements when working on the State Highway network. There has already been considerable work done on Approved Codes of Practice associated with mines and quarries with considerably greater compliance requirements. One aspect that has received a great deal of effort has been around the training of managers, supervisors and operators. And in terms of training there will be greater requirements for H&S representatives under the new legislation. We are continuing to promote the Construction Safety Council and are currently undertaking a trial of the competency assessment tools with the assistance of NZTA. We are planning that the competency assessment process will be launched in the first half of 2015. Procurement issues continue to be addressed with the promotion of a national prequalification system being high on the work list to reduce tendering costs for contractors and for clients. There is more detailed work being done to ensure tendering processes and evaluations are consistent, transparent, fair and impartial, fit for purpose and followed rigorously. We continue to work actively with NZTA on the Network Outcomes Contracts as part of the industry advisory group that reviews the procurement process and its effect on the contracting industry. The Construction Contracts Act review
Significant changes include the new term and role of a Person Controlling a Business or Undertaking (PCBU) to manage the health and safety risks. 56 FEBRUARY 2015
stalled late in 2014 due in part to the election and then as a result of competing legislative priorities. During the election campaign the Government announced its intention to include retention provisions within the Act. These have been drafted and will be considered during the first quarter of 2015. Changes in legislation are happening at breakneck speed with building regulations coming into force on 1 January 2015 that apply to all residential building contracts greater than $30,000. Building work includes “site work” which means work in preparation for or associated with construction of a building, including earthworks. This would include foundations and also any retaining walls that would affect how the building complies with the code (eg, if a retaining wall is providing a building platform for a house it will be within the regulations). The regulations do not apply to subcontractors to a building contract. There are many other issues that will have some impact on the industry such as the Draft Speed Management Guide, the Driver Licensing Review, qualification and training requirements and the Standards and Accreditation Bill to name a few. We are monitoring these and working with other industry organisations to provide comment where required. We continue to work actively with the Construction Industry Council, Construction Safety Council, Engineering Leadership Forum, Connexis stakeholders and industry groups. The focus over the coming months is not only business as usual but will be to inform and prepare members on how to comply with the requirements of the new health and safety legislation. If readers would like more detailed information on any of these or other topics please contact me.
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CONTRACTOR COMMENT
Many documents, many possible issues ARIE MOORE, ASSOCIATE, KENSINGTON SWAN, NATIONAL CONSTRUCTION LAW TEAM
CONSTRUCTION AND CIVIL works contracts are usually made up of a number of different documents. Common additional documents included as part of the contract include the specification, drawings and plans, and tender documents. The documents that make up the contract will be listed (usually in the Contract Agreement). If the contract includes an order of precedence clause, this will specify which documents take precedence over others in the event of a clash. The precedence of documents is an important point to clarify. Where parties have entered into a contract that comprises a number of documents, the starting point is that these documents are construed as if they were one document. No document automatically takes precedence over another and all contract documents have to be read together regardless of any ‘ranking’. This position can cause difficulties if the documents are inconsistent or contain ambiguities. However, that issue is not resolved simply by including an order of precedence. Many commonly-used standard form construction contracts such as NZS 3910 do not contain an order of precedence clause. NZS 3910 requires all documents to be read as mutually explanatory and confers powers on the engineer to determine ambiguities. Clause 2.7.4 in NZS 3910:2013 provides that where the Contract or any of the drawings or specifications included in the contract are considered ambiguous or unclear, the Engineer can be requested to issue explanations. Clauses such as these provide another way of resolving disagreements over conflicting contract documents and terms (in the absence of a precedence clause) and seem to be the favoured way of dealing with conflicting contract documents in New Zealand.
No precedence clause? If there is no precedence clause provided in the contract, or other mechanism present to solve ambiguity, then the ordinary principles of contract interpretation apply. In the event of ambiguity: a. The intention of the parties in light of the document as a whole and the surrounding circumstances will be relevant; b. Specific conditions prevail over general conditions; c. More recently drafted documents take precedence over older documents. Case example: Fenice Investments The case of Fenice Investments Inc v Jerram Falkus Construction Limited from the United Kingdom is illustrative of the issues that an order of precedence for contract documents can cause. In this case, the Court examined the law behind hierarchy 58 FEBRUARY 2015
of construction contract documents where the contract was a standard-form contract (in that case the JCT form of contract), as amended by the parties’ bespoke changes (in the Employer’s Requirements). Both the JCT contract, and the Employer’s Requirements contained payment provisions that conflicted. The question for the Court was how to reconcile the clauses to decide whether a payment certificate / withholding notice under the contract had been supplied in time.
No document automatically takes precedence over another and all contract documents have to be read together regardless of any ‘ranking’. This position can cause difficulties if the documents are inconsistent or contain ambiguities. The starting point for the Court was going back to first principles that where a term has been specifically drafted for a contract, that term will take precedence over a standard term. However, despite the bespoke nature of the Employer’s Requirements, the JCT standard form contract contained an express term that stated: The Agreement and these Conditions are to be read as a whole but nothing contained in the Employer’s Requirements, the Contractor’s Proposals or the Contract Sum Analysis shall override or modify the Agreement or these Conditions. As this clause was so specific, the effect of it meant that one of the general rules of contract interpretation was overridden, and the standard-form clause was found to trump the specifically drafted one.
Concluding the contract Construction contracts often contain a number of contract documents and there is a significant risk these documents will conflict. It is important to make sure that all contract documents are kept together and are consistent to avoid extra confusion about different versions and revisions. However, it is unlikely this will be possible in many projects where there are a large number of documents included in the contract. In that case it is wise to carefully consider how the contract administrator’s powers might determine any conflict between the contract documents will operate, and whether these will be sufficient in the event of conflict..
COMMENT CONTRACTOR
How to avoid the flu this year JANET BROTHERS, MANAGING DIRECTOR, LIFE CARE CONSULTANTS.
THE WORKPLACE CONTINUES to be an effective channel for receiving flu vaccinations and the myths about the vaccine causing someone to get the flu appear to be less, as wide ranging advertising for vaccination is having a positive effect on the number of workers protecting themselves, their families and their work colleagues from the flu. In 2012, over one million people in this country were vaccinated and it makes good business sense for companies to provide the vaccinations at work. The return on investment (ROI) for a company is, statistically, 40 percent reduction in sick leave days and 161 percent ROI in six months. This ROI is without taking into account the benefits to society, the savings on our health dollar and the increase in the national productivity. Between 10 to 20 percent of the population are infected with influenza each year and the effects of the flu can have an employee off work for five to 10 days. Regardless of the size of the business, absenteeism and very often presenteeism can have a hugely disruptive effect on other team members, service delivery and ultimately the bottom line. Due to the flu virus being very contagious and spread by droplet infection through coughing, sneezing and talking, the number of vaccinated people helps protect the ‘unvaccinated’ population, which can include other family members. By providing the vaccine opportunity at work, the benefits can be widespread. The myth of being vaccinated and then ‘getting the flu from the vaccine’ is purely a myth as the vaccine is not a live vaccine, so it is impossible for the vaccine to infect people.
Often people refer to the common cold as the flu (often as serious as the ‘man’ flu!), however when someone gets the ‘genuine’ flu there is a very clear difference, insofar as with the flu the victim will often be sick enough to be in bed for days. The virus strains in the Northern Hemisphere’s winter determine the vaccine make up we receive for our flu vaccination season and unusually our 2012 vaccine covers the same virus strains as did the 2010 and 2011, however people should still get vaccinated each year because the immunity offered by current vaccines lessens over time and the immunity achieved though being vaccinated is completely natural. Because your business is more effective when all staff members are well, it is hard to beat the return on the money invested by providing flu vaccinations for staff.
INFLUENZA
A COLD
Sudden onset of illness lasting 7-10 days
Mild illness
Fever (usually high)
Mild fever
Headache (may be severe)
Mild headache
Cough
Sometimes a cough
Muscle aches
Muscle aches uncommon
Shivering
A runny nose
Can suffer severe complications (eg, pneumonia)
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FEBRUARY 2015 59
CONTRACTOR COMMENT
The engineer and performance bond DORAN WYATT, PRINCIPAL AT GREENWOOD ROCHE CHISNALL
A RECENT HIGH COURT decision relating to Mainzeal’s construction of Vector Arena underscores the critical role of the engineer in construction projects and illustrates what can happen to security if an engineer’s certification arguably gets it wrong. The long shadow of Mainzeal continues to loom large with the decision in QPAM v Great Lakes Reinsurance (UK) Plc. In 2004, Auckland City Council contracted Quay Park Arena Management (QPAM) to develop and manage Vector Arena. In turn, QPAM entered into a design and construction contract with Mainzeal, which required Mainzeal to provide a thirdparty performance bond. The bond was to be released when a certificate of completion was issued. A $3.3 million bond was provided by Great Lakes Reinsurance under which it agreed to pay QPAM on demand, unconditionally and “without enquiry as to, and without having regard to, the position as between Mainzeal and the principal”. Demands were to be accompanied by an engineer’s certificate stating that: (a) Mainzeal had defaulted, (b) that default had not been remedied, and (c) the sum demanded was reasonable. When Mainzeal went into liquidation in 2013, a number of defects at Vector Arena remained unremedied and the certificate of completion was outstanding.
The only instances where a bond provider could withhold payment, the court said, were if the party claiming payment had acted fraudulently or had contractually agreed not to call on the bond. In consultation with a quantity surveyor, QPAM’s engineer estimated the cost of remedying the defects to be at least $5.3 million. QPAM gave notice of default to Mainzeal and demanded the entire amount of the bond from Great Lakes. Great Lakes refused to pay, arguing that the engineer’s certificate was “incorrect and unreasonable” and that QPAM had claimed for matters not covered by the bond. In response, QPAM asserted that it had met the requirements for payment and the bond was payable “on-demand”. As a result, QPAM argued, it did not have to prove to Great Lakes that Mainzeal had defaulted and Great Lakes could not question whether the amounts demanded were correct or reasonable, it simply had to pay. The starting point for the court was to consider the “special character” of performance bonds, noting that where a bond provider made an unconditional promise to pay (as Great Lakes had done) it could generally not refuse a demand or inquire into the contract between the principal and the contractor, even if 60 FEBRUARY 2015
the contractor’s default was disputed. These rules underpinned the value of bonds as security and the risk allocation that the parties had agreed. The only instances where a bond provider could withhold payment, the court said, were if the party claiming payment had acted fraudulently or had contractually agreed not to call on the bond. As the key requirement for payment of the bond was the engineer’s certificate, the parties were effectively relying on the certificate accurately reflecting the outstanding defects. An issue for the Court, therefore, was whether it could review the engineer’s certificate. This, in turn depended on the engineer’s obligations to the parties. The Court found that by including a requirement in the bond for an engineer’s certificate, the parties had agreed to rely on the engineer’s skill and judgment and to be bound by his honest and impartial decision. The engineer was therefore obliged to act reasonably, in good faith and within the parameters of his contractual authority. The engineer’s certificate could therefore be reviewed to ensure it met these criteria. Importantly, the court recognised that an engineer’s certificate did not need to be perfect – errors would not necessarily invalidate a certificate, even if they related to the assessed quantum of defects. An engineer could also legitimately certify in respect of contentious items if this was a fair interpretation of the contract. However, this did not mean that matters clearly outside the scope of a contractor’s obligations could be included as defects. In those circumstances, the Court ruled, the engineer’s certificate would be void. As QPAM’s case was for summary judgment (rather than a full hearing), only Great Lakes’ evidence on the engineer’s certificate was before the Court, and this indicated that the certificate included items that were not Mainzeal’s responsibility. As a result, the Court found that Great Lakes had an arguable defence to QPAM’s claim, as the engineer’s certificate was arguably beyond the scope of the engineer’s contractual authority. The certificate was therefore reviewable and could be void. The decision underscores the importance of an engineer’s role in construction contracts and the challenges engineers face in owing duties to multiple parties. It also provides welcome guidance as to when an engineer’s certification can (and cannot) be challenged. While on demand bonds remain the gold standard of performance security, particularly in cross-border transactions, principals must ensure that their rights to call on that security are sufficiently broad. • Doran Wyatt is a principal at Greenwood Roche Chisnall. He is a member of the New Zealand Society of Construction Law and regularly advises on construction and large scale property projects.
COMMENT CONTRACTOR
Increased funding and focus on cycling TOMMY PARKER, NZ TRANSPORT AGENCY GROUP MANAGER, HIGHWAYS & NETWORKS OPERATIONS.
WE HAVE AN ONGOING commitment to all modes of transport and cycle ways and cycle safety is an important focus for us. We’re establishing a core cycling team working across the Agency to support our increased commitment which will enable us to: • deliver solutions faster and more effectively through partnerships and by streamlining planning processes and procurement practices; • better respond to growing political and public interest in improving cycle safety, including leading implementation of recommendations in the recent New Zealand Cycling Safety Panel’s report; • support the newly established Urban Cycleways Fund (UCF) and get the most out of investment opportunities over the next three years, including realising the untapped potential of cycling to help optimise transport networks. We all recognise that cycling is an integral part of New Zealand’s land transport system and plays an important role in optimising the overall land transport network. It is rapidly gaining in popularity and is now the fastest-growing mode of transport in Auckland and several other cities and towns across New Zealand. We know cycling helps make our towns and cities great places to live; we get fitter and healthier when we bike and it takes pressure off other transport routes. Recognising the contribution cycling makes to the total transport network, the Government Policy Statement on Land Transport 2015-18 has increased the funding range for walking and cycling activities. The Government also recently announced $100 million in new funding for cycling through the UCF. This will speed up the completion of connected urban cycle networks over the next four years. Priorities for this work will be announced within the next few months. It also builds on the significant investments already being made in cycling, including through the model communities
iWay construction Havelock Road where an innovative suspended concrete boardwalk was designed to allow an existing drainage system to remain in-situ.
in Hastings and New Plymouth, the New Zealand Cycle Trail network and other roading projects, including the Roads of National Significance. We’re developing an ‘innovative programme approach’ which will include investment infrastructure, and user behaviour initiatives in partnership with councils and the wider sector which will provide cross-sector leadership and balance the needs of cyclists with other network users through: • guidance and standards; • collaborative planning and investment; • effective delivery to maximise benefits sooner. We can all play a key role in continuing the growth in cycling journeys. By working closely across the Transport Agency and with our sector partners, we can deliver more for cycling in New Zealand through a customer journey, one network, partnership approach that will encourage more New Zealanders to ride more often and more safely. There are exciting times ahead in the cycling space and we’ll keep you posted over the coming months.
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by FEBRUARY 2015 61
CONTRACTOR BETTER BUSINESS PRACTICE
Is the project plan just a pretty picture on a wall? BY ROB STUMMER, MANAGING DIRECTOR, IFS AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND
IS PROJECT AND PROGRAMME management still a silo in your business? Is the project plan just a pretty picture on a wall that is not really driving what people do? Is it time for the project plan to be properly integrated? Even though the pressure to deliver projects on time is intensifying, most players within the construction and contracting industry still seem reluctant to integrate the project plan with the other systems and functions in the business. Typically project plans are developed in a tool like Microsoft Project, Primavera or Asta. However, these tools are rarely integrated with systems supporting other common business functions such as procurement, engineering, operations, subcontract management, construction and project cost control. By its very nature, the industry has long been heavily document-based, with few fixed offices and staff predominantly based on site. With many interwoven teams and multiple businesses working together, tracking staff availability, scheduling, timesheets and payroll is still one of the biggest overhead tasks. When it comes to the project plan, the sub-plans for these business functions are still typically created in Excel. So, not only are they not integrated with the primary systems supporting these functions, how do we even know that these sub-plans are aligned with the pretty picture project plan? The problem of alignment is made even harder when the scope is constantly changing through contract variations. Whenever you have multiple overlapping systems – and therefore no single source of truth – there is a risk that one system will be updated but not the others. With the introduction of new technologies like Building Information Modelling (BIM), we are starting to see partial integrations with the project plan. Some organisations, for example, are trying to link the plan to the BIM module to implement smart 4D construction simulation solutions. But even this only covers the construction phase of the project and does not attempt to create a single source of truth. It also relies on having a very well structured BIM model and very high quality data. According to Kenny Ingram, global industry director for IFS, this lack of integration is a global phenomenon. “It still amazes me that over 90 percent of the companies I visit who are managing some of the largest capital projects in the world still have non-integrated project plans,” he says. Why is there such a reluctance to integrate the plan? There are two main reasons: Inertia – the business systems used in most construction and contracting businesses are not integrated and do not support a work breakdown structure that is integrated with the other functional areas of the business. They are still operating with many non-integrated systems and lots of Excel spreadsheets and there is no expectation that things should be different. 62 FEBRUARY 2015
Culture – simply put, people are still working in departmental silos and are reluctant to change as they may fear that if their data becomes visible they can be held accountable. The functional areas all want to invent their own plans because that is what they trust and that is what they can control. On the other hand, if the plan is integrated it means everyone has to trust and work to the one plan. The benefit is the organisation is working to one common goal and the project delivery performance will improve. To achieve this, an integrated solution, which can manage the entire project lifecycle is essential to project-based businesses like those in the construction and contracting industry. Given the size of many of the projects currently underway, the industry needs to think about introducing an integrated approach to project management to ensure that projects run within timescales and don’t go over budget. New technologies like BIM will increasingly drive a move away from primarily document-driven processes to an integrated data-driven approach. The adoption of more sophisticated information inputs enables organisations – and potentially entire supply chains – to move away from isolated business processes, with their corresponding information silos, to processes that are integrated throughout the whole design, construction and asset management lifecycle.
Whenever you have multiple overlapping systems – and therefore no single source of truth – there is a risk that one system will be updated but not the others. Ultimately, this requires an integrated systems approach that supports accurate and timely information management across business processes including tendering, estimating, design, programme management, procurement, construction, sub contract, plant and equipment, materials management, risk, progress, cost control, quality, health and safety, asset and facilities management, document management, human resources and finance. Beyond improvements in project delivery performance, IFS sees great potential for efficiency improvements in the design, construction and management of assets over their entire lifecycle from this more data-driven approach to process efficiencies. The reality right now – starting with a project plan that is often disconnected from the rest of the business – is a high risk approach. Perhaps it is time for the industry to change – or at least those that want to start improving their competitiveness?
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The International-Harvester
TD-18
International introduced the model TD-18 track type tractor in 1938, primarily aimed at the growing construction market. BY RICHARD CAMPBELL INITIALLY KNOWN AS THE TD-65, the machine’s designation was changed to TD-18 almost as soon as it was put into production. It was the largest track type tractor that International had manufactured up to this point and proved to be quite a success. As was popular at the time, two different track gauges were offered – a 62 inch standard gauge, and a 74 inch wide gauge. The majority of the machines sold were the wide gauge version as they had better side slope stability and could be fitted with a wider range of commercially available attachments. A 6-cylinder International model D-691 diesel engine was chosen to 64 FEBRUARY 2015
power the new TD-18. The four-cycle design engine produced around 88 horsepower at the flywheel (71 at the PTO). International used quite a novel method of starting this engine, but it also turned out to be one of the machine’s major drawbacks. Unlike Caterpillar, which at the time used a separate 2-cylinder gasoline “pony” motor to start its diesel engines, International took this concept a step further and turned the main engine into a gasoline engine for easy starting, converting to diesel when it was properly warmed up! This was accomplished by incorporating two complete sets of valves into the cylinder head with spark
plugs and a hi/low compression control device along with a carburetor and distributor. Unfortunately, the addition of all this extra gear in the cylinder head reduced the amount of area available to circulate coolant within the cylinder head and on grades the cylinder heads would often crack due to inadequate cooling. It was said at the time that there were two kinds of TD-18 – those that had cracked a head and those that were about to. (International spent quite a bit of R&D work on this issue and eventually rectified the problem in 1955 by fitting a large water header tank on top of the machine’s bonnet to ensure that a supply of water was always available to
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1. TD-18A equipped with Bucyrus-Erie B-170 scraper prepares a railroad spur in Albany, Georgia, USA, 1951. The machine is also fitted with a Bucyrus-Erie cable frame for a bulldozer which has been removed to allow both drums of the rear mounted cable control to be used. (Author’s collection) 2. Two early model TD-18 crawlers working on a 65 mile oil pipeline job near Fort Lewis, Washington, USA. Both machines are fitted with factory installed radiator guards and Carco towing winches. (Author’s collection)
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3. This very early model International TD-18 is cutting an access road to the Hungry Horse reservoir, high in the hills of Montana, USA. It is fitted with an Isaacson bulldozer and radiator guard plus a rudimentary brush canopy. The United States Forest Service owned a large number of TD-18s which did sterling service for it. (Author’s collection) 4. TD-18 with Bucyrus-Erie cable bulldozer levels an earth stockpile, location unknown. This particular type of Bucyrus bulldozer was loosely based on an earlier LeTourneau design. Having only 2-part cable reeving, it was exceptionally fast and not ideally suited to fine grading. (Internet)
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FEBRUARY 2015 65
CONTRACTOR CLASSIC MACHINES
5. Pushloading a Wooldridge TC-S14 motor scraper, this International TD-18A belongs to contractor CL Rhodes and is working on the Fulton County Airport in Georgia, USA, 1952. The machine is equipped with a Bucyrus-Erie angledozer and cable control. Note how the bulldozer trunnion mounts directly onto the machine’s final drive housing. (Author’s collection)
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6. This tired old girl was spotted in the Hawkes Bay by sharp-eyed reader Victor Bourke. Still fitted with its Bucyrus-Erie angledozer (which could really use some cutting edges), the machine has an Isaacson cable control on the rear. Front equaliser springs have just about breathed their last as the machine is sitting well down in the nose. Tandem exhaust pipes were a spotting feature of both TD-18s and TD-24s. (V Bourke)
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the engine, even on slopes.) First generation TD-18s had a 6-speed manual transmission, 5-roller track frames with two carrier rollers per side. They weighed approximately 11 tons bare. The TD-18 was manufactured continuously from 1938 onwards and supplied in some numbers to the US armed forces during WWII, seeing widespread service, especially in France and the Pacific. International introduced the upgraded TD-18A model in 1949. Changes were restricted to a redesigned cylinder head (to try and cure the overheating problems), a 10” increase in track frame length and a raise in engine output from 88 to 107 flywheel horsepower. Tare weight of the machine also rose to 13 tons. This particular model was produced from 1949 through to 1955 virtually unchanged.
featured a raft of improvements, not the least of which was the new water header tank mentioned earlier. The engine was again uprated, this time to 124 flywheel horsepower, and the air cleaner was relocated from in front of the operator to a position on the left hand side of the engine. Revisions were also made to the instrumentation and operator’s seat, and the track frame was strengthened. The TD-18 181 was discontinued in 1956 and replaced by the TD-18 model 182 which had a further engine boost to 128 horsepower and now tipped the scales at 14 tons. This was to be the last version of the TD-18 manufactured, the type being replaced by the all-new TD-20 in 1958. During a 20-year continuous production run, approximately 38,000 TD-18s of all types were manufactured by InternationalHarvester. In general terms, the International TD-18 was a contemporary of the Allis-Chalmers HD-10 and HD-11 and Caterpillar D7.
The last of the TD-18s
Attachments
During 1955, International-Harvester produced what was to become the last of the TD-18 series, the TD-18 models 181 and 182. Manufactured for a scant 16 months, the TD-18 181 series
As International-Harvester did not manufacture any of its own attachments until the late-1950s, supply of attachments to suit customer requirements was handled by a range of other manufacturers, many of whom had contracts with Inter-
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national for just this purpose. The major players in attachment supply for International were Bucyrus-Erie, Carco, Drott, Heil, Superior and Isaacson. Bucyrus-Erie manufactured a wide range of bulldozers, angledozers, rakes and towed hydraulic and cable scrapers for use on the TD-18 and was International-Harvester’s No 1 supplier of attachments. Carco built logging winches to suit all sizes of track type tractor and also towed logging arches. Carco winches were by far the most common winch to see on the back of a TD-18. Up until the early 1950s Carco also built bulldozer blades but it is rare to see an International-Harvester TD-18 tractor with one of these attached. Drott was a specialist manufacturer of front end loaders and buckets. International was its major customer. International would ship its bare tractors to Drott which would fabricate a loader frame, arms and hydraulics to suit. So great was their popularity that for a time in the 1950s, any track type front end loader would be referred to as a Drott. Heil was another major supplier to International, so much so that International bought it out in 1953. Heil manufactured cable controls, blades and a wide variety of towed cable scrapers. Superior manufactured tractor-mounted cranes and cable controls, but its greatest seller by far was side boom attachments, now known as pipelayers. As with Drott, International would send its new tractors to Superior which would fit all the necessary equipment to the machine and turn it into a pipelayer. These were major conversions and were not undertaken in the field. Superior and Trackson dominated this particular market for decades until Trackson was absorbed by Caterpillar. Isaacson specialised in cable controls, bulldozer blades and towed cable scrapers. It is quite common to see its cable control units on the rear of International-Harvester (and other manufacturers’) track type tractors of the 1950s. Not so common are its bulldozer blades and scrapers. Isaacson went through a few ownership changes during the 1950s, firstly to Pullman Standard and then to the Young Corporation. This basically sealed its fate and by 1960 it had practically vanished.
BRIEF SPECIFICATIONS International TD-18A (1949) Engine: International-Harvester D-691, 6-cylinder inline, naturally aspirated diesel rated at 107 flywheel horsepower @ 1800 rpm Transmission: International-Harvester direct drive 6-speed manual Clutch: 16” single plate ceramic faced clutch Steering: Multiple disc clutches Brakes: Contracting band type Track gauge: 74” (wide) gauge Shoes: 18: single grouser (standard) Operating weight: Approx. 13 tons bare
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The New Zealand connection Although exact figures are not available, a great many International TD-18s were imported into New Zealand and saw service nationwide in all manner of jobs, including agriculture. In fact the very first track type tractor your author operated was a TD-18 pulling a sheepsfoot roller. The vast majority of these have now gone to the big jobsite in the sky but preserved examples still exist throughout the country.
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For the Model Collector EMD Models makes several versions of the InternationalHarvester TD-18 to 1:50 scale. This model is a bit of a collector’s piece and as such, is quite expensive at over US$230 each (+ postage). It is available with both cable and hydraulic blades and also as a bare tractor with or without cab. As it is the only model so far issued of the TD-18, it is just as well that it is of reasonable quality. The model can be obtained through Buffalo Road Imports in New York, USA, or DHS Diecast in Brea, Ohio, USA.
7. Still putting in a hard day’s work clearing the skid, this TD-18 142 series is fitted with a Drott loader package and GP bucket. Home made canopy and sweeps, plus some extra grouser bar welded onto the track shoes complete the package. Seemingly very hard to kill, there are far fewer TD-18 loaders left in working order than bulldozers. (Internet) 8. This TD-18A is preserved in the USA and is exhibited at open days featuring older equipment. Painted in a non-standard Allis-Chalmers orange, the machine is fitted with a Bucyrus-Erie hydraulic ‘Bullgrader’ and, unusually, a GarWood model 240 double drum cable control on the rear. (Internet) FEBRUARY 2015 67
CONTRACTOR MOTORING BY PETER GILL
BODY STRIPES EXTRA Some folk who’ve put down a deposit on a Ferrari 458 “Speciale” claim that the Italian super car company has urged them to add expensive options to the car after the deposit had been paid.They include things such as special body stripes at NZ$14,000, or a package that includes a carbon fibre engine cover and special sill covers for $30,000 extra. Buyers are also saying they get the impression that a deposit (often US$40,000) does not secure a delivery date. Ferrari hasn’t made a statement about the claims. I haven’t asked the Italians about the matter directly but if I did, I would expect a classic Italian shrug of the shoulders and upturned hands thrown in the air.
OH BUGGER! Something big happened in New Zealand automotive history in 2014. The ubiquitous Toyota Hi Lux ute ceased to be the top selling light truck in New Zealand. The Hi Lux had held the honour of being the top selling new ute in New Zealand every year for 32 years solid. For the sales year of 2014, the Ford Ranger overtook the Toyota. There is no doubt that the new Ford Ranger is one very sexy truck with a huge amount of eye appeal and excellent build quality. I always remember the legendary Barry Crump demonstrating one of the early Hi Luxes to me. Toyota had gone for the affectation of including an altimeter in the trucks that year. Said Crumpie to me: “I don’t need a bloody clock to tell me when I’m high.” 68 FEBRUARY 2015
When looks do count The fact that the USA is a very confused nation is not a new thing. Take a look at the picture I recently unearthed of a late 1930s Graham. The company emerged in 1927 and offered the American market a line of six and eight cylinder cars, some of them supercharged, and all of them criminally ugly. Few of their models could be classed as a commercial success and most of them were downright offensive to look at. The brand died out in 1940. The only ones that were surprised by this were the owners and directors of the company. If I’d been around when these cars were, I’d be reaching for my pistol.
Brotherly advice Just before Christmas my sister phoned and asked for my opinion on something. This is a very rare thing, because usually when she phones it’s to give me HER opinion. On absolutely everything. Twice. She was in the throes of buying a new car. She had her eye on a Toyota Corolla and a Mazda3. Which did I think she should buy? I strongly advised the Mazda3. It is eye-searingly stylish and for a car priced from $32,795 it has a large suite of safety features not seen on other cars in this price range. They include blind-spot monitoring, which alerts you to the car behind and beside you that you can’t see in the mirror. Choose the top shelf version at $47,495 and you get a feature that applies the brakes if you get too close to a vehicle ahead. The Mazda3 comes as a sedan or hatch and with 2 litre or 2.5 litre engines. In the ensuing weeks since my sister took my advice, I grew to look amazingly wise in the eyes of my sister. The Mazda3 went on to win almost every Car Of The Year award in New Zealand. My sister thinks I’m wonderful. Toyota doesn’t.
Mini crosswords It’s not that I’m prurient or anything. But all three readers of this column that have followed it since its inception in the 1990s, will probably recall my references to “doing it” in a Mini. In my student days several colleagues claim to have achieved it, but the unlucky girlfriend of one of them sustained burns to the buttocks when the back seat collapsed onto the rear mounted battery. Well, no such problem exists in the latest Mini model to be released, It’s the five door Cooper hatch with bucket loads of room and the battery under the bonnet. It’s just arrived in New Zealand. There are two versions: a 1.5 litre three cylinder powered model and a 2 litre four cylinder. Prices are $37,200 and $45,200. To prove I am not prurient, when I refer to “doing it” in a Mini, I am of course meaning the crossword.
FEBRUARY 2015 69
CONTRACTOR INNOVATIONS
Kiwi-made guardrail The X-350 re-directive guardrail terminal end from CSP Pacific is made in New Zealand, making it the only home grown fully crash tested terminal on the market. The X-350 has been crash tested and passed the criteria for NCHRP350 TL-3. It is accepted for use by the Transport Agency as well other worldwide road controlling authorities including Australia, United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Central and South America. With the length of need starting at post 1, instead of post 3 (as in other terminals) the X-350 provides a greater length of protective barrier reducing the cost of installation. During end on impacts, the X-350 absorbs energy at the impact head rather than transferring the resistance down the rail. Impact testing conducted at a 15° angle, showed the vehicle was re-directed and controlled instead of passing to the backside of the terminal. The X-350 can be used in Median, Tangent or Flared (up to 1200mm) installations. It can be installed at two heights, 550mm to the centre of the rail at the end of the traditional public domain timber post barrier system and 635mm to the centre of rail for the higher height of CSP Pacific’s Nu-Guard® 31. Lastly when the site location means that a driven post cannot be used the X-350 is available as a bolt down version making the system the most versatile on the market. More information: www.csppacific.co.nz, ph 0800 655 200.
Atlas Copco generators Atlas Copco Construction Equipment New Zealand has appointed Clark Equipment New Zealand (CENZ) as the distributor of the Atlas Copco portable generator range. “We are ecstatic to take on the Atlas Copco Generator portfolio. It provides a real cutting edge across CENZ to provide a complete power solution in all sectors of the construction, mining & infrastructure markets,” says CENZ general manager, Clint Radovancich. “This development further enhances the relationship CENZ has with Atlas Copco & most importantly, the end customer is provided with products that add significant value to their business.”
Easier stump grinding Recently released by New Zealand distributor AB Equipment, the Vermeer SC30TX is the latest model in the range of quality Vermeer Stump Grinders. With a focus on safety and ease-of-operation, the compact design of the Vermeer SC30TX Stump Grinder offers intuitive controls, minimal service points and the performance of a machine that gets the job done. Designed for efficiency the hydraulic direct drive and yellow jacket cutting tooth system eliminates belts and bearings reducing maintenance time and cost. Further information call 0800 303090.
CONTRACTORS’ DIARY Date Event 18-19 Feb Freshwater Management and Infrastructure Forum 28-30 Jun 16 Hillhead Quarry Exhibition 9-10 Mar Road Lighting Conference 25-26 Road Infrastructure Management Forum
Venue
Contact
Mac’s Function Centre, Wellington
www.conferenz.co.nz/freshwater/
Lafarge Tarmac’s, Hillhead Quarry, England Langham Hotel, Auckland Rendezvous Grand Hotel, Auckland
www.hillhead.com www.roadlightingconference.com www.ipwea.org/newZealand/educationevents/
Date
NEOC Regionals Venue
Contact
Phone
22 Feb 15 12-14 Mar 15
Manawatu/Wanganui National Finals
TBC Malcolm Abernethy
027-2492513
malcolm@civilcontractors.co.nz
Esplanade Day Central District Field Days
Please send any contributions for Contractor Diary to kevin@contrafed.co.nz, or phone 09 636 5710
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Hammer time
New Takeuchi model The new Takeuchi TB280FR excavator is said to have more power, greater dig depth and reach as well as higher tractive forces than the model it supersedes. The new Tier IV final specification of the Yanmar 4TNV98CT diesel engine provides 51.6.kW Gross power for potentially a 10 percent productivity improvement. The auxiliary output flow has not only been substantially increased, but is selectable between 148 l/m and 58 l/m, providing a better match for certain types of accessory tools. A factory fitted twin pump flow (Hyflow) is now standard – a feature that will appeal to drilling contractors who appreciate the excavator’s capability to drill very close to its track frames. TB280FR has a standard operating mass of 8653 kg, putting the excavator in the CCF 7.5 class (7.5 to 10 tonnes), however the machine’s operating mass when rigged with a hydraulic hitch and GP bucket will be closer to nine tonnes. A major advance is a cabin that features integral ROPS & FOPS level II protection, with the addition of a retractable sun shade.
Goughs has a great finance deal available on the entire range of D & E Series Cat Hammers, models from H35 to H180 from $9.50 per day. Cat hammers bring together performance, quality, servicability expectations, and manufacturing experience that Caterpillar is renowned for, says the company. “These work tools are designed for optimum performance and integration with Cat excavators, backhoe & skid steer loaders, and also on non-Cat machines.” Phone 0800 933939
Roadside and site protection The Ironman Hybrid steel and concrete safety barrier system is said to be the first fully crash-tested and approved, non-anchored temporary barrier system available in Australasia. Ironman Hybrid is a concrete and ballasted steel barrier system that requires no anchoring. Simple to deploy with individual sections that easily connect together, two men can unload a truck using a forklift, front-end loader or crane to deploy a full load in less than 45 minutes. With up to one hundred metres of barrier easily transported to site on the back of a semi trailer, the logistics cost for operators and hire companies is greatly reduced as the number of trucks required is one third that of the number required for concrete style barriers. Videos of the impact testing can be viewed on the Saferoads YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/channel/ UCMJA1l6zuUm_F01ZazM7Frg
Very quiet compressor
Wearable technology Leading the growing trend for fusing fashion and high tech, Scania has a smart wristwatch, developed with Sony Mobile, that communicates with trucks. The Scania Watch is a simple way of collecting information on variables including fuel consumption, driving efficiency and average speed. It can also be used to receive emails, text messages and phone call notifications. Mattias Lundholm, head of Scania Connected Services and Solutions, says the use of wearables is still in its early stages and market awareness is low. “However, we see exciting opportunities for connecting a wristwatch to the essential information obtainable from a truck’s technical systems, as well as to data from our system for real-time monitoring and analyses of truck fleets.” Scania’s project manager Jonas Svanholm adds: “We wanted to develop technology that allowed the Scania Watch to truly serve as a friend of the driver. Existing fleet management apps have primarily targeted transport companies and fleet operators. ” For more information: www.scania.com/watch.
The Mobilair 43 portable compressor from Kaeser is said to be even quieter now that it incorporates a doublewalled polyethylene sound enclosure and robust, durable canopy. Minimal sound levels of only 69 dB(A) (surface sound pressure level measured in accordance with ISO 3744) makes the Mobilair 43 one of the quietest portable compressors in its class. Powered by a four cylinder water-cooled Kubota turbo diesel engine, the Mobilair 43 provides an impressive free air delivery of 4.2m³/min at 7 bar. Incorporating Kaeser’s direct drive system eliminates the transmission losses associated with gear driven units. As a result more air is produced for less fuel. This also extends the service life of both the motor and the air end. With an operational weight of less than 750 kg, the unit is also compact and easily manoeuvrable. A lightweight 20-metre hose reel is available as an optional extra. This accessory enables the compressed air line to be neatly stowed away and eliminates the possibility of it becoming a tripping hazard. Available though a dedicated network of distributors and www.kaeser.co.nz. FEBRUARY 2015 71
CONTRACTOR CIVIL CONTRACTORS NEW ZEALAND
Health and Safety Reform Bill update WorkSafe New has released an update on the Health and Safety Reform Bill. These updates give an overview of the key parts of the Bill as introduced to Parliament and explain some of the Bill’s key concepts to ensure duty holders are aware of their responsibilities under the new law. The Bill is part of the Working Safer reform package announced by the Government in 2013 and it is expected to come into force in the second half of 2015. www.business.govt.nz/worksafe/about/reform/reform-bill-update
HSNO Act amendments – Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) The HSNO Act is being amended to improve its workability and make it easier for people to know what their obligations are with hazardous substances. Part of this reform is the development of EPA Notices. These documents will allow us to simplify the key requirements set under the HSNO Act. They’ll also allow us to consolidate and update requirements that are currently spread across regulations, transfer notices, individual approvals and group standards. Notices will be approved by the EPA Board rather than going through Cabinet as required for regulation changes. This will allow the notices to be updated more easily than regulations and to be kept up to date with international developments. A brief summary of the key proposed changes can be obtained from Alan Stevens. EPA’s first two consultation documents on proposals for five notices are ready for feedback: • Hazard classification system, labelling, safety data sheets and packaging – submissions to be received by 5pm on 20 February 2015. • Enforcement officer qualifications – submissions to be received by 5pm on 9 February 2015. These documents are available on the EPA website at http://www. epa.govt.nz/consultations/hazardous-substances/Pages/noticesconsultation-documents.aspx For additional information or to provide input for our submission please contact Alan Stevens, alan@civilcontractors.co.nz, 027 288 8385.
New Building (Residential Consumer Rights and Remedies) Regulations You may think this does not apply to Civil Contractors ‘but’ where you are doing site works, building platform construction, piling, foundations, retaining walls, swimming pools and the like you will need to comply
with new regulations when the value of the contract is $30,000 (GST inclusive) or more. General driveways at ground level are probably outside the scope of the regulations, but if in any doubt seek advice.
The Building (Residential Consumer Rights and Remedies) Regulations 2014 came into force on January 1, 2015. They require all residential building contracts where the price is $30,000 (GST inclusive) to be in writing. There is very little time to act. If you need advice as to what you need to do in order to comply with the regulations, or whether your current contract complies, please contact Malcolm Abernethy malcolm@civilcontractors.co.nz, 027 249 2513. We can refer you to legal advice if required.
Attracting women to trades jobs Growing your trades workforce: how to attract women to your jobs is a short, practical tool from the Ministry for Women for trades employers and those working with trades employers on how to attract more women to trades jobs. The handbook: States the case for employing women in trades – including getting a competitive edge, and growing your business; has many examples of employers and tradeswomen talking about their jobs; provides practical messages on how to get women onto your team. Copies of the handbook are available for download at http://mwa.govt.nz/sites/public_files/2070-MWA_employers%20 handbook%20web.pdf, or contact CCNZ for hard copies.
National Excavator Operator Competition The 2015 final of the National Excavator Opertator Competition will be at Central District Field days held at Manfeild, Feilding on 13 and 14 March. Regional winners are Defending Champion Brian Hoffmann Waikato Elijah Graham (Graham Contractors) Bay of Plenty James Lux (Fulton Hogan) Hawkes Bay Brent Taylor (Gair Contracting) Auckland B J Matthews (Brian Hoffman Ltd) Canterbury Andy Collier (Connell Contractors) Northland Michael Smith (Wharehine Contractors) Otago is competing on January 24, and Manawatu is February 22.
A DV E RT I S E RS IN D E X ACC 31
Glenbrook Machinery
ACE Equipment
Gough Group
63
57 13, 21, 27
Rocktec 15 Ryco Hydraulics
53
Advancequip 11
Hirepool 35
Slopemowing 52
CablePrice OBC
Hiway Stabilizers
39
Synergy Positioning
45
Taylor Built
Civil Contractors NZ
7
Counties Ready Mix
55
Geofabrics NZ
CSP Pacific
14
OMC Power Equipment
DitchWitch NZ
43
Porters Group
Forklift Solutions
61
Prime Pump
72 FEBRUARY 2015
Hynds Pipe Systems
IBC
Total Oil
5 42 3
59
Transdiesel 9
OFC, IFC, 1, 14, 15
Wirtgen 49
23
Youngman Richardson
8
Maccaferri NZ Ltd, founded in 1988 is New Zealand’s leading supplier of innovative geosynthetic and wire mesh solutions to the civil and infrastructure construction industry. Geofabrics Australasia Pty Ltd has increased its shareholding in Maccaferri NZ Ltd from 85% to 100% effective 1 February 2015. Our name change to Geofabrics New Zealand Ltd underlines the strength of the Geofabrics Group as the leading regional manufacturer and provider of geosynthetic solutions to the civil, infrastructure, mining and water and waste construction industries. Our people, products, contacts and high level support services remain unchanged and we look forward to continuing to work with you on your current and future projects.
QUALITY - SUPPORT - EXPERTISE
0800 60 60 20
sales@geofabrics.co.nz
www.geofabrics.co.nz Geofabrics NZ Limited formally Maccaferri NZ Limited
1
FINANCE FROM A LOW
CONFIDENCE BUILT-IN, DOWNTIME TOSSED OUT
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0800 346 275
Match your nance rate with the model you’re buying!
300914_Hitachi_Mini_Finance
With rates starting from a low 1.7%* the time has never been better to add one of our selected Hitachi excavators or wheel loaders to your fleet. For more information, including specifications and options visit www.cableprice.co.nz or contact your local CablePrice equipment sales specialist on 0800 555 456. Offer available on selected new Hitachi excavators (up to 7.5 tonnes) and Hitachi wheel loaders (up to 14.2 tonnes). Deposit from 25%. Offer valid until 23 December 2014 or while current stocks last. *terms and conditions apply. Visit www.cableprice.co.nz for terms and conditions.
EXCAVATORS
RATE*
TERM
ZX17U-2 ZX33U-5 ZX38U-5 ZX48U-5 ZX55U-5 ZX65USB-5 ZX75US-5
1.7% 3.3% 3.8% 4.8% 5.5% 6.5% 6.5%
17 months 36 months 36 months 36 months 36 months 36 months 36 months
(17U - Includes trailer package deal) WHEEL LOADERS
RATE*
TERM
ZW40 ZW80 ZW100 ZW140 ZW180
4.0% 5.0% 6.5% 7.0% 7.0%
36 months 36 months 36 months 48 months 48 months
0800 555 456 sales@cableprice.co.nz www.cableprice.co.nz