4 | Ruapehu Alpine Lifts REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT Sky Waka delivers year-round potential from page 3 The Sky Waka Gondola has proved a hit with recreational users and sightseers. “You can look up at the top of Mount Ruapehu, Ngaurahoe and Tongariro and the magnificent scoria rock following fifty million years of volcanic eruptions, through to views of Mount Taranaki to the west, Taupo to the east the Central Plateau to the north. “When the snow recedes you’re seeing volcanic rock. The landscape is diverse with greys, browns and low hues of a vast barren landscape — but there’s something very alluring and very different about that place. We’re very new while being very old as a tourist spot.” A public unlisted company operating the Whakapapa and Tūroa Ski Areas, RAL traditionally employs between 600 and 700 staff during the winter season. Mostly from transient employment, half of those employees come from tourists on international holiday visas. “We needed to change that paradigm. “Our region is a relatively low socio-economic area and Sky Waka was a way we could work with Government agencies like MSD to grow awareness of our region’s tourism opportunities but also develop a long-term sustainable tourism operation.” Partially funded by creating tourism infrastructure bonds sold to local investors including iwi entities, Ruapehu District Council and Taupo District Council, the $25m project was also supported by a $10m loan from the Provincial Growth Fund. “The ultimate underlying goal of all those investors has been about growing visitation to the region, the region’s profile and creating employment opportunities to ensure the ski areas and our operations are sustainable over a 12 month period.” Now in its second year of operation, Jono says RAL is very proud of Sky Waka as an asset and what it has already delivered to the region. “It has changed the dynamic of our ski environment and given us an opportunity to look at our summer operations for the financial stability and sustainability that these sorts of businesses need. “We’re very fortunate that the work was completed pre-Covid, allowing us to use it as a bit of a springboard into summer operations as tourists start to return.” World Class Geotechnical Engineers. Right Here. We’ve built a smart, mobile team of engineering geologists, geophysicists and geotechnical engineers who understand real-world construction and development issues. We work with developers, contractors and structural engineers to add assurance to large-scale construction projects, reduce risk to assets, avoid over-engineering and reduce insurance costs. Removing uncertainty by executing appropriate ground investigation techniques coupled with a solid geological understanding are the standardmodus operandi for geotechnical specialist Resource Development Consultants Ltd (RDCL). A Hastings based consulting company, with o ices inWellington, Auckland and Manila, RDCL is speci ically involved in geotechnical engineering and ground testing for private sector vertical development, land development, water resource engineering and residential construction. Led by Jethro Neeson and Elizabeth Cairns RDCL was engaged to provide geotechnical support for the ambitious and challenging SkyWaka Gondola project in Mount Ruapehu’s Whakapapa ski ield. “The work entailedmostly walkover assessment of the proposed pylon locations to help con irm stability of the selected sites and the suitability for the proposed foundations speci ied by the structural engineer,” says CamWylie, RDCL’s Managing Director. “At the lower lift station the work included detailed geophysical investigations to help con irm ground conditions and suitability for excavation and foundations.” The lower lift is in an excavation about 6mdeep adjacent to what was the existing lift structure. Complex geology meant the stability of the excavation was unknown as was the likelihood of inding suitable foundations at the planned depth. Re lecting on the project’s many challenges, Cam explains that the site has physical challenges ranging from steep topography to extreme cold and the Department of Conservation has limitations on the environmental impact to the site. “The main challenge was the speed at which the work had to be completed, being Resource Development Consultants – Sky Waka before winter which would close down the construction season. This meant severe restriction on the style of investigation so that conventional drilling based work could not be done. We had to rely on insightful geological modeling based on geophysical data andmapping prior to excavation, and the observational methods during construction to prove the model and adjust plans if required.” RDCL used geophysical techniques at the lower lift station tomodel the ground pro ile and con irm the proposed engineering plan. “The ground pro ile was developed based on sound understanding of the site’s complex geology. During construction, we made numerous site visits to con irm ground assumptions, support the construction team and provide information to structural engineers to adjust foundation plans as required. Selected pylon foundations were subject to heavy load tests to con irm designs.” A key feature of the project was the high level of collaboration between all parties including construction, structural and geotechnical engineers. “This is really the secret to the success of the job as far as RDCL is concerned. A good team goes a very long way.” RDCL’s con idence in its engineering and understanding of the geotechnical issues allowed it to make rapid decisions that helped construction to proceed without interruption. “We train our people to think and to work to a high standard of ethics which then makes it easy to make decisions. We were able to supply timely and con ident information to the structural engineers and construction teams to allow the project to proceed in the manner as designed and without interruption to meet their schedules.”
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