50 | Hiway NZ INFRASTRUCTURE Connectivity between communities restored NZTA was determined to ensure that the road to Bay of Plenty remained open. T T Lindy Andrews In 2023, Cyclones Hale and Gabrielle cut a destructive swathe through East Coast roads, leaving millions of dollars’ worth of infrastructure damage in their wake. State Highways 2 and 35 were particularly badly damaged, affecting connectivity between communities impacting local economies. NZTA was determined to ensure that the road to Bay of Plenty remained open. Under urgency NZTA turned to Hiway - Australasia’s largest in situ pavement recycling contractor and No 2 in the world - to undertake emergency rehabilitation works. Twelve years ago, Hiway Stabilisers, then a small family business recently rebranded itself simply as Hiway and began looking beyond New Zealand to Australia, with a focus on decarbonisation, recycling and reuse. “We established ourselves in Queensland in the first instance,” explains CEO Peter Metcalfe, “and went through a significant growth cycle over the next 10 years.” With its head office in Auckland, Hiway now operates offices across New Zealand and in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, and the Northern Territories. Its groundbreaking approach to pavements can be seen in some of Australasia’s most transformational roading projects, says Peter. Among them are Auckland’s Ara Tuhono – Puhoi to Warkworth motorway, New South Wales’ Pacific Highway, the Sydney Gateway, Western Sydney Airport, and Australia’s colossal Inland Rail project, linking Victoria with Northern Queensland. Resilience, sustainability, recycling and carbon negative solutions are rarely associated with pavement design and construction. Traditionally, end-of-life roads are dug up and new pavement laid, Peter says. “NZTA was very forward thinking in its approach to improving the resilience of the East Coast roads following Cyclone Gabrielle. We recycled the existing pavement to effectively turn it back into a new, more resilient road utilising foamed bitumen recycling. It’s 40% quicker, cheaper and produces 30 to 40% less carbon – yet has the same 25-year design life of a conventionally constructed new road.” Designer Nick Shilov says the urgency of the State Highway 2/35 project meant meeting a few challenges. “From the time we got the call from NZTA to getting on-site was weeks rather than the usual months. “State Highway 2 could not shut, but there were areas where the pavement was in very poor condition. NZTA had significant safety concerns for drivers and vehicles.” Following truncated investigations, including test pits and high-speed traffic deflectometer testing, work got underway in May 2023. With ongoing heavy rain causing delays, it was July before the teams really hit their straps. Hiway’s innovative approach proved its worth. By Christmas 2023, 26 km of road rehabilitation was complete. “We did falling weight deflectometer testing post construction, and the results were way better than we imagined,” says Nick. “The pavement is really good, really strong and far more resilient.” With its now well-established international reputation for excellence, Hiway has also scored a well-deserved win in the 2024 2 Degrees Auckland Business Awards for Excellence in Innovation and was a finalist in the Excellence in Sustainability and Employer of the Year categories. The company was also a Tairawhiti Emergency Awards finalist. I NNOVAT I ON FOR LOWER CARBON SUSTA I NABL E OUTCOMES We provide a wide range of innovative, cost and carbon saving construction solutions throughout New Zealand for: • Specialist heavy duty pavement design & construction • Foamed bitumen recycling • Road rehabilitation & recycling, pre-seal repairs & maintenance • Forestry & windfarm road optimisation & construction • Insitu flushed seal remediation • Insitu contaminated materials remediation and treatment • Rail alignment and sub-ballast strengthening • Commercial building platform optimisation • New pavement construction • Subgrade stabilisation & recycling • Fill drying & conditioning Adam.Gri iths@hiways.co.nz Phone: 021 719 187 Web: www.hiway.nz Email: Effective Land Drainage and Earthmoving Solutions Sub-surface Land Drainage Solutions Trenching for Cables & Waterlines | Land Levelling | Road Construction Dam Construction | General Earthmoving 06 868 3918 sales@trenchline.co.nz www.trenchline.co.nz
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