16 | Gorge repairs on track T T from page 14 NZTA - Whangarei: SH1 Mangamuka Gorge REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT In total there are 141 individual companies involved in the Mangamuka Gorge project, across all the work involved from design, all the way to ecology and removal of wildlife in the area, drilling, concreting, roading, paving and excavation. 82% of the companies that are onsite every day are using locally employed people. “Over half the companies are based in the Far North, with a significant portion of the others from the Whangarei or Kaipara regions. It is about putting money back into the local economy, and that is really important to us. “When we commenced procurement, we had a particular focus on hiring local suppliers and people to carry out all this crucial work. Because on average 74% of the workforce on site daily are drawn from local communities, there is a team of people who are really doing the hard mahi, because they understand the importance of reopening and reconnecting with their friends and whanau. There is a real culture of ownership, which is just fantastic.” Local iwi and hapu representatives also form a key part of the project team both in management and on the ground, particularly in areas concerning the ecology and managing the fauna and flora around the project site. The project is now expected to be completed and SH1 reopened by Christmas this year, which Mark says is absolute testament to the hard mahi put in by everyone involved in the project. “We have three shifts working 24 hours a day. They are very challenging conditions to work in and the mahi they have done has just been outstanding. Up to March this year, almost 306,000 hours of work had been done on site, we have had over 800 people inducted on site, with 142 on site every day on average, of which a significant number are local.” Mark says the key challenge faced by the project team has been ongoing wet weather, and last year was one of the wettest on record, delivering over 2800mm of rainfall over 12 months, compared to the normal annual rainfall of 1700mm. “It is about managing those extreme conditions so that we keep our people safe. One of the innovations to come out of this project was a system called TARP (Trigger, Action, Response Plan). “That is a complex sensor system that has been developed by WSP to keep the slip site safe by detecting ground movement, soil moisture, and rainfall intensity. Realtime data is provided through a wireless system, which goes to the TARP, when a certain level is reached enabling us to remove people from site. So, it’s all about keeping people safe. That system also won this year’s Site Safe award for Safety Innovation for Large Organisations award, at the Construction Health and Safety Wellbeing Awards.” The narrow two-lane highway corridor through the gorge also poses a significant risk, and work challenge, in terms of how movements of people, large machinery and materials are both managed and carefully planned, to get the best efficiencies. “On any given day we might have concrete trucks and pours, cranes and pumps in place, and the road becomes impassable, so our planning enables multiple sites working at the same time to progress the work. “The other key challenge is the ground conditions which are really fragile, with almost 70% of the geological material made up of Northland Allochothon, better known as ‘Northland Problematic rock’. It’s very challenging for construction and maintenance and so the way we have approached the project is specific to that material.” From complex and challenging projects comes innovation, and in addition to the award-winning TARP, the team developed a clever system to help protect wildlife and the land surrounding the sites being managed. “We put in a system to prevent sediment contamination flowing off the work site and into the whenua and awa. Water run-off is diverted into a series of clean industrial bins, aligned at slightly different heights. Water flows from one bin to the next, to the next, so that by the time you get to the end, the sediment is significantly reduced. The team came up with that simple but highly effective sluicing system that manages sediment which was recognised at the International Erosion Control Association Environmental Excellence awards in November last year.” An experienced director of complex and large-scale projects, Mark says he has been extremely proud to be a part of the Mangamuka Gorge project. He says it is often people who can make a project more challenging than it needs to be, but the team on this project have made the difference by seeing the project problems as opportunities. “So yes, the project is challenging and it is a challenging environment, but the work is really enjoyable, and if you’re talking to anyone on the team I think they would all say the same thing — they love the work and working with the people in the North. Northland is a beautiful area and we need to ensure we look after the people up there.” Your Northland partner for full consultancy services including Project Management, Civil and Structural Engineering, Planning, Quantity Surveying and Landscape Architecture. For more info go to stellarprojects.co.nz or scan the QR code. PILING / DRILLING / HEAVY HAULAGE / PLANT & EQUIPMENT HIRE / 0800 SPIRAL / 0800 PILING / WWW.SPIRALDRILLERS.CO.NZ INFRAST UCTURE, COMMERCIAL AND R SIDENTIAL PILING ECIALISTS / WW .SPIRA I LERS.CO.NZ / 0800SPIRAL WE KNOW THE DRILL SINCE 1971 The project has been undertaken in a staged approach, with the first stage being an enabling stage to ensure the gorge was safe and stable enough to accommodate the large machinery to carry out the permanent slip works.
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