| 59 K2 Kontracting CONTRACTING T T Russell Fredric Future leaders starting to come through K2 Kontracting has been undertaking projects for Environment Southland and Powernet, making it a busy time. Drivers focused on travelling to their destination while concentrating on their driving might give little thought to passing a road crew. However, K2 Kontracting operations manager Craig Ross and the company’s team are ones who understand the importance of their role in keeping town and country roads safe and well maintained. Started by Ken Adams in as a “one-man band” with just a digger and a truck, the Mataura-based business has grown to a company whose trucks and staff are a familiar sight throughout Eastern Southland. Craig, who has been working for K2 Kontracting for 11 years, says the company now employs 17 full time staff, many of whom are long term employees, and a team of four casual drivers during the busy season, while Ken still has an active role. “We’ve got a good team actually; they’ve been here for quite some time, and we’ve got a couple of younger members on board now so there’s some fresh blood coming through.” The company primarily undertakes road maintenance work and rural contracting as well as specific contracts. “We do farm drainage and a lot of on farm work for many long term clients such as Jeff Farm who have been with us for over 19 years, but in the last six or even years we’ve expanded into [Gore District] council work with initially being a subcontractor to Fulton Hogan for three years, working in with Abernethy Contracting, but we are doing it directly now.” The GDC contract involves undertaking its annual rural and urban cyclical programme of grading and metaling gravel roads, checking signage, cutting back vegetation, maintaining town gutters and signage, filling potholes and ongoing checks of the roading network. Outside of normal working hours, K2 Kontracting aways has a staff member on call on a rotating roster to attend to any urgent work, such as spreading grit on icy or slippery roads during the winter and early spring months, or the likes of placing signage and cones in flooded areas during rain or other weather events. “On the winter mornings we do an urban and rural inspection of the network. Rain, hail or snow we are out and about in it. It’s up to us to make it safe for the public. During winter time it’s seven days a week.” Outside of its regular roading and rural contracting work, K2 Kontracting has been undertaking projects for Environment Southland and Powernet, making it a busy time. Work for Environment Southland includes stop bank protection maintenance comprising clearing willows, mowing, and assessing and repairing any damage along a considerable reach of this critical infrastructure in Eastern and Northern Southland. For Powernet, the company was involved in the installation of power lines that will distribute electricity from Powernet’s Kaiwera Downs wind farm currently being constructed 15 kilometres southeast of Gore. The wind farm comprises 10 4.4 megawatt turbines and K2 Kontracting were one of the contractors involved in building the associated infrastructure including the 18 kilometre transmission line that takes a 33 kilovolt line to the Powernet/Transpower substation. “That was a four month project with a digger on site assisting the Powernet crews.” As a business based in a small provincial town, K2 Kontracting is strongly community minded, both with sponsorship and providing its staff and expertise such as traffic management in support of organisations and events. Quarry Manager Jeffrey Popham 027 555 1250 | 248 Coal Pit Road, Edendale PIT RUN ▪ RICE GRAVEL ▪ UNDER RUN SAND ▪ BUILDER’S MIX ▪ 13MM STONE 19MM STONE ▪ 19-30MM STONE 22-40MM STONE ▪ >40MM STONE AP20 & AP32 (ALL IN) 0274 333 081 6 tonne general excavating 2 tonne general excavating Tile cleaning/Locater CCTV drain camera Augers/Grab bucket General cartage 410kg Plate compactor ...and much more! 027 856 1000 admin@newtonexcavation.co.nz Gore Proudly supporting K2 Kontracting
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