NZ Contractor 1608 by Contrafed Publishing

NEW ZEALAND’S CIVIL CONTRACTING INDUSTRY MAGAZINE

AUGUST 2016 $8.95

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INSIDE: A tomorrow’s leader – Hugh Johnstone Waikanae – a very very long bridge Havelock Nth relieved – a sewer in the making Buying low-cost steel – a wise guide

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CONTENTS CONTRACTOR

INSIDE:

Regulars

Highlights / Features

6 Editorial

26 Profile – Hugh Johnstone

8 Upfront 12 Contractors’ Diary 24 On the Cover 70 Motoring 72 Classic Machines 76 Innovations 78 Civil Contractors NZ update 78 Advertisers’ Index

Comment

Richard Silcock catches up with Hugh Johnstone and gleans some insite into what makes him an award winner.

31 The intricacies of three concurrent projects Three major highway projects in a row are under construction around the western side of Christchurch.

36 Room to move

Even the most straightforward of projects will have its challenges as Higgins discovered when building the Havelock North Relief Sewer.

42 Giant crane helps construct longest bridge

A giant crawler-crane was used for constructing the longest bridge on the Kapiti Expressway.

64 Peter Silcock CCNZ 65 Helmut Modlik Connexis 66 Kerrie McEwen / Christina Low Plan A 67 Jonathan Bhana-Thomson Heavy Haulage Association 68 Charlotta Harpur Heaney & Partners

50 Merger signals new era for cement

Training

Technology

62 Civil Trades: Meet the graduates

60 High-tech monitoring

63 C onnexis strategies lead to gender diversity

ON THE COVER Customer demand is driving growth at Hirepool. See page 24

The merger of the world’s biggest cement makers has had a significant impact on the way this country sources its cement.

54 Alarm bells over buying low-cost steel

Australian and New Zealand Standards Authorities have released warnings over non-compliant steel.

56 The father of asset management

From World Highways magazine an interview with the man who developed the concept of asset management for roads.

The construction of the City Rail Link underneath Auckland requires a robust approach to construction monitoring.

8 AUGUST 2016 5

CONTRACTOR EDITORIAL

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

Finding a winning formula “It’s all about teamwork and working within a small close-knit team that provides me with the opportunity to develop and challenge myself,” says Hugh Johnstone – a tomorrow’s leader, says Richard Silcock in his profile of the Young Contractor of the Year at the 2016 Hynds Construction Awards and AB Equipment People Awards run by the Auckland branch of CCNZ. Hugh is clearly a remarkable man who recently took over the family business and is enjoying success already through his attention to detail, encouragement of his team, and clever use of technology. He’s just one of the many winners you’ll be reading about in these pages (see page 26) over the coming months as conference and awards seasons get under way. CCNZ national office and branches, Heavy Haulage, Cranes, IPWEA, LGNZ, Concrete, Water and the Q&M magazine Editor’s Award presented at the AQA/IoQ conference. These awards and acknowledgements have either just been celebrated, or will be shortly. We’ll be covering them all. For everyone involved, just entering is evidence of a successful project or personal development; even becoming a finalist is a clear sign of peer recognition of a job well done. Few become winners, and there’s much to be learnt from their stories. Another cracking yarn we came across recently is reprinted on page 56. Taken from the pages of World Highways magazine (with its permission), it’s an interview with Dr Ralph Hass, “distinguished Canadian professor emeritus”, one of several civil engineers in the 1960s who developed the concept of managing roads as an integrated transportation asset and not simply as a stand-alone object. It’s a great story of a man who still conducts research – and quite proudly all done without a mobile phone. We also have some big project updates this month. There’s the three concurrent projects around the western side of Christchurch (Western Belfast Bypass, Northern Arterial and the Southern Motorway) on page 31, and building of the Havelock North Relief Sewer on page 36 (even if the project wasn’t big, I’m sure the relief for Havelock North residents was!). On page 42 you’ll see a big crane build a big bridge – understatements both. It’s a 400-tonne heavy lift Liebherr crawler crane, lifting 55 39-metre Super-Tee beams into place for the new Waikanae River Bridge, forming part of the Kapiti Expressway. And finally in the big development category, we’ve an update from the New Zealand perspective of the massive Lafarge and Holcim merger, which has resulted in a company with 115,000 employees in 90 countries – with photos of the two cement storage domes built in Auckland and Timaru. And on page 60 we look at some of the hi-tech wizardry being employed for Auckland’s CRL (City Rail Link). It’s a big read this month. We hope you enjoy. Kevin Lawrence, Editor

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 Malcolm Abernethy, Mary Searle Bell, Richard Campbell, Hugh de Lacy, Cameron Officer, Richard Silcock, Chris Webb. 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.

www.linkedin.com/NZcontractor @NZContractormag nz contractor magazine nz contractor magazine 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 6 www.contractormag.co.nz

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CONTRACTOR UPFRONT

14 days on ice Harliwich Holdings of Roxburgh in Otago came to the rescue of 13 4WD vehicles stuck in the snow for a fortnight up the Old Man Range in June, about halfway between Roxburgh and Alexandra. Two weeks earlier, 38 southern 4WD enthusiasts from Winton, Gore and Invercargill had to be rescued after the weather unexpectedly turned, causing the group to be trapped for about 20 hours before being rescued. The vehicles were left behind. The groupâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s initial plan to retrieve their vehicles was thwarted by the Central Otago District Council, and another week passed before Harliwich was given the all-clear to proceed.

8 www.contractormag.co.nz

Contract for final stage of SH16 The $100 million Lincoln to Westgate Motorway Upgrade, the final stage of the State Highway 16 Northwestern Motorway upgrade, was won by Hawkins. Widening the motorway from two to three lanes between Lincoln Road and Westgate, to support growth in Auckland’s western suburbs, is scheduled to open early next year. Right: Sod turning in suits, or suits turning sods: Auckland mayor Len Brown; PM John Key; and Transport Minister, Simon Bridges.

Leadership change at Hynds David Wheeley has been appointed new chief executive officer of the Hynds Group of Companies and is the first non-family member to head the group in four decades. David has been with Hynds for four years – initially leading the company’s business investment in Australia, and most recently as executive manager of distribution running Hynds’ Australian and New Zealand distribution network. Prior to joining the company, David led several large Australian manufacturing businesses in a similar pipelines sector. Current managing director Adrian Hynds is moving within the broader family enterprise to take up the new role of managing director of Hynds Holdings, the parent shareholding

company recently set up to look after the family businesses, philanthropic interests, and property assets within New Zealand and Australia. Adrian says after 13 years as MD he is passing the operational leadership reins to very experienced hands. “David is highly respected and has extensive experience in manufacture and supply. He has proven excellent insight into growth opportunities in Australia and New Zealand and has delivered impressive results,” he says. Commenting on his new role, Adrian says his focus would be on helping ensure the continued growth and success of the family business.

“The business we have grown over the last 43 years is incredibly unique and we want to continue that. My new role as managing director of Hynds Holdings will help ensure this through a number of channels.”

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CONTRACTOR UPFRONT

Auckland road charging Not everyone likes the idea of introducing road charges in Auckland to finance infrastructure. Auckland mayoral candidate Mark Thomas says he rejects the idea until Auckland Council gets its financial house in order, and much needed transport improvements in the north, north-west and south of Auckland are confirmed. “Council debt has doubled since amalgamation in 2010 from $3.4 billion to $6.5 billion and ratepayers are still reeling from last year’s 9.9 percent residential rates increases,” he says. “It is unreasonable to plan to hit Aucklanders with further council charges at this time. “It is essential that road pricing isn’t used to create another ‘slush fund’ for other council spending. With so little confidence in council decision making and with grave concerns about spending and debt levels, I won’t support new road charging for Auckland until I have improved these issues.”

Thomas’ plans also include seeking approval to ‘swap’ half the Auckland airport shares and the port operating company shares into some of the key new transport projects in the region.

Phil for improved transport systems Auckland mayoral candidate Phil Goff says a step change is needed in Auckland’s transport planning. “What we are doing at the moment is inadequate and will result in a further decline in our network performance by 2026. Worsening congestion and growing gridlock is causing massive frustration and huge productivity losses in Auckland.” He says he supports Transport Minister Simon Bridges, who says the whole country needs Auckland to succeed and that improved

transport systems in Auckland are integral to this. “The Minister and I agreed to clear away the blame game between council and government and that policy must be evidence based and led by an analysis of what will turn around our worsening congestion. “Adequate funding is critical to putting infrastructure in place to cater for Auckland’s growth. Road pricing will have to be part of that both to raise revenue and influence behaviour.”

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Women in construction awards

Cherie Leckner

A focus on exceeding expectations while completing complex construction projects has propelled Cherie Leckner from Wintec engineering cadet to delivery team leader for Fulton Hogan’s team at SCIRT. “After my engineering cadetship I worked my way up to my current position through a series of project management positions. Developing the whole team is what drives me; making sure that our engineers become well-rounded contractors who have excellent people skills.” As for the challenge of being a woman in a male-dominated industry, Cherie says the main issue for her is overcoming the misconceptions some people have about women in construction. “It’s about changing people’s perceptions of women in construction. I have found that once people get to know me any preconceptions they have seem to go away. I also think it’s important to ensure that others don’t think that we as women are seeking special treatment – we’re all in the industry for the same reasons. We just want to be treated equally.” Cherie hopes that diversity in the construction industry will continue to blossom and believes that awards such as the Hays NAWIC Excellence Awards play an important role in encouraging more women to pursue careers in construction. The second annual Hays NAWIC Excellence Awards will be held on September 14 at Mac’s Function Centre in Wellington. The awards celebrate the achievements of women in construction as well as honouring those organisations which are redressing the industry’s gender imbalance.

Changes to CVIR roadside inspections NZ Police has changed the way it conducts roadside interactions and inspections for commercial vehicles and now collects roadside inspections using an App called “OnDuty”. Information previously printed at the roadside will no longer be provided. This applies to Infringement Offence Notices (ION), Written Traffic Warnings (WTW) and Commercial Vehicle Inspection Reports (CVIR). Replacing the paper forms are electronically generated versions populated through the App on the officer’s mobile device. “While the process for staff carrying out interactions and inspections will essentially remain the same, the new tool will allow easier collection and collation of information,” says the agency. More information: www.contrafed.co.nz/new-police-roadside-interaction-and-inspectionprocess.

AUGUST 2016 11

CONTRACTOR UPFRONT

World focus for NZTA/ NZIHT conference

Transport Minister Simon Bridges (left) and New Plymouth MP Jonathan Young walking across one of the two new bridges constructed during the two-year project.

Large roading project in Taranaki opens The biggest and most significant roading project in Taranaki for decades, the SH3 Vickers to New Plymouth City Project, involving the construction of new bridges, better cycle routes and upgrades to several city intersections, is now completed. Transport Minister Simon Bridges and New Plymouth MP Jonathan Young officially opened the new $24 million route in late June. Bridges says the completed project, which also involves the construction of several retaining walls, stabilisation and resurfacing, has all the amenities expected from a modern road, making it easier for business and freight to move in and out of the city. This would spur economic growth in the city and region. The northern outlet is the busiest in Taranaki as well as the main freight route north, with motor vehicle movements sometimes exceeding 35,000 per day. “You put it together with the projects that are going further north and this is the start of a very significant corridor improvement for the Taranaki region,” Bridges said, referring to more improvements to SH3 north of New Plymouth, including between Bell Block and Waitara, and Mount Messenger and the Awakino Gorge planned over the next few years. “I think everyone from the Transport Agency through to the contractors can be satisfied with a job exceptionally well done. I know this $24 million project is money very well spent,” he added. Fulton Hogan was the main contractor, undertaking overall management of the project that the NZTA hails as a great success. “We need to recognise the difficult job that Fulton Hogan had to do by completing the project, with live roads, and having to accommodate a total of 18.5 million vehicle movements throughout the build. To handle that many vehicles was a marathon in itself,” says NZTA West Coast North Island branch chairman Tom Cloke. By Neil Ritchie.

‘Towards world leading road operation, construction and maintenance’ is the focus of the upcoming 2016 NZ Transport Agency/NZIHT Annual Conference. This conference is being held from Sunday October 30 to Tuesday November 1 at the Dunedin Centre. The organisers have called for papers and say: “We are delivering one of the largest land transport infrastructure programmes of recent times and it is essential that we use the most efficient and effective tools and techniques to deliver this. “At the same time, the country-wide roll-out of our new Network Outcome Contracts (NOCs) for operating and maintaining the highway network is nearing completion. “Both these tasks demand a new way of working, but at the same time offer great opportunities for innovation and experimentation. At this conference, we want to explore these opportunities across the spectrum.” To register or for more information about the conference, go to: www.nziht.co.nz/ Conferences-and-Seminars/

Merger News Navman Wireless, a long-established name in fleet and asset tracking, has rebranded under the name Teletrac Navman, following the company’s merger with GPS fleet tracking software company, Teletrac, The combined company will have 40,000 customers with more than 500,000 tracked vehicles and equipment. More details at www.teletracnavman.co.nz

CONTRACTORS’ DIARY Date

Event & Venue

Contact

2016 3-6 Aug 10-12 Aug 31 Aug - 2 Sep 24-26 Sep 19-20 Sep 30 Oct-1 Nov 1 Nov 7-8 Nov

Civil Contractors NZ Conference, Auckland Heavy Haulage Assoc Conference, Christchurch IECA & NZIHT International Erosion Control Conference, Rydes, Auckland Sustainability in Public Works Conference, Jasper Hotel, Melbourne Auckland Transport Infrastructure Forum, Pullman Hotel, Auckland NZTA/NZIHT 17th Annual Conference, Dunedin Road to 2018 LTP Seminar, Millennium Hotel, Queenstown NAMS Advanced Asset Management Forum, Wellington

www.ccnzconference.co.nz www.hha.org.nz www.nziht.co.nz/Conferences-and-Seminars/ www.eastcoastconferences.com.au/sustain2016 bit.ly/CONFERENZ_AklTransport www.nziht.co.nz/Conferences-and-Seminars/ bit.ly/SOLGM_RoadTo2018 www.nams.org.nz

Road Infrastructure Management Forum, Waipuna Hotel, Auckland

www.rims.org.nz/

2017 22-23 Mar

Please send any contributions for Contractors’ Diary to kevin@contrafed.co.nz, or phone 09 636 5710

12 www.contractormag.co.nz

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CONTRACTOR UPFRONT

IPWEA Conference The 2016 IPWEANZ conference was held at Sky City in Auckland in June and built on past conference themes around responding to change. This years’ conference focused on innovative thinking with the title; ‘Adapt, Innovate, Flourish’.

1. Minster Steven Joyce, Minister for Economic Development, opens the 2016 IPWEANZ Conference. 2. Peter Higgs, IPWEANZ president and Samantha Gain, IPWEANZ vice present. 3. Caroline Boot, managing director, Clever Buying and Plan A; and delegate Stephen Griffin from the Buller District Council.

4. Keynote speaker Bruce Kaplan (left), transportation planning staff from Boston; and CCNZ technical executive, Malcolm Abernethy. 5. At the Hynds stand: James Logan, Hynds category manager, Civil Drainage; and Tim Macintosh, Hynds engineered products manager, Northern Region.

14 www.contractormag.co.nz

6. At the trade display at the 2016 IPWEA conference in late June: Stephen Bradshaw, Downer’s stakeholder communication advisor Infrastructure Services; and Mike Costelloe, general manager Strategic Accounts.

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More from the IPWEA Conference...

Delegates on the city ‘Walkabout’ – an urban field-trip looking at massive new infrastructure construction in Auckland’s CBD.

Among the IPWEA 2016 awards were: Luke Meys, made a Life Member of the institute; Ross Waugh, IPWEANZ President’s (leadership) Award; and Braden Austin, also made a Life Member.

Setting up training consultancy After spending many years at the Auckland campus of the Tai Poutini Polytechnic, Tony Belich has left the school to set up his own consultancy. He has been replaced by James Bromley as the campus’ infrastructure tutor. Pictured at Tony’s farewell lunch: Tony Belich; James Bromley; and Gough’s national rental manager, Ewen Major.

50MAX maps now mobile friendly

Site Safe Construction Health and Safety Awards

The NZTA says its online 50MAX maps now have a mobile-friendly format making it as easy as possible for the industry to use high productivity motor vehicles (HPMVs). “The move means an upgrade to the platform which hosts the maps, providing greater scope to continue to improve the service in the future,” says principal project manager Grant Foster. “This new platform is an exciting development as it means the maps can be easily used from all major smartphones and tablets. It also comes with a similar ‘look and feel’ as Google Maps which will make it easy to read.” Like Google Maps the 50MAX maps will have the option of viewing different backgrounds such as aerial imagery or roads and will be printer friendly. They will also have an option to work in with the location of the device for easy route planning.

The Site Safe Construction Health and Safety Awards acknowledge people and companies who demonstrate excellence in health and safety leadership and innovation. Categories are: Safety Innovation Award – separate awards for small to medium business and large business; Safety Leadership Award (all businesses); and Safety Contribution Award (individual or small team). The awards will be presented at Site Safe’s Evening of Celebration in November at Alexandra Park in Auckland. The evening also celebrates the graduation of students who have completed the Site Safe Certificate in Construction Site Safety. The awards are free for businesses to enter and applications can be made via Site Safe’s website www.sitesafe.org.nz/ awards.

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CONTRACTOR UPFRONT

Winston on imported material Winston Peters opened the 2016 Northland Construction Awards Excellence in Civil Construction Conference held in Whangarei back in June and got stuck into what he says is a lack of official policing around shoddy construction imports. “There are hundreds of thousands of these poor quality imported products all over New Zealand but what does the government and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment do? “MBIE said it plans to have a campaign later this year to ‘promote’ the use of building products that comply. “That’s next to useless. The issue is how are these products getting into the country? Where is New Zealand going with quality control? “A director of a pipe company said there is no certifying body in New Zealand checking products.” Chinese test certificates had as much value as a card you get in a “box of cornflakes”, he adds. “In Australia, the Federal government has set up a senate committee to investigate poor quality building products. “Over there the Australasian Certification Authority says New Zealand is the Wild West when it comes to steel testing. The authority wants New Zealand to adopt the standards they have in Europe where company bosses have to sign off steel products to show they’re up to standard, and if they’re not, they face jail. “That’s how seriously they take it in Europe.”

Great North Road Interchange at Waterview Connection on the Western Ring Route in Auckland. Photo: Greg Kempthorne, NZ Transport Agency. Source: facebook.com/AliceTBM

Waterworks opportunity Auckland’s water Council-Controlled Organisation (CCO)’s 20-year asset management plan details a $4.9 billion fully funded capital spend over the next decade. About $3 billion will be directed towards wastewater provision and $2 billion towards water supply. In addition, some $2.6 billion will be allocated to operational spending, signalling a total $7.4 billion spend overall by 2026 and $18.4 billion over 20 years. The ability to look out 10 and 20 years and produce a fully funded investment programme is made possible by Watercare’s consolidation of activities inside a special purpose, non-profit council company resourced by user charges. “Having the ability to charge customers directly to fund future investment to support growth is fundamental to the success of this model, says Stephen Selwood, CEO of the Council for Infrastructure Development. “Compare this situation to other publicly owned entities like Auckland Transport and dozens of council funded water programmes where investment decisions are more influenced by politics than by good asset management. Auckland faces a transport funding gap of up to $20 billion over the next 30 years.”

Future excavator cab design contest The student engineering team from the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign (UIUC) submitted the winning design for an aesthetic and functional excavator cab that will be 3-D printed and on display at CONEXPO in Las Vegas this year. Student engineering teams from across the US submitted their designs for a futuristic excavator cab and human machine interface. “This project was one of the very top efforts in an extremely competitive field of 28 senior design capstone projects within the MechSE Department at UIUC in the Spring 2016 semester,” says Professor Elizabeth Hsiao-Wecksler, associate head for Undergraduate Programs in the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering. A video of the winning design submitted by the UIUC can be seen here: http://tinyurl.com/jk6yma5 18 www.contractormag.co.nz

UPFRONT CONTRACTOR

Auckland’s Pink Lightpath wins award

Lightpath, a cycle lane connecting Canada St in Auckland’s CBD with Union St via a new bridge and the disused Nelson St off-ramp, won the Supreme and Innovation Hub Award at the NZTA’s ‘Bike to the Future Awards’ this year. The cycleway continues as a two-way protected cycle path from the corner of Nelson and Union St to Victoria St. Jointly delivered by Auckland Transport, Auckland Council and NZ Transport Agency, Lightpath has proved hugely popular with

over 750 cycle trips across it per day since it opened in December 2015. It was built by Hawkins Construction with sub-contracting by Construction Landscape (project featured in Contractor August 2015 issue). Phase two will see the Nelson St Cycleway ultimately join the Quay St Cycleway and is planned to be constructed by mid-next year. This will complete an inner city loop made up of Beach Rd Cycleway, Grafton Gully Cycleway and Quay St Cycleway.

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CONTRACTOR UPFRONT

Kaikorai Valley works third stage starts

Seawall repairs in Wellington Old sea walls built along Wellington’s coast in the 1930s have lost their resistance to coastal storms in recent years, and new and strengthened seawalls at Breaker Bay and Island Bay, built by Fulton Hogan. Other contractors have been involved in the total programme. Wellington City Council contracted out $4 million worth of major protection work at Shelly, Princess, Karaka, Island and Breaker bays, plus numerous smaller road and seawall repairs around the harbour and south coast. The work has been partly funded by the NZ Transport Agency and insurance. More work is planned at Lyall Bay, Karaka Bay and west of Island Bay near Victoria University’s Coastal Ecology in the coming financial year, and there is more to come over the next few years as temporary solutions are replaced with longer lasting ones. Work at Lyall Bay to protect the road and footpath and reinstate the sand dunes will include rock protection work by Dorrie Leslie Park, and filling the gaps in the existing concrete seawall behind the dune. The new rock seawall at Breaker Bay was built using around 3000 tonnes of rock and is designed to last 100 years. In Island Bay, the entire wall has been strengthened – not just the storm-damaged section. This involved realigning sections that were on a lean and using some 290 steel rods and concrete to secure the top of the wall to its foundations.

Toot Tunnel enters 21st century It took 15 months for the Mt Victoria tunnel to be built in the early 1930s, and around about the same time for it to be brought into the 21st century. A recent $30 million upgrade that started in April 2015 has transformed the well-used tunnel with work completed by the Memorial Park Alliance, which includes Downer NZ. The State Highway 1 tunnel, which was carved through rock in 1930 and 1931, has been transformed to include the latest tunnel safety technologies. Safety features amount to a huge amount of electronic communication, mechanical and electrical engineering that are ‘behind the scenes’ in the tunnel infrastructure. More conspicuous are the LED ‘intelligent’ lighting (a NZTA first for state highway tunnels) features; the strengthening of the outside slopes; and new interrior wall panels. New electronics allow motorist to keep listening to their car radios inside the 635 metre tunnel and Wellington Transport Operations Centre to send emergency messages to people through those radios. 20 www.contractormag.co.nz

Dunedin Council is spending a total of $14 million on renewals and upgrades to old water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure in Kaikorai Valley and the project has just reached the end of the second of four phases. Work on phase one started in June last year and is complete, while phase two will be completed this month (August). Fulton Hogan started works on phase one in September 2015 with a contract valued at $1.65 million. Wastewater pipelines were renewed by Fulton Hogan using open trench construction and the watermains replaced using trenchless technology by sub-contractor KB Contractors. The main contract works were completed within programme and within budget. The phase two contract was also awarded to Fulton Hogan in November 2015 for a value of $2.1 million. Council asset and commercial manager Tom Osborn says old cracked earthenware wastewater pipes, mostly laid in the 1900s, have been allowing groundwater to enter the wastewater system, resulting in flooding and overflows after heavy rain. He says phase three will centre on improving environmental outcomes for the Kaikorai Stream by removing groundwater from the sewer pipes, which can cause sewer overflows during wet weather. The third stage of construction starts this month by Fulton Hogan and should be completed by May 2017. Stage four, currently in the planning stage, will involve the replacement of sewers through about 170 private properties. Work is not expected to take place until mid next year.

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QuarryNZ 2016 The 2016 AQA/IoQ conference was held in Blenheim last month; the first of the annual industry association gatherings of the year. As usual, delegates were represented by a large number of contractors who have quarry interests. A session feature this year was the strong presence of WorkSafe and staff from the High Hazards Unit. The new chief inspector extractives Mark Pizey spent 40 minutes on stage with his perspectives on an industry still coming to grips with new safety and health regulations, which include sitting A and B grade Quarry manager’s certificates before the end of this year, and starting Continued Professional Development records that are necessary for renewing those certificates in the future. WorkSafe is concerned they will be inundated with last minute manager’s certificates just before the old ones expire at the end of this year. It will not allow any extensions beyond December 31. The idea of CPDs required at a non-professional level is a “world first’. The Australians (or NSW in particular) are looking at doing something similar, now they have seen what WorkSafe is doing. One thing WorkSafe made clear is that it wants to work with the industry and says it has an “excellent relationship” with industry associations such as CCNZ. It also recognises that in terms of new quarry regulation ‘some fixing’ will be necessary and a review is planned next year. The agency welcomes your feedback.

1. Mimico hosted the Friday lunch for the first time and the fantastic venue was the ‘Dangerous Skies’ (WW11) exhibit still being put together at the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre. This exhibit doesn’t open until September and the owners obtained special consent for delegates to enjoy a delicious sit-down lunch surrounded by vintage WW11 fighter planes. 2. The new chief inspector extractives Mark Pizey. 3. The inexhaustible Steve Davis, regular MC for QuarryNZ. 4. The 2016 QuarryNZ conference opened with the traditional Gough Welcome Dinner, held at the brand new ASB Theatre Marlborough in the hart of Blenheim. It was the first time the venue, designed for musicals and plays, had hosted a dinner. Pictured is AQA chief Roger Parton. 5. High Hazards Unit line-up (from left): Priscilla Page, inspector (Hamilton); Ari Motus, project manager, High Hazards and Specialist Services; and Charlene Donald, inspector, Gisborne.

6. IoQ chair Les Ward.

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Customer demand driving growth

It’s a great time to be supporting construction in this country, says Hirepool’s general manager of sales and marketing, Gary Richardson. THE ROADS OF NATIONAL SIGNIFICANCE is a

sign that key players recognise New Zealand has an infrastructure deficit – and that fixing that deficit is an important step towards increasing productivity and economic performance, says Gary Richardson. “We see a very healthy construction book out until at least 2020.” That positive outlook makes now a good time for Hirepool to embark on a new phase of growth and development. Hirepool intends to extend both its geographical reach and the range of 24 www.contractormag.co.nz

products and services it offers, but Gary says everything is done with one eye firmly fixed on the customer. “We constantly talk to our customers about what they’ve got coming up, where they see the next set of opportunities, and how we can best help them. “That information is what drives the structure and timing of our business development initiatives.” Hirepool chief executive officer Brian Stephen says the three years since the merger with Hirequip can be described as a

consolidation period, with the emphasis on organic growth. Now, says Brian, the company is ready to step up a gear, with new outlets in Rangiora and Palmerston North, two new greenfield sites planned, well-advanced plans to set up shop in Fiji, and several other acquisitions in the pipeline. The move into Fiji is a textbook example of Hirepool’s growth strategy, he adds. “It’s come out of talking to existing customers who are working up there, and who want access to high-quality equipment that

Hirepool’s new branch in Rangiora.

“We constantly talk to our customers about what they’ve got coming up, where they see the next set of opportunities, and how we can best help them. “That information is what drives the structure and timing of our business development initiatives.”

meets internationally accredited health and safety standards – but it will also give us a platform to work with new customers and in other South Pacific countries.” Brian says strong customer relationships are central to Hirepool’s success – and they depend on staff having a clear understanding of the company’s vision. “We put a lot of emphasis on developing our team, and hiring people that share our values.” Staff engagement levels are higher than ever, says Brian, and that translates into a real sense of enthusiasm among staff and a

high standard of service to the customer. “We are a service business. “Our absolute focus is on making our customers’ lives as easy as possible: saving them time and money, minimising risk, and enhancing their safety and security.” And good customer service isn’t simply the responsibility of the customer service team, he adds. “If the phone’s ringing, pick it up. If you’re in the yard when a customer arrives, greet the customer. “We don’t have a ‘head office’; we have a

support office. That’s not just HR-speak, it’s a reflection of who we are and how we work. “Most of us wear steel-caps, and for all of us the priority is rolling up our sleeves and getting the job done for the customer – whether the customer is a colleague in another branch, a DIYer, or a major engineering company.” Technology also has a part to play. A new CRM system has helped get key client information out of individual sales people’s heads and into a central database; the next step will be to enable customers to transact more business online. Brian expects a Hirepool app to be launched within the year, which will allow customers to manage their equipment needs online and on the move. For chief operating officer Colin Sinton, IT initiatives are a natural extension of Hirepool’s customer-focused philosophy. “As a company, we’ve always tried to stay flexible – for example, by setting up mobile branches on site to minimise downtime and ensure customers had ready access to the expertise they needed to complete the job. “Taking it online is just the latest, most effective way to save our customers time and money and minimise the hassle.” Hirepool is also putting more emphasis on developing specialist branches: a response to the increasingly sophisticated support its customers are seeking. Customers will be able to deal with specialists directly, or through our extensive national network of 60 general equipment hire branches. Colin says this structure enables Hirepool to make best use of the mechanical and technical know-how contained in the company. “At the same time, our general hire branch network continues to be an important part of our value proposition, particularly in terms of fleet availability and the convenience that offers our customers.” Underpinning Hirepool’s growth plans is a strong investment programme. With $60 million of capital expenditure in the past few years, investment in new plant is projected to continue at one and a half times depreciation – a testament, says Brian, to the strong support Hirepool’s management has been given by the company’s major shareholder, private equity firm Next Capital. “Private equity companies on both sides of the Tasman haven’t always had the best publicity of late,” says Brian. “But Next has been fantastic. “They’ve taken the time to understand the business, they’ve reinvested solidly, and they’ve provided a level of commitment that has set us up for sustainable improvement over the long term.”

•

AUGUST 2016 25

CONTRACTOR PROFILE

Hugh Johnstone a tomorrow’s leader RICHARD SILCOCK catches up with Hugh Johnstone and

gleans some insight into what makes him an award winner and the leader of his own successful contracting business. “IT’S ALL ABOUT TEAMWORK and working within a small close-knit

team that provides me with the opportunity to develop and challenge myself,” says Hugh Johnstone. Hugh took out the ‘Young Contractor of the Year’ at the 2016 Hynds Construction Awards and AB Equipment People Awards run by the CCNZ Auckland branch. He says it adds to his list of personal achievements that include managing his own construction business in Auckland, assisting staff achieve their goals, and giving nine years’ service as a reservist with the New Zealand Defence Force – a time which saw him deployed in the Solomons in 2009 and rated ‘top soldier’ at the junior noncommissioned officer’s training course. “I was promoted to corporal with responsibility for assisting in the training and development of soldiers,” says Hugh. “This taught me the value of patience, staying calm in stressful situations and providing effective leadership. “My concurrent role, as both the managing director and senior project manager of the family owned business, Johnstone Construction, has also helped me a lot,” he says. “Over the last 12 months our team has delivered five reasonably complex civil and building construction projects across the North Island for BP and I believe this is quite an achievement given our size, the complexity of

Hugh Johnstone 26 www.contractormag.co.nz

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CONTRACTOR PROFILE

“I endeavour to lead from the front and get involved in all levels of a project, working alongside the team, whether on-site or in the office.” the job and the time constraints involved. “We have doubled the size of the company over the last eight years, from six to 12 and have implemented a staff training and development programme for their ongoing skills and career development.” In the time Hugh has led the company, turnover has substantially increased and he has instituted a comprehensive review and update of the company’s health and safety systems and policy. This resulted in him achieving an A-Grade safety rating from the international agency, IS Networld. He took over the family business in 2014 from his father Malcolm, who had built it up from a fledgling construction business back in 1984 – previously known as JCL Commercial and Civil. “In the same year that I took over the business from dad I rebranded the company to reflect our shift away from a small family-owned business to a more dynamic contracting firm specialising in building construction and civil contracts with a younger hard-working team eager to make a difference,” says Hugh. “We now provide the complete package, from feasibility studies through to the finished job. “My philosophy is to provide a collaborative work environment where management is geared around active support of the staff. This team approach is paramount and as a team we have built a ‘team first’ culture, which extends to career planning and guidance, ongoing training and job security. “Going that extra mile for my staff is important for me,” says Hugh. “I care about and I am committed to my team. I consider them as a part of the family and provide support, not just professionally, but also personally, helping them to set and achieve their goals. “I endeavour to lead from the front and get involved in all levels of a project, working alongside the team, whether on-site or in the office. This can mean pushing a broom to give a junior staff member the opportunity to work with the machinery, through to being on-site assisting when after-hours or weekend work is required.” Hugh says that as a project manager, having a clear objective each day, setting targets, and holding brief site meetings each morning to outline the work expectation and responsibilities is important as it allows for communication, delegation and direction. “Within the company everyone is accountable at every level and I ensure we have mechanisms that support robust communication that we, as a team, prioritise and monitor. Our six key KPIs are – health and safety, time, cost, quality, building professional relationships and project delivery. “The most important part of sharing responsibilities is to delegate and in doing this I have brought people on board with strengths that complement my own,” he says. “I make sure they are given opportunities to grow and 28 www.contractormag.co.nz

Hugh Johnstone, this year’s winner of the CCNZ Auckland branch AB Equipment People Award for Young Contractor of the Year at the 2016 Hynds Construction Awards.

develop the business, while at the same time growing and developing their own skills and experience. “Equally important is the timely sharing of information with our employees, subcontractors and clients. In facilitating this we have embraced modern technology to enhance communication between management, on-site staff, subcontractors, consultants, suppliers and clients by way of smartphones and tablets, and we are using GPS systems to track work progression. “Key to centralising and sharing of information and data for each project has been our involvement with ‘Acuite construction intelligence software’. By using their analysis and reporting dashboard, our team can keep clients, consultants and suppliers up to date with ‘real-time’ information about a project, including work being done that day.” Commenting on his own personal philosophy, Hugh says his approach has always been: “Don’t create problems, solve them.” “For example,” he says, “I never go to a client with an issue, but with a viable solution, and this philosophy is enacted throughout the company. Working collaboratively as a team assists in our decision making process and as our people are empowered and supportive of each other we are able to respond and come up with solutions.” In conferring the CCNZ Auckland branch Young Contractor of the Year Award this year, the judges say they were very impressed with Hugh’s extraordinary focus, communication skills and his remarkable ability to quickly learn new skills and help others. “Hugh exhibits an uncanny ability to lead teams, undertake complex tasks and achieve objectives,” say the judges. Hugh has a Diploma in Civil Engineering, won a Rotary Youth Leadership Award in 2008, and holds a Certificate for Leadership in Site Safety from Site Safe.

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The intricacies

of three concurrent projects Three major highway projects in a row are under construction around the western side of Christchurch. HUGH DE LACy takes a look at the northernmost of them.

Aerial view showing the Northern Motorway On Ramp Bridge construction site in the foreground. The Dickey’s Road overpass bridge site is in the background. The On Ramp bridge site was originally filled with gravel and surcharged to 3m above finished level. Following a 6 month settlement period and 700mm of settlement, the material was removed and piling works commenced in May 2016.

FOR MONTHS CHRISTCHURCH traffic north of the city has been subjected to Auckland-style rush-hour delays, but a $112 million project – $90 million for the physical works – is on its way to fixing those snarl-ups by early 2018. The West Belfast Bypass project being built by Fulton Hogan will eventually halve the 42,000 vehicle movements a day that presently cause congestion all the way from the northern motorway’s Waimakariri River bridge, along Main North Road and into the city. The essence of the West Belfast project is to take southbound through-traffic around to the west of the city’s northernmost suburb, and hook it up with Johns Road which runs northsouth between the city and its international airport. The NZ Transport Agency project, with the two allied projects to its immediate south, is turning Johns Road into a bypass artery at a total cost of $322 million. The five kilometre Western Belfast Bypass

between the Groynes and the Northern Motorway connects the motorway’s four lanes with Johns Road just south of the Groynes recreational area, where a separate project is upgrading Johns Road’s two lanes to four, with a median barrier in between. Further south still, where Johns Road becomes Russley Road, the four-laning is continuing through to the southernmost suburb of Hornby and SH1, and will feature an overbridge at Memorial Avenue which connects the airport with the city. Other projects in the $900 million upgrade of the city’s main arteries include the Northern Arterial, which will go from the northern motorway to QEII Park where it connects to the artery to Lyttelton Tunnel, and the Southern Motorway that will connect Rolleston to Brougham Street to complete the eastern artery to Lyttelton. The Western Belfast Bypass is being built on boggy flood-plain that has required no less AUGUST 2016 31

CONTRACTOR FEATURE

Aerial view showing the high strength basal geotextile reinforcing being placed at natural ground level prior to the granular embankments being formed.

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than 650,000 cubic metres of bulk-fill to be brought in from local quarries and rivers. The work started in May last year and was helped by a dry winter, followed by a protracted drought in the region. “We were fortunate because once we’d stripped the topsoil we were able to get that initial half-metre layer of gravel down very quickly, and keep moving,” says Fulton Hogan project manager Ben Hayward. Complicating the geo-tech programme, designed by Opus International Consultants, was the need to surcharge the three bridge locations, the southernmost over Groynes Drive, a second over Dickeys Road, and the northernmost over what will become the new northbound on-ramp. “At all three of these locations we’ve filled through the bridge areas, built them up three metres higher than the final bridge height, and left them to settle and consolidate,” Ben says. At the Groynes bridge site, which was always expected to have the biggest level of consolidation, the gravel embankment has settled more than 1.2 metres in six months, and at the northern on-ramp bridge the rate has been 700mm over the same time period. “There was a lot of design work at the start, and that’s proving to be remarkably accurate,” Ben says. A key factor in the geotechnical design has been the laying of no less than 150,000m2 of basal reinforcing geo-fabric – a tough fabric that looks and feels like the stuff they make seatbelts out of – along the length of the new western artery.

“We were fortunate because once we’d stripped the topsoil we were able to get that initial half-metre layer of gravel down very quickly, and keep moving.” “When we’d stripped the topsoil, the basal reinforcing was laid and we then built the embankments over the top of it. “The reinforcing layer ensured the large fill sites settled uniformly.” It’s the first time Ben has seen basal geo-fabric used in such large quantities in the South Island, though it was a common ingredient of the SH1 upgrades north of Hamilton which passed over even boggier terrain. The volumes of traffic, no less than the intricacies of three projects progressing concurrently, will pose some special challenges in traffic management as they near completion, and the new motorway works have to be tied into the existing network. “We need to move the existing traffic onto a portion of our new motorway so we can construct the off-ramp which lies directly over the existing Northern Motorway, so early next year we will be diverting northbound traffic onto the new onramp in a temporary state so that the remaining roadworks can be constructed safely,” Ben says.

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AUGUST 2016 33

CONTRACTOR PROJECT

See NZTA’s website for drone flyover. www.nzta.govt.nz/projects/christchurch-motorways/christchurch-western-corridor/western-belfast-bypass/

Close up showing high strength basal geotextile reinforcing being placed near the Northern Motorway tie in.

34 www.contractormag.co.nz

“The current Northern Motorway traffic flows will be maintained so we’re not going to disrupt that traffic: they’ll just be heading on a slightly different alignment so that we can build the rest of the motorway,” Hayward says. Work started in May this year on the first of the three bridges of the Western Belfast Bypass, the seismic ground improvements and settlements having been completed. The settlement period did not upset Fulton Hogan’s timeframe for the project, as it was always predicted by the designers and there

was plenty of work to do before construction needed to start on the bridges. “The geo-tech engineers had factored in the construction programme and it’s working very close to what was estimated, so it hasn’t had a major effect on the bridge construction rate,” Hayward says. On its completion, the bypass will not only relieve congestion on Main North Road, but also allow further development in Belfast, something that could not be contemplated while traffic was at gridlock levels.

Along with a start to construction of the bridges and on-ramps, the Western Belfast Bypass stormwater swales and drainage piping is currently well under way, while road paving will be followed by landscaping, the installation of road safety barriers, traffic signs, road-marking and street lighting. Ben says the work is being carried on with an eye to the progress of the two projects to the south, and it looks likely that all three will be completed about the same time, bringing a dramatic reduction in Main North Road traffic volumes, and the diversion of both north and south through-traffic – especially trucks – away from the suburb.

Twenty metre deep steel casings being driven to form the piles for the Northern Motorway On Ramp Bridge. These are subsequently mucked out, a steel plug is driven to the bottom and the casing is finally filled with reinforced concrete.

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CONTRACTOR PROJECT

36 www.contractormag.co.nz

ROOM to MOVE Even the most straightforward of projects will have its challenges, as Higgins discovered when building the Havelock North Relief Sewer. By MARY SEARLE BELL.

Foxbox from Real Steel is a new trenching product made from high tensile steel imported from Sweden. The cage is much lighter than comparable products and this makes it more manoeuvrable on site. Higgins was able to swap out its 25 tonne digger for a 12 tonner to move the cage.

HAVELOCK NORTH IN HAWKE’S BAY is a growing community, and the town’s sewer line has had to be upgraded to ensure it is able to cope. Nick Cottier of Hastings District Council is the senior project manager on the Havelock North Relief Sewer project and says the work is to cope with expected continued growth in the region. He says the existing pipe out of the town is nearing capacity and the new, second pipe is a vital piece of infrastructure. “This project has been in the wings for a long time,” he says. “It will future proof Havelock North for the next 50 years.” The pipeline stretches just over seven kilometres and has a couple of major chambers along its length. Higgins Contractors won the tender for this work back in April last year and has almost completed the project – it finished laying the pipe five weeks ahead of schedule but things are on hold for a period while the council undertakes some other, complementary work. When that is done Higgins will complete the downstream chamber. The pipe is a 700mm diameter structural wall PE pipe. In places where there is shallow cover, a heavy wall structural PE was used, but the rest is standard pipe. In many respects it has been a straightforward project. The pipeline was constructed offline – by building a complete new line there was no disruption of service. Also, as the line is mainly rural, there were not many properties to deal with, says Nick. However, he also describes it as a difficult site and there were a few quirks that added challenges, the biggest being the plethora of existing underground services in the berm. “There were a lot of cables and not a lot of room for the pipe,” he explains. Graeme Clarke of Higgins cites the excess of cables as the obvious difficulty with the project too. A two metre wide trench was required to lay the pipe so Higgins had to change the alignment in places – sometimes moving into the road – to sidestep the other services. AUGUST 2016 37

CONTRACTOR PROJECT

A two metre wide trench was required to lay the pipe so Higgins had to change the alignment in places – sometimes moving into the road – to sidestep the other services.

Another difficulty was the very flat grade. Graeme describes this challenge as unique. “The grade was 1:1078, which works out at 0.93mm of fall per metre.” Stretch that out over 7.3 kilometres and you can comprehend how vital it was to get it right and just how tight the tolerances were. Higgins had a survey control point set up and did two survey checks a day. The tolerance was just half a millimetre for every six metre length of pipe. “It was critical to get it right,” says Graeme. The weather also caused a couple of headaches. “We had a lot of rain last year which meant

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working in wet conditions and we had a couple of collapses,” says Graeme. “In one particular instance we had the road collapse along the centreline – we had dug out some old stumps which must have been acting as a plug. When the trapped water was released it left a very deep 3.2-metre-long crack in the road, and put a big dent in our trenching cage.” Then there were the usual traffic issues to deal with too – particularly on the two kilometres which ran alongside the state highway. Unbeknown to Higgins, the stretch of state highway between Clive and Hastings was

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originally a concrete road built after World War Two. At one point the pipe had to cross the highway, which meant digging through 250mm thick concrete, and then reinstating it in sections to ensure the road could remain open to two lanes of traffic. Challenges surmounted, Higgins also employed innovation in the form of a bespoke trenching cage from Real Steel after its existing one was damaged when the road collapsed. “The opportunity arose to buy a stronger trenching cage – one built from hardened Hardox steel,” says Graeme. “We had hired an aluminium one and while it was strong, it was

super heavy. We wanted the strength without the weight.” The standard length for cages used when laying six-metre lengths of pipe is 6.8 metres but Higgins asked Real Steel to build a 7.2 metre long cage (which, incidentally, was still lighter than the 6.8 metre aluminium one). “We wanted it slightly longer – 6.8 metres is not quite enough room for the boys to be safe when working around the end of the pipe,” explains Graeme. “It proved its worth when the trench collapsed while the boys were in there.” The new cage had a number of other innovations, including armoured struts which

The stretch of state highway between Clive and Hastings was originally a concrete road built after World War Two. At one point the pipe had to cross the highway, which meant digging through 250mm thick concrete, and then reinstating it in sections to ensure the road could remain open to two lanes of traffic.

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AUGUST 2016 39

CONTRACTOR PROJECT

prevent the cage getting damaged when the digger moves it. Also, the pins on the struts were recessed, as was the ladder, to prevent accidental damage by the digger. Carl Leenders, production and design manager at Real Steel, says the Foxbox, as the new product has been named, is made from high tensile steel imported from Sweden. “The Hardox wear plate is specifically designed to be hard – it’s used to build digger buckets and the like,” he says. “Along with being extremely strong the properties of the steel allow us to do fancy things with the engineering.” Most significantly, the Foxbox is much lighter than comparable products and Carl says this makes it more manoeuvrable on site. He says Higgins was able to swap out its 25 tonne digger for a 12 tonner to move the new cage. Another helpful tool is that each Foxbox has its own webpage. Clients can enter the serial number of their Foxbox and see all the relevant documents specific to their cage, including the user manual and guide on ground pressure ratings, on their phone. Real Steel is in the process of bringing out the next generation of Foxbox, which incorporates further innovations based on feedback from Graeme and other customers and promises even more safety features built in. But the original Foxbox has done the job nicely for Higgins. “It works really well,” says Graeme. “We got the cage early this year and it has been great.” Although the project is not completely finished yet, what has been done has gone well. Higgins laid an average of 36 metres of pipe a day, which, according to Graeme, and considering all the obstacles in the way, is pretty good going at up to 3.5 metres deep.

Top: A lot of rain last year and wet conditions resulted in a couple of collapses. In one particular instance the road collapsed along the centreline. Above and top right: The pipeline stretches just over seven kilometres and has a couple of major chambers along its length. Right: Higgins laid an average of 36 metres of pipe a day at up to 3.5 metres deep.

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CONTRACTOR PROJECT

42 www.contractormag.co.nz

Giant crane

helps construct longest bridge A giant crawler-crane was used for constructing the longest bridge on the Kapiti Expressway. RICHARD SILCOCK checks out the engineering challenges and some stats on the crane. ONE OF 18 BRIDGES along an 18-kilometre section (MacKays to Peka Peka) of the Kapiti Expressway, the 182-metre, five-span, ‘twinbridge’ over the Waikanae River and the adjacent flood plain is the largest single structure of the entire expressway project. The bridge has been architecturally and seismically designed and is claimed to have pushed bridge engineering design and innovation to new limits in New Zealand. Each of the two separate ‘twin-bridges’, one for each direction of travel, will carry two lanes of traffic

and incorporate a central median barrier and a hard shoulder. The expressway and associated infrastructure is being constructed by contractors Fletcher Construction and Higgins Contracting (now a part of Fletchers) and engineering consultancy Beca, which together with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) comprise the Mackays to Peka Peka (M2PP) Alliance. Goodman Contracting, as a subcontractor, is doing the majority of the earthworks and the local council is a noncommercial partner in the Alliance.

Opposite page, top: The first, 39 metre Super-Tee beam is positioned across the river. Opposite page, bottom: The piers for the bridge straddle the flood plain area. Above: The giant crawler crane with counterbalance weights positions a 150 tonne cross head beam onto a bridge pier. AUGUST 2016 43

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Clockwise from top: Aerial view showing the southern approach and the first section of the bridge; Transporting one of the 55, 95-tonne, Super-Tee beams from the fabrication plant at Otaihanga; View from under the twin bridges showing the bridge piers and super-tee beams.

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Work on the $23 million, eight-metre high Waikanae River Bridge started in April 2014 and is expected to be completed later this year. “With the present rate of progress, we expect to have this structure completed by October,” says John Palm, the Alliance’s newly appointed project manager. “The entire expressway itself is scheduled for completion in mid-2017 but we are currently ahead of time, so if we can keep up our current rate of progress, the expressway could be ready for use by January or February next year. “For the Waikanae Bridge, we’ve completed the earthworks, bridge piers, sub-structure and have all 55 Super-Tee beams in place,” says John. “We are currently building the concrete decks and will soon move on to constructing the traffic barriers. “Due to the width of the flood plain, which is subject to large volumes of water coming downstream during periods of heavy rain in the headwaters on the eastern side of the Tararua Ranges, and so that we could achieve a 38-metre clear span over the actual river, we had to use 1825mm Super-Tee beams,” says John. “These are the longest and the heaviest Super-Tees to be cast in New Zealand, with each weighing up to 95 tonnes.

“The pre-cast concrete beams are 39 metres long so lifting and transporting them to the bridge site required truck and trailer transporters capable of carrying the beams from our pre-casting yard at Otaihanga some three to four kilometres away and a giant, 400-tonne crawler-crane to lift and accurately place them in position. “This required meticulous planning and highly skilled crane operators, as the bridge site is quite difficult and tight,” he says. “The crane was also used to lift the 150 tonne precast crossheads beams into place on the bridge piers.” The 400 tonne, heavy lift Liebherr crawlercrane was shipped from Europe to work on the project. Due to its size, 25 heavy transporter trucks were required to bring the various crane parts from the port in Wellington to the Kapiti Coast site for assembling. The crane, which is powered by a Liebherr six-cylinder diesel motor, has a boom extending up to 119 metres at maximum reach and moves on a continuous caterpillar steel track. “To place the bridge beams the crane was set up with a standard counterweight of 135 tonnes, however to place the beams over the river itself, the crane required a further 230 tonnes

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AUGUST 2016 45

CONTRACTOR PROJECT

The bridge has been constructed on mono-piles which are three metres wide and bored to a depth of 40 metres [believed to be the biggest bored piles in New Zealand].

46 www.contractormag.co.nz

of suspended counterweight to counterbalance and increase the lift capacity,” says John. A wide access track down to the river was constructed to allow the crane to reach the site on the southern bank of the river and a reinforced pad was built for it to sit on so that it would not sink into the soft ground. The crane was also used in the construction of another expressway bridge over Te Moana Road, Waikanae, before being moved back to the river site for the lifting of beams from the northern river bank. “The bridge has been constructed on mono-piles which are three-metres wide and bored to a depth of 40 metres [believed to be the biggest bored piles in New Zealand] due to the composition of the ground which comprises sand and silt and a high water table,” says John. “To combat this there has been significant ground improvement and compaction carried out in the form of stone columns under the bridge abutments (see Contractor November 2015). “Due to the size and weight of the 60 tonne, pile reinforcing silo-like cages that were used in the pile foundations to strengthen the bridge piers, special lifting clamps and bracing

spreaders had to be designed and fabricated to ensure the reinforcing cages did not buckle when installed into the pile casings.” The Waikanae River Bridge has been designed to withstand 100-year floods and a one-in-2500 year earthquake. A shared cycleway, walkway and bridle-path, which travels the entire length of the expressway, will also be included, and the concrete fascias on the bridge piers will feature Maori designs which have been developed in collaboration with the local iwi, Te Atiawa. When completed, the bridge will have used 7300 cubic metres of concrete, and over 1850 tonnes of certified steel reinforcing. The 33-kilometre, $630 million Kapiti Expressway, which will run from Mackay’s Crossing, near Paekakariki to just north of Otaki will form, along with the Wellington Motorway and Transmission Gully, the Wellington Northern Corridor and is classified as a Road of National Significance (RoNS). According to NZTA, the Kapiti Expressway and the bridges along it will constitute one of the most technologically and environmentally advanced road projects constructed in New Zealand.

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TRANSMISSION GULLY MOTORWAY

WHY TG? Excavators and dump trucks are working with surprising speed and grace to carve out the track that will provide access along the Transmission Gully Motorway alignment all the way from Pauatahanui through to Cannons Creek. The scraping of buckets against earth is the only audible sound and is quickly absorbed in the uneven surrounding terrain. Standing atop one of the dozens of rolling hills that form the valley through Belmont Regional Park, those trails of exposed earth look small and insignificant in comparison to the surrounding landscape. From this vantage point you can see the knoll that will soon seat the northern abutment of the Cannons Creek Bridge (known as Bridge 20), the largest structure on the project. It will stretch 230 metres in length and sit 60 metres above the ground to traverse a particularly challenging ravine. 13,000m3 of concrete is required for the foundations of the structure’s two piers alone.

That’s when it hits you. You are looking at what will, in four years’ time, be a key part of the NZ Government’s Wellington Northern Corridor ‘road of national significance’ - an iconic and ground-breaking roading project that will bypass existing traffic bottle necks along the State Highway 1 coastal route and provide a quicker, safer and more reliable route.

Not only that, but you are also one of those who will be helping to deliver it.

Below: Project Engineer, Clare Miller – “I wouldn’t gain this type of experience on other projects.”

WE ARE UNDERWAY

In recent months, work fronts have sprung up along the 27km alignment and momentum on the ground is building. Huge swathes of vegetation have been cleared to facilitate access into the Project from a variety of points including Paekakariki Hill Road, Bradey Road, Paremata Haywards Road and State Highway 1. In the north of the Project, on the Kāpiti Coast, approximately 32 hectares of dense largely pine forest along the Te Puka valley is coming down. In testimony to the challenging terrain, a helicopter is required to bring the trees out once they have been felled as it’s too steep to safely clear any other way. Bulk earthworks are about to begin at Lanes Flat in Pauatahanui, the mid-point of the new motorway and also home to the Project’s main site office accommodating approximately 100 support staff. Lanes Flat will become one of four interchanges connecting Transmission Gully to existing infrastructure. For the next couple of years, a massive cut and fill operation will be undertaken which will involve moving approximately 180,000m3 of material down from the hills to the south into the Flat. In the south of the Project, a number of buildings are being demolished over the next six months to make way for tie-in works and the construction of link roads which will connect Porirua to the new motorway at Whitby, Waitangirua and Kenepuru Drive. While an incredible amount of work has gone into getting the Project to where it is today, when compared to the work that lies ahead, things are just getting warmed up.

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BUILDING CAREERS At each new phase during design and construction, the Project is proving highly complex and technically challenging. Traversing 11 different geological terrains there is also 6.5 million m3 of earth to move, as much as possible for reuse on site. Two dozen different structures need to be constructed including launched steel box girder bridges, Super-Ts, Hollowcore planks, arch culverts and box culverts. The Project is working with four independent territorial authorities as well as the Greater Wellington Regional Council to gain environmental consents at each new phase of the job and these consent requirements are significant. More than 1500 landowners, neighbours and stakeholders are also directly affected by construction activities. It’s the biggest civil construction project being undertaken in New Zealand at the moment and the Wellington region has never experienced anything like it before. Transmission Gully will be a key aspect of individual résumés allowing all those working on it to enhance and expand their existing skillsets. It will provide unrivalled opportunities for professional development. Working on the project means you will be challenged every day. You will be asked to think outside of the box and be innovative in your approach to problem solving. You will have exposure to and the opportunity to learn from aspects of the project that are outside of your direct discipline.

You won’t just build a road through Transmission Gully. You will build a career. Some of those working on the project, like Senior Project Engineer Sam Aitkenhead, are New Zealanders encouraged to return home to work on this iconic project. Sam had been working in London for Barratt Homes constructing high-rise buildings and then for Thiess in Western Australia on various mega projects in the mining, oil and gas sectors. When the opportunity to work on Transmission Gully came up, he says it was an easy decision to bring his family home to Wellington. “Transmission Gully is a once-in-a-career opportunity and the fact that it’s happening in my own backyard is the icing on the cake,” Sam says. “The technical, environmental and regulatory challenges are all levels above my previous projects and it’s a good development opportunity for me.” The sheer scale of the earthworks is what first attracted Project Engineer Clare Miller to Transmission Gully. Having previously worked on the Victoria Park Tunnel in Auckland and, more recently, the Mackays to Peka Peka Expressway, the opportunity to move some serious earth was too good to pass up. “Greenfield projects like Transmission Gully are few and far between and the technical expertise that’s available on this job is incredible,” she says. “You are pushed out of your comfort zone most days but I wouldn’t gain this type of experience on other projects.”

LOCAL JOB, LOCAL PEOPLE, LOCAL PLANT The New Zealand Transport Agency has contracted Wellington Gateway Partnership – a consortium of financiers and contractors – to design, construct, and finance, and then maintain and operate the new motorway until 2045. Responsibility for the design and construction of Transmission Gully sits with a joint venture between CPB Contractors and HEB Construction (CPB HEB JV), both of which have long histories working in New Zealand. While delivering a significant project like Transmission Gully requires world class skills and expertise CPB HEB is still resourcing and employing locally where it can. It is still very much a local job being built by local people using local plant for the benefit of the local community. There are currently approximately 120 pieces of plant working in the field, every single one sourced locally. In fact, the furthermost distance we’ve travelled to source machinery to date is Waikanae on the Kāpiti Coast. Ultimately we will have more than 300 pieces of plant on site at peak. Local contractors and businesses, in conjunction with CPB HEB, supply the operators for all of those machines. The plan is to exhaust the local market before looking wider to fill resource gaps, both in terms of plant and people.

Since the start of the year, six new contractors and their crews from Whitby in Porirua alone have been brought onto the project. As we progress from pioneering works to permanent works, the opportunities for the smaller civil contracting outfits are immense. Take Bryce O’Sullivan Contracting for example. The Porirua earthmoving and drainage works business founded by Bryce in 2010 is now one of the Project’s primary drainage crews. Bryce currently has eight of his crew dedicated to the Project with the majority of his guys inducted so that when works ramp up, they can also get stuck in. Bryce says his motivation to join the Project came from his desire to “make history” by being part of one of the biggest earthworks jobs the North Island has ever seen. “It’s a complex job but gaining experience working in such difficult, steep terrain is a really good opportunity for the company,” he says. “It’s also a great learning experience for my guys, especially around how things are done on larger jobs and the safety and environmental regulations that guide the work.”

At the end of the project, not only will Bryce’s crew have specialised training and experience to take them to any other of the number of roading projects planned for the region, there is the potential for Bryce himself to be at the helm of a very different company in terms of both size and capability. And there will be ongoing employment and training benefits to local businesses and communities, particularly in the Porirua area, with opportunities for local workers to gain new skills and knowledge. CPB HEB is drawing on the expertise of its parent company’s successful workplace diversity programmes to support job opportunities with iwi. It is also working with education providers to inspire young people to consider roles within the industry while also supporting the upskilling of the local workforce. We are also actively investing in graduate and trainee opportunities.

WHY WELLINGTON? Wellington hasn’t always been the obvious choice for those looking to build a career in civil construction. That is all changing as nearly a dozen major transport projects in the region over the next decade get the green light. The most significant is, of course, NZ Transport Agency’s 110km Wellington Northern Corridor road of national significance, which is comprised of eight individual projects (including Transmission Gully) that together will create a smoother, quicker and more reliable journey from north of Levin to Wellington Airport. These projects are a mixture of upgrades to existing infrastructure such as the Mt Victoria and Terrace Tunnels as well as new infrastructure like the Mackays to Peka Peka and the Peka Peka to Otaki Expressways. The NZ Transport Agency estimates delivering the Wellington Northern Corridor will create a staggering 8000 construction jobs.

And it’s not just the Northern Corridor that will keep the civil industry busy for the next 10 to 15 years. Wellington Airport is currently seeking consent to extend its runway 354 metres into the ocean and construction is set to begin on a link road connecting Petone and Grenada in 2019. Trent Sherman, Resource and Training Manager for CPB HEB JV says Transmission Gully’s legacy will be a highly skilled workforce that will be able to transition on to other projects. “Transmission Gully is just one of many opportunities in the region for people looking to develop careers in the civil industry. We want to ensure we are upskilling and investing in our team so they are able to support ongoing and new infrastructure projects in the years to come.”

BEYOND CONSTRUCTION Wellington is a long-term investment for this project in every sense. When the ribbon is cut in April 2020 and Transmission Gully is open for business, Wellington Gateway Partnership will only be five years into a thirty year project. Following construction, the consortium will operate and maintain the new motorway until 2045. For CPB HEB it is a long-term investment in our people, in the local environment, in the local community and, of course, the infrastructure. Our team not only work locally, we live locally and value being part of this community. We are active in a number of community and sporting groups and attend and provide support for our community, including at events and working bees. As an example of our community investment, we also provided sandbags for the Pauatahanui pre-school during a recent storm event.

At its peak, we will provide work for around 150 permanent staff - providing somewhere in the order of two million labour hours over the life of the project - and work for several hundred sub-contractors. By offering local employment and training opportunities, and by using local suppliers and sub-contractors we are providing valuable economic, business and personal growth opportunities. Equally, by bringing in specialist staff, many with families, we are investing in the growth of the local economy, boosting property sales and school rolls. Our staff will also encourage and hopefully inspire members of the local community to explore new pathways. “As a Wellingtonian living on the Kāpiti Coast, I see every day just how significant this project is to the region and the impact it will have when complete. In that sense, working for CPB HEB is a long-term investment for me too.”

By Rebecca Kraakman Community Liaison Officer, CPB HEB JV Rebecca has held communication and stakeholder engagement roles at Solid Energy New Zealand and New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals, a branch of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. She joined the Project as a Community Liaison Officer in January 2016.

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CONTRACTOR PROJECT

Merger signals new era

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for cement The merger of the world’s biggest cement makers has had a significant impact on the way this country sources its cement. CHRIS WEBB explains. THE MERGER OF LAFARGE AND HOLCIM a year

ago represented a quantum leap for the duo, providing LafargeHolcim with unrivalled market access as a supplier of cement, aggregates and construction-related services, represented in 90 countries on all continents, with 115,000 employees. The merger also brought to an end an era which had small beginnings in Otago in 1888, when Holcim New Zealand became a cornerstone of the country’s construction industry, subsequently employing around 340 people at 23 sites, including Holcim Concrete. Holcim has now closed its 58-year-old Westport cement works and significantly increased its storage capacity with two new, 30,000 tonne, cement storage silos – one in Timaru and one in Auckland – to provide a total capacity of around 100,000 tonnes. A long-term cement supply arrangement with Mitsubishi Materials Corporation of Japan will ensure ongoing supply for the country’s booming construction market, says the company. The ‘Swap’ agreement with Golden Bay ended last year. A year ago, when LafargeHolcim merger events were held all around the globe, Kiwi contractors were told there would not be “many noticeable changes for Australasia in the shortterm”, as Lafarge wasn’t previously operating in this part of the world. It would, however, afford access to a huge technology base and research

and development facilities. This ‘business as usual’ prediction has, by most accounts, come true. Rob Gaimster, chief executive of the Cement and Concrete Association (CCANZ), who in the June issue of Contractor, commented on a ‘Resilient Concrete Research Roadmap’, says the transition from local production to offshore outsourcing appears to have taken place “seamlessly”. Bob Officer is Allied Concrete’s general manager (markets and quality) and a councillor at NZ Ready Mixed Concrete Association. “As a company we’d known about the changes since 2013. We don’t anticipate any problems with the change to global resourcing. It’s business as usual,” he says. Mark Campbell, chief executive of Holcim New Zealand, says he is pleased with how the transition to the new business model is going here. The majority of Kiwi customers, he says, will be “transitioned” to the new cement supply programme by the third quarter of this year. “Feedback from our customers about the transition process and our product has been very good,” he adds.

Dubbed “Minions” for their obvious similarity to the dungaree- and goggle-wearing yellow sidekicks from the Despicable Me and Minions films, LafargeHolcim’s 30,000-tonne dome-shaped cement storage silos in Auckland and Timaru have a combined capacity of around 100,000 tonnes – enough to service the entire country.

New cement terminals The first of the two new, dome terminals, costing $50 million each, became operational in Timaru back in February and has already received its third shipment of cement from Japan. Holcim

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says it is targeting 18 in-bound ships a year to Timaru with its own Milburn Carrier II shipping out-bound orders. A second dome terminal at Auckland opened last month, completing a three-year build project for terminals that were on time and within budget. The Auckland dome is able to take 30,000 tonnes of cement sitting on two sloping floors, fitted with an aerated floor to ease the flow to two outlets. From the outlets the cement is pumped to a 300-tonne bin for collection and distribution by tankers, and the simple process is fully enclosed.

“Feedback from our customers about the transition process and our product has been very good.” Construction of the domes, says LafargeHolcim, has a lot of advantages over conventional silos, including a small footprint and height, a relatively short construction time and high environmental standards. After the 2mm polyurethane skin was inflated in August last year at the Auckland site, it was sprayed with an insulating foam and reinforced with 500 tonnes of steel and 110 cubic metres of shotcrete, to a thickness of about 600mm. Construction commenced in September 2014 with Beca as designer, Downer as main contractor, and Van Aalst Bulk Handling of The Netherlands as major equipment supplier. The state-of-the-art cement storage dome at Timaru represents a first for this country. The storage silo was supplied by Domtec, USA, and is believed to be the first such dome silo to be constructed in this region. The dome was formed from an outer PVC layer that was inflated and sprayed on the inside with a polyurethane layer to act as a stabiliser and insulator. The dome was then constructed from the inside using approximately 450 tonnes of steel reinforcing and concrete, which was applied in the form of high-quality shotcrete. The Timaru and Auckland dome silos are not identical due to area constraints in Timaru and height restrictions in Auckland. Each took some three months to construct, after which a fully aerated floor was installed to fluidise the cement for ease of flow and to ensure that the dome can be completely emptied. Most of Holcim New Zealand’s South Island customers are now being supplied through the Timaru terminal, and the 52 www.contractormag.co.nz

supply of cement from the new Auckland terminal to the greater Auckland market along with other parts of the North Island started last month. When asked if the price of cement will be more expensive for customers in provincial areas such as Hawkes Bay and Taranaki where it is delivered by road, Holcim would only say; “We will continue to price our cement competitively in the markets we operate in.” The Auckland terminal will receive a shipment of cement around once a month, with most of the cement going to supply the local Auckland market. Holcim’s two full-time terminal employees have been working onsite for a number of months to ensure they were involved in the commissioning. Another 14 staff (sales, technical and laboratory) are also based at the new terminal.

Supply from Japan LafargeHolcim has entered into a long-term cement supply agreement to source cement for our market from a strategic partner in Japan, namely the Mitsubishi Materials Corporation (MMC). In the interim, Holcim is shipping cement to Onehunga, though this is coming to an end as the new Auckland silo is commissioned. Holcim says it will continue to have a presence at Onehunga as the cement bagging plant will continue to operate from the current site. All cement is tested in Japan and then again when it arrives here. “The supplier appears to have gone to great lengths to ensure compatibility with the New Zealand market in terms of performance,” notes Rob Gaimster. “Setting times, colour, etc, are in accordance with what the market is familiar with.” Holcim NZ country manager Glenda Harvey says the company currently sources PFA for New Zealand customers on an as-required basis and will continue this arrangement. “We also supply customers around New Zealand with Duracem,” says Glenda. “It’s a high slag cement for use where durability is required. Rapidcem is a special purpose cement designed for use in precast concrete or other specific applications requiring high early strength.” Another product is Ultracem, a Holcim brand that is well known to the market, is a general purpose Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC), which has been a mainstay in the construction industry and in residential use for years. It was developed to exceed NZ’s cement standard in a tough climate, and will remain available.

Job losses Many have lost their jobs as a result of the Westport closure. Robyn Flynn, a spokesperson for Holcim New Zealand, confirmed all the 105 staff (and contractors) employed at Westport lost their jobs at the end of June when the works closed. She told Contractor: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Some have been deployed elsewhere in Holcim, some have already gone to other jobs, some are retiring, some have got jobs lined up to go to, and others havenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t got anything confirmed. We have spent a lot of time helping our staff with the transition phase.â&#x20AC;?

According to news sources plans were under way for the plant to be demolished and the quarry site rehabilitated sometime towards the end of the year. Holcim owns over 500 hectares of land around Westport, including the Cape Foulwind cement plant and quarry, 11 houses at Cape Foulwind, and a rail siding near Westport. The company says no decisions had been made on the future of its land and assets in Westport. The cement works were the main sources of income for the Buller District Council, which owns the port. It hopes someone will find a new economic use for the old plant.

AUGUST 2016 53

CONTRACTOR FEATURE

Alarm bells

over buying low-cost steel Australian and New Zealand Standards Authorities have released warnings over non-compliant steel being bought for local projects. Kiwi steel expert, Ian Jacob, who is based in Asia, offers Contractor readers his advice on avoiding being caught out. WITH QUESTIONS OVER the standard of steel sourced in this

region from low-costs countries the Australian Certification Authority for Reinforcing Steels (ACRS) has issued a warning about the potential supply of construction steels of unconfirmed origin and quality. “Due to the strong focus on quality and safety in the Australian construction industry, local builders, specifiers, designers and customers expect construction materials to comply with all relevant Australian and New Zealand Standards,” it says. “However, with reinforcing, pre-stressing and structural steels now sourced from multiple suppliers both from within Australia and from other parts of the world, often even within a single project, designers, specifiers and contractors can no longer assume that the construction steel delivered to the construction site will necessarily meet their minimum requirements.” Subsequently, the Australian Steel Institute stresses the need for third-party certification and says there are structural steel products sold in Australia that don’t comply with the relevant Australian Standards. “Failures of products during erection and in service are known to have occurred with the cause being traced to non-compliant products,” it says. The institute has also released a guide to third-party certification and independent specialist auditing that is accredited by a governing body. Ian Jacob, a Kiwi steel industry veteran based in Asia and working for Mill-Pro Hong Kong, says while the Australian Steel Institute has highlighted the problem, it doesn’t go far enough. “Their suggestion involving an independent specialist auditing organisation accredited by a governing body is simply not strong enough, and in our experience this needs to go a step further.” Ian was visiting New Zealand at the time steel quality issues in major projects being built here were being discussed in the media. He was called to a meeting at the MBIE relating to steel procurement. MBIE manager of engineering science and design Derek Baxter consequently says the big message from that meeting was that suppliers had to improve their testing programmes. “We’ve got good reason to have some concerns about the level of faith that some of our New Zealand purchasers (are 54 www.contractormag.co.nz

Ian Jacob

“Random on-site testing is the only way you can address this issue and it must apply to everyone, including New Zealand fabricators.” putting) in the system,” he says. “It’s the old adage of ‘If it seems to be too good to be true it probably is’. And if you have some concerns, rather than just pocketing the profit, you have got to spend some of that money on due diligence.” Ian Jacob has stronger views through his experience dealing with steel supplies and suppliers. “Random on-site testing is the only way you can address this issue and it must apply to everyone, including New Zealand fabricators as they are also using imported raw materials. “Our recommendation for contractors and buyers depends on the complexity of the procurement. While reinforcing steel or steel plate and beam requirements are relatively simple, if the product is fabricated, welded and/or coated then the intensity of the due diligence and inspection needs to increase significantly.” Due diligence on your supplier is very important, says Ian. “Your supplier must have a relationship with the manufacturer and this does not mean they have simply bought from them before – it means they have audited the facility themselves

(not sent a third party to do it). “You need to know that they know who they are buying off. A quality supplier will be able to provide you a copy of their audit report along with photographs covering equipment suitability to make the product; people qualifications to meet the AS/NZS standards/welding certification etc; governance/ management and QA systems; and project and supply history.” Make sure your supplier is the one procuring directly from the manufacturer or fabricator, he says, because additional parties in the supply chain dilute the ability to audit and control the specification and product. “Ask them some basic questions like: ‘demonstrate your procurement history from that supplier’. “Regardless of the project size, the supplier should deliver you a MDR [Manufacturer’s Data Report] that links the raw materials to each final product and to all testing.” Ian also suggests getting an International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) approved third party lab to perform testing throughout manufacture. “ILAC is a certified lab in the supplying country that is recognised by IANZ. In New Zealand it’s important that your supplier does not simply subcontract the third party testing to their supplier, as they have then lost control of the process and integrity.” He adds that third party inspection must include: identifying all raw materials; recording the heat or batch number marked on each to create a traceability map;

witnessing the extraction of raw material samples on the delivered materials from each heat or batch; maintaining a chain of evidence of these samples to the third party testing lab; and confirming the validity of the ILAC approval. “Fake ILAC certificates are known to have been issued by suppliers,” he says, but anyone can ask the issuing test lab to validate the certificate. “The third party tester should have reviewed an inspection and test plan [ITP] from the supplier that is signed off by the client outlining the tests and frequency.” Ian also suggests contractually binding your supplier. “The only way to change the current behaviour is to make the supply of substandard materials financially painful for suppliers. “This takes two forms. A quality supplier will know before any goods are shipped that they are 100 percent correct, through their own processes, testing and a layer of third party testing in the source country. “If a supplier is not performing these tests and ‘hoping for the best’ then failure needs to be painful financially for them. “We also recommend that 10 percent of goods delivered to the site are randomly tested here in New Zealand by a third party. “Any failure in these tests initiates 100 percent of every heat, batch or weld being tested here until it can be demonstrated it was only a single defect. Payment should be linked to successful testing results.”

AUGUST 2016 55

ALL PHOTOS IN THIS ARTICLE REPRODUCED COURTESY OF WORLD HIGHWAYS MAGAZINE

CONTRACTOR INTERVIEW

The father of asset management World Highways caught up with the man who developed the concept of asset management for roads in the 1960s. Dr Ralph Haas is still researching in his native Canada, and commenting on potholes. * This article is reproduced with the full permission of World Highways magazine. It first appeared in World Highways in April 2016. 56 www.contractormag.co.nz

THE EMAIL WAS BRIEF. “You won’t believe this, but I think I’m the last person on the planet without a cell phone.” That was quite an admission from Ralph Haas, distinguished Canadian professor emeritus. He was one of several civil engineers in the 1960s who developed the concept of managing roads as an integrated transportation asset and not simply as a stand-alone object. “Nope, never had a cell phone, even though my kids are after me to get one,” he says, over lunch at the University of Waterloo’s faculty club. “I like being less reachable. As a young guy on survey crews in northern Alberta [province], not having phones was a blessing because it put us far away from head office. They would send a telegram to the local railroad station, saying please phone in.” Asset management for roads is today taken for granted by not just engineers worldwide but governments of every persuasion. However, it was out-of-thebox thinking in the 1960s. Since then, Haas, working with close associates, has written or co-authored more than a dozen books on infrastructure management for roads and contributed to over 400 other publications on the subject. For his efforts Haas has received international acclaim, as well as in Canada, a country which was knitted together by a continuously paved road from Pacific to Atlantic coasts only in 1971 – the 8030 kilometre TransCanada Highway system. Accolades include honorary life member of the Transportation Association of Canada, the Canadian Technical Asphalt Association and, in the United States, the International Society for Asphalt Pavements and the Association of Asphalt Paving Technologists. The latest contribution to a book for the 84-year-old was only last year. Haas still has an office and laboratory in the engineering department of Canada’s University of Waterloo, in the province of Ontario. He admits to not being there every day, but still carries on some research. Haas was born in north-western Alberta, in the isolated hamlet of Dixonville, along the Mackenzie Highway. Dixonville’s population even now is only around 100. He recalls attending school where six grades were crowded into a one-room schoolhouse near the town of Peace River. In the late 1940s he started right out of high school as a 16-year-old

on road survey crews for the provincial Alberta Highways Department. “I worked in every small town in the province, staying several months in one place, from near the United States border up to the border with the Northwest Territories. A lot of survey work back then was for new roads straight through the bush. It was expansion of the system and rehabilitating roads came later. We lived in isolated work camps where any guy who made moonshine was very popular with us.” In those days, a surveyor was called an engineer, although he wasn’t a registered engineer. “Even the senior administrators were practical guys who learned everything on the job working their way up the ranks.” But by the early 1950s, Haas noticed an increasing number of young universitytrained engineers arriving in camp. “I saw a limit to what you could do as a high school grad,” he says. “I worked for eight and half years, then in 1957 I got married and a month later I started civil engineering at the University of Alberta in Edmonton.” He stayed on to complete a master’s degree and gained more practical experience employed by the Research Council on road survey work during the summer breaks. After a stint teaching at Carleton University in the capital city Ottawa, he opted for PhD work at the University of Waterloo where he has remained ever since. All research is difficult, but putting together the idea of asset management for roads was “a real struggle”, he says. It simply didn’t exist. You laid down pavement, you repaired it or tore it up. Understanding that a road was part

of a larger whole and not just a strip of asphalt was very, very new. Strategic management was needed to get the best value from the initial investment. It sounds common sense today, but back then it required new thinking, he says. The boom in road building in Canada and the US after the Second World War meant that a liability was being created. Remember, expectations of a road lasting 10 years before major intervention was the norm, he explains. “You just built it and saw what happened. Much of the research was about a road’s sub-structure, soils, sub-grade, drainage, slope stability. The sciences of engineering of materials, structural design, construction methods and longterm performance predictions were still to come.” Organisationally, highways were owned by the transport department and other government agencies wanted, and had, little to do with road performance or costs. “We thought there had to be a way to improve road performance by tying together planning activities, business principles, lifecycle economics, financial accounting and any technical and related business activities. A road is just as much a business activity as a concrete structure that got there by way of technical expertise,” he says. To promote the concept, Haas and two of his PhD students formed a company called Pavement Management Systems, in the 1970s. Haas recalls the experience: “We were technically good, but business wise, we were very naive.” However, the company did “reasonably well” and grew to about 40 people. The first clients were the governments of Canada’s northern Northwest Territories, AUGUST 2016 57

CONTRACTOR INTERVIEW

that of Alberta and Prince Edward Island provinces, as well as the northern US state of Idaho. Eventually, Haas sold out to a local Alberta engineering business called Stanley Technologies, which had around 150 employees. Stantec is now an award-winning international integrated infrastructure business with around

15,000 employees in 250 locations. A big issue for early adopters of the concept was a lack of data about longterm pavement performance upon which to base predictions and best value economics. “Life cycle analysis needs good models in order to predict performance. But you need data on different materials, different structures,

traffic loadings, environmental conditions, traffic volumes to create those models.” For example, he says, polymer modifications for bitumen have pushed outward the boundaries of highway performance. Quality control of batching is extremely critical because of the effect on the life cycle management of that soon-to-be asset. This has also driven the tremendous increase in automation of asphalt plants. “When you place hotmix, one of the big issues has always been segregation. You can’t see it with the eye, but the use of infrared imaging shows where the relative cold spots are. Because you see the exact problem, this has driven improvements in asphalt plant mixing and laying.” (The University of Waterloo recently named “The Ralph Haas Infrastructure and Sensing Analysis Laboratory” in his honour.) His research has included long-term comparisons of concrete and asphalt

Bedtime reading l

PAVEMENT ASSET MANAGEMENT John Wiley & Sons (2015) M ODERN PAVEMENT MANAGEMENT Krieger Publishing Company (1994) PAVEMENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS McGraw-Hill (1978) R EINVENTING THE PAVEMENT MANAGEMENT WHEEL Distinguished Lecture presented at 5th International Conference on Managing Pavements, in Seattle, US (2001)

P UBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE ASSET MANAGEMENT 2nd ed, McGraw-Hill (2013) PAVEMENT DESIGN Chapter 13 in Geotechnical and Geo environmental Handbook; Kluwer (2001) TRACKING SECONDARY AND TEMPORARY CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION OBJECTS USING 3D IMAGING Chapter in Computing in Civil Engineering: American Society of Civil Engineers (2013)

Beware snake-oil salesmen Dr Ralph Haas admits to taking pictures of potholes, but for academic purposes only, he claims. Canadian media also want his comments on potholes. “Every spring the phone rings and they ask the same old question: ‘what causes potholes’? They want me to say its faulty design. But the reality is it’s a lot of things.” With the development of so-called throw-n-go filling material, dozens

of companies are running around selling their magic pothole patches. “Beware of magic material promises, in the geosynthetics area,” he says. “County engineers are bombarded with them. Some material is very good, but there is such an element of snake-oil that it’s hard for buyers to know what is best. Oh, and manufacturers show you how well it works… in the summer.”

The honour roll Dr Ralph Haas is the Norman W McLeod Engineering Professor and Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Waterloo. He also holds the country’s highest civilian honour, the Order of Canada; the highest academic honour, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada; and the highest engineering honour, Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering. In 2014 he received the US National Academies Transportation Research Board’s

Winnipeg loves concrete Winnipeg, the capital of Manitoba province, has more than 4600 lanekilometres of concrete residential street pavement, according to information from the Canadian Cement Association in 2010. Plus there are nearly 700 lane-kilometres of lanes behind houses and 1600 lanekilometres of arterial roads. City and provincial engineers had included

58 www.contractormag.co.nz

highest honour, the Roy W Crum Award for Outstanding Achievement in Transportation Research. He is also a Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada and a Fellow of the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering. Haas was the first recipient of the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering’s Sandford Fleming Award for “outstanding contributions to research and education in the field of transportation engineering”. a so-called elastic joint in the slabs. Reinforced steel mats of 15 metre smooth steel bars are spaced at 500mm in both directions within the slab. An extra 300mm of these bars extends into the adjacent panel, as a substitute for dowels. This design is used increasingly on residential streets, along with plain – meaning unreinforced – slabs with or without dowels.

roads and he remains neutral over their use. Over a 50-year cycle, the difference in performance between them is “almost insignificant”, he says. “But I’ve always argued that it is good for the concrete and asphalt guys to compete with each other.” However, historically, cement has been used much less in Canada than in the US, with the exception of Winnipeg, a city in the province of Manitoba (see box). “Advances in concrete pavement have been enormous in the past 40 years, primarily in joint design. When joints start deteriorating, that’s a helluva big fix. With many load transfer devices now available, concrete paving is really well advanced.” But initially, back in the 1960s, traffic volume estimates were not very accurate. Concrete roads often had plain joints which couldn’t take the unforeseen higher traffic volumes and increasing vehicular weights. Retrofitting joints with load transfer devices was, and remains, very expensive, he says. There was also the issue of what raw materials such as aggregates were easily available in many of Canada’s more remote areas.

That determined what a road would be made out of. For many years Haas taught a course on designing roads for arctic conditions. “Permafrost. It’s not to be trifled with,” he says. “You work with it, not against it. If you mess up a permafrost’s thermal regime you get unnatural thaws which result in absolutely horrible road breakups. Always preserve as much permafrost as you can,” he warns. “Fortunately, with good road design you move the permafrost active zone up into the road’s grade itself. Here you have good stable granular material which is what then thaws and freezes.” For the airport runway in the town of Inuvik – 200 kilometres above the Arctic Circle – the permafrost’s active zone (the top section susceptible to thawing in summer) has been moved up into the road fill. What thaws in summer is only the road fill, leaving the underlying permafrost frozen and so it maintains a solid base during the warm period. As the cost of building new roads becomes increasingly prohibitive to fund solely from a tax base, Hass sees more privately owned toll roads being

built globally. They all have benefited from the concept of asset management which allows a business case to be built around their construction and maintenance. Australia’s Macquarie Group and Spain’s Ferrovial Group, to name two global companies, have assembled vast portfolios of toll roads, often financing them with heavy debt based on assumptions that rising toll receipts will offset maintenance costs and pay down the debt. But much of the business case now depends on traffic volume assumptions and it is no longer a case of ‘build it and they will come’, he warns. In some regions, such as in Africa, prediction of traffic volumes is not accurate and offshore money is cheap, such as from China, so investors should be cautious. What is the best advice that Hass gives his new students today? “I tell them that one day they will all be taxpayers and a good knowledge of roads will make them better citizens.” Centre for Pavement and Transportation Technology, University of Waterloo https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-pavementtransportation-technology

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CONTRACTOR TECHNOLOGY

Sample ground deformation monitoring map.

Sample view of monitoring points covering AA building.

High tech monitoring The construction of the City Rail Link (CRL) tunnels underneath Auckland’s city centre is a major challenge requiring a robust and innovative approach to construction monitoring. NEXT TO QUEEN STREET, Albert and Victoria Streets in Auckland

have some of the most valuable real estate in the country. As the owner of a multi-million dollar building on Albert Street, knowing that a 20 metre deep trench was going to be dug close to your foundations, you’d want reassurance that systems were in place to protect your interests. Soldata, global experts in building monitoring in urban tunnel environments, has been engaged to provide assurance for Albert Street’s property owners, insurers, Auckland Transport and the Connectus project team, a joint venture partnership combining Hawkins Infrastructure and McConnell Dowell. Soldata’s remotely and robotically controlled laser system installed for CRL has five units and a network of 270 prisms (monitoring prisms, reference prisms and reflectorless measurement points) covering the length of Albert Street, including Swanson, Victoria and Wellesley Streets with submillimetre precision at up to 180 metres from their location. It also monitors potential settlement of Albert Street using “reflectorless” technology, which does not involve any

installation of prisms or other equipment. Evolving and adjusting to on-going works, the network will expand to include seven units and over 500 measurement points once ‘cut and cover’ trenching works begin on lower Albert Street. The units measure the prisms’ exact location using an invisible laser beam emitted from the unit and reflected by the prism. From this beam the exact displacement between the unit and the prism is known. Successive measurements track the displacement of the prisms over time and consequently give advance warning of potential ground and building changes adjacent to construction, as well as performance of construction techniques as movement trends become visible. The reflectorless technology also allows for ground movement to be monitored in roadways and footpaths with active traffic. Monitoring data is available 24/7. If the defined threshold of movement is exceeded, an alarm email is issued immediately. There are other monitors operating as well including inclinometers (measures lateral change over the full depth of the installed borehole) and piezometers (measures variation

Project Background • CRL will use twin 3.4 kilometre long tunnels up to 42 metres below the city streets to create an underground rail line linking Britomart and the city centre with the existing western line near Mt Eden. • It is estimated to take five and a half years to build at a cost of $2.5 billion • It will feature two new underground stations at Aotea (11m deep) and Karangahape Rd (33m) and a re-developed Mt Eden Station • Most of the twin 3.4 kilometre long tunnels will be built with a tunnel boring machine. The 7.5 metre diameter

60 www.contractormag.co.nz

tunnel boring machine will be about half the size of the one used at Waterview. • Connectus is delivering Contract 2 which is one of CRL’s first two contracts and involves the construction of 350m of twin cut and cover tunnels along Albert St, between Custom Street and Wyndham Street. It also involves diverting an existing storm water tunnel that runs under Albert Street. The diversion will be constructed by pipejacking a 2.0m diameter pipeline along the eastern side of Albert Street between Swanson Street and Wellesley Street.

Soldata deputy project manager for CRL Julien Santoul.

View from station installed on rooftop of AA Building, above Victoria shafts.

in ground water pressure within a defined aquifer). Each piling shaft has these monitoring the movement of the retaining walls during excavation. Once excavation of the cut and cover begins, additional piezometers and inclinometers will be installed around the perimeter and strain gauges are to be installed on struts within the excavation. To gain permission and access to buildings for the installation of the monitoring instruments Connectus Stakeholder manager Alan Howard-Smith has been communicating and coordinating site visits with Albert Street’s building owners. “In general, building owners and tenants have been very

cooperative,” says Alan. “We’ve been busy installing units on their buildings’ roof tops and fixing prisms to their canopies from Sky City to the harbour’s edge. It’s given the owners reassurance that their safety and needs are being considered and that Connectus is tracking the impact of this construction every moment of the day.” The urban environment is always presenting construction challenges, and Connectus and Auckland Transport are at the forefront of industry best practice, employing Soldata’s stringent monitoring technology to provide significant risk management innovations for the CRL project and its stakeholders.

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CONTRACTOR TRAINING

Civil Trades: meet the graduates This month we meet our final two Civil Trades graduates – Che Gallagher of the Stronger Christchurch Infrastructure Rebuild Team and Robert Matete of Downer NZ.

Che Gallagher

Robert Matete

Stronger Christchurch Infrastructure Rebuild Team (SCIRT)

Downer NZ

Che Gallagher is proud to be one of New Zealand’s first Certified Civil Tradespeople. As well as being a great achievement on a personal level, Che says that his Civil Trades Certification has also boosted morale in the organisation. There has been a big interest in Civil Trades, with many of the crew aspiring to follow in his footsteps. Che has been part of the SCIRT team since day one, as a construction and drainage foreman with Brian Perry Civil. He is responsible for organising staff, plant, materials, planning and programming tasks, and problem solving. He is involved in a wide range of rebuild projects such as dewatering, tank installations and installation of trench shields. Many of the projects are challenging, and Che is often required to work around live services whilst maintaining high standards of safety at all times. Che got into the civil infrastructure industry following a career change in 2004. He was working in sales but was looking for new opportunities when a labouring role came up. From labourer he moved up to become a leading hand, then four years ago became a foreman. He attributes his success to all the good mentors he has had. Che gets a real buzz from waking up in the morning knowing he’s part of the SCIRT team. “It’s a great feeling to be part of the journey and to contribute to the success of the rebuild,” he says. SCIRT site superintendent Tony Foster says that Che has always been very focused and driven on developing his career. “This makes him an ideal candidate for the Civil Trades scheme,” Tony explains. “Che is a great asset to the Brian Perry Civil SCIRT team and as his supervisor for just over a year, I know first-hand how dedicated Che is to his work. He has accomplished a great deal over the past four and a half years, such as attaining the Level 3 Pipelaying qualification.” Tony adds, “Seeing Che developing his skills will encourage younger staff to also push their career development within the construction industries. We are proud of Che and fully support him in becoming a Certified Civil Tradesperson.”

Robert Matete is a supervisor at Downer’s Gisborne branch and looks after field operations, winter maintenance and iwi liaison for their new Network Outcome Contract (NOC). On a day-to-day basis he is responsible for managing crews, entering daily job records, network inspections, requests for service management, monitoring the health and safety and performance of work crews, assisting with incidents and emergency situations, and customer relations. For Robert the best part of his job at Downer is being part of a great team. He enjoys the people, the culture and the teamwork. He also gets a real buzz from seeing people grow and succeed in ways they never thought possible – just as he has. Becoming a Certified Civil Tradesperson means a great deal to Robert and he is very grateful to be one of the first people in the country to qualify. He now has formal recognition of his skills and all of his years of experience – and another certificate to add to his collection. Robert is now using his experience to help others become Civil Trades certified. He is currently supporting a colleague through the Recognition of Current Competence (RCC) pathway and will mentor others as Civil Trades is rolled out across the branch. Downer NZ Gisborne manager Derek Walker is very proud of what Robert has achieved. He says, “Since becoming Civil Trades certified, Rob has gained in confidence and moved into a new position where he is using the knowledge gained from this qualification. Rob has always had the potential and has really grown from the experience, both personally and professionally.”

62 www.contractormag.co.nz

Connexis strategies lead to gender diversity Industry Training Organisation (ITO) Connexis says it is leading the way with its strategies around creating a more gender diverse workplace in infrastructure industries. These strategies, which aim to attract more women into trade and technical roles in a bid to fill a large void in the workforce, have been led by Connexis board chair Frances Hague. Since 2010 and supported by her all male board, Frances has worked to gain buy-in from the chief executives and key decision makers in electricity supply companies, to address the under representation of females within their industry in an initiative called ‘Ultimit’. In 2015 the initiatives run through Ultimit were rolled out wider beyond just the electricity supply arena to all the industries Connexis services, including civil infrastructure, the three waters and telecommunications. “As a result the Connexis strategies have been instrumental in changing the mindset of a significant number of large companies within the industry about the value women bring to non-traditional trade and technical roles, resulting in a whole of industry movement towards the active recruitment of women,” says Connexis. Frances’ work with Connexis was recognised at the recent Women in Governance Awards 2016 where she was awarded the Inclusive Leader – Gender Champion award.

“This accolade recognises a woman who has made a remarkable contribution to championing gender balance and equality of opportunity in her organisation. It recognises the vision, leadership and enduring commitment to support and mentor female talent resulting in a lasting culture change.” Frances says; “It has been an enormously rewarding challenge and privilege to establish and lead this initiative for the wider infrastructure sector. As chair of Connexis I have had a very real opportunity to influence businesses to embrace diversity at the highest level in the infrastructure sector. I see myself as having had to work consistently and with relentless commitment for inclusiveness and diversity in a male-dominated business community. I will continue to focus on this initiative as I have the fundamental belief that women should have the opportunity for career choices irrespective of their gender.” Connexis also won the Not-for-Profit Gender Diversity award, which recognises an organisation that has put in place programmes, initiatives or strategies that are effecting change at an organisational and cultural level to create a more gender diverse workplace. A key initiative is ‘Girls with Hi-Vis’, which encourages infrastructure companies to open their doors for a day and allow women to gain insight into the industry and careers available to them.

Frances Hague, Connexis board chair.

Another annual activity is the Women in Infrastructure awards, which brings together key decision makers in the industry to challenge increased activity to addressing the gender imbalance. Connexis CEO Helmut Modlik says; “Diversity is a key focus for Connexis – both in terms of the industries we serve and within our own organisation. Over the last five years, our Ultimit initiative has made great inroads in increasing female participation in the infrastructure industries. “I would like to thank the Women in Governance Awards for recognising our achievements and giving us the opportunity to share our story. We are in great company with the other finalists – their calibre is testament to the fact that New Zealand is becoming a world

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AUGUST 2016 63

CONTRACTOR COMMENT

All I want for Christmas is my Quarry CoC PETER SILCOCK, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, CIVIL CONTRACTORS NEW ZEALAND

INDUSTRY GROUPS REPRESENTING the quarrying, mining and contracting sectors are warning quarry site managers that they now have less than six months to meet new health and safety competency requirements. Civil Contractors New Zealand has joined the Aggregate and Quarry Association (AQA), Institute of Quarrying NZ (IOQNZ), Mining/Extractive Health and Safety Council (MinEx) to sound the warning. If we don’t get more people completing the Certificate of Competence (CoC) then not only will the jobs of those who have not met the new requirements be at risk, but also the ability of quarries to operate and therefore the supplies of aggregate to the contracting industry. If large numbers of site managers have to stand down on December 31 because they haven’t renewed their A or B Grade Certificates, we know that there are few, if any, trained replacements standing by. While everyone agrees that there are some challenges with meeting the new requirements all site managers must have achieved this by December 31. The new regulations introduced in December 2014 required Certificate of Competence holders to gain up to four new unit standards. In early July at a WorkSafe workshop in Nelson, quarry managers aired concerns about the quality and availability of some CoC training. Currently, around 40 percent of those sitting a B Grade Certificate, required to manage a smaller quarry or opencast mine, are failing the final oral examination. WorkSafe’s chief inspector Extractives Mark Pizey told the Nelson meeting that WorkSafe has 602 quarry and mine notified site managers, but knows of around 1600 sites. MinEx chair Chris Baker says; “There are some teething issues with renewing Certificates but people who manage quarries, mines and other such sites must have these before the year’s end. “We had a one-year extension this year but WorkSafe has made clear there will be no further extension. Frankly we are not seeking one either. People have to get up to speed on the new health and safety competencies.” AQA chair Brian Roche says; “It is important to note that around 85 percent of New Zealand aggregate is produced by bigger suppliers who are generally having fewer issues with meeting the new competency requirements than smaller operators.” He says those who still need to pass a new or renewed CoC have to make a choice. “Either you pass the new competencies or come Christmas you

will no longer be a CoC holder and not able to manage a site.” He and IOQNZ board chair Les Ward are particularly concerned about the potential impact on the quarry sector, especially smaller producers. “We don’t have a surplus of trained A and B Grade CoC holders. We could see some smaller quarries, in particular, closed as a result,” says Les Ward. With many Civil Contractors New Zealand Inc members operating quarries and the industry so reliant on aggregate supplies we have been closely involved in discussions around CoCs. We still have some issues about the requirements especially with smaller members operating in alluvial sites but people just need to get on with it. The risk of quarry operations being closed down and contractors losing access to some aggregate supplies is a real concern. We are in the middle of the biggest infrastructure work programmes the country has ever seen. Aggregate supplies are already looming as a future challenge without some sites having to close because there are not enough qualified people. Contractors need to take action to ensure their own source of aggregate is secure by either ensuring that their own people hold the new Certificate or by talking with their aggregate suppliers. We would suggest that you do that now rather than wait for a rude shock at the end of the year.

Postal Address: PO Box 12013, Thorndon, Wellington 6144 Physical Address: Margan House, 21 Fitzherbert Terrace, Thorndon, Wellington 6011 Phone 0800 692 376

64 www.contractormag.co.nz

COMMENT CONTRACTOR

Meeting the people challenge HELMUT MODLIK, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, CONNEXIS

IT SEEMS THAT EVERYWHERE we look, the signs are that the infrastructure and construction upcycle we are in will be prolonged and substantial. Major roading and energy projects, the replacement of aging water assets, the roll out of ultra-fast broadband, and the high profile coverage of New Zealand’s housing crisis are driving a tremendous demand for infrastructure and related workers. In recent weeks the relative safety, stability and prosperity of New Zealand has raised even higher the prospect of increased inbound migration. This will further fuel the demand for housing and infrastructure, and it is hard to see it slowing down any time soon. This situation is increasing the pressure on our industry, which is already stretched to capacity meeting the current level of demand, let alone any further increase in future. I recently attended a Civil Trades board meeting, where the president Dave Connell asked, “Is there anyone here who ‘isn’t’ looking for apprentices?” The answer around the room was a resounding “no”. Throughout New Zealand, and with very few exceptions, employers are trying – and struggling – to find the workers they need right now. While this problem of finding the right people is not a new one, it is surely well on its way to reaching crisis point in this current upcycle. It is of course not just impacting on civil constructors – builders, plumbers and electricians are also struggling. The issue of finding the right people has become a challenge for the whole of New Zealand. And it is only going to get worse. That is, unless we do something radical – and soon. There are however, no silver bullets, and all scenarios will require innovative thinking, collaboration and industry buy-in. For example, employers and government should be more open minded about who the ‘right people’ are here in New Zealand. Rather than bringing in workers from overseas, as an increasing number of employers are doing, industry and New Zealand as a whole would be better off focusing on identifying and developing New Zealanders. Women, for example, account for 48 percent of the population, but make up only around four percent of the trade and technical trainees in infrastructure-related sectors, despite steady growth in the numbers of females entering these industries in recent years. Connexis is already working to increase female participation in the infrastructure industries, and we have the networks, candidates and ability to support and assist industry employers looking to do the same. We also need to get better at forming linkages and joining up the organisations that are able and willing to contribute to a resolution. A number of collaborations between government agencies and industry have already been successful in developing programmes to get people work ready, licensed and drug free. For example, the pre-employment courses run by WINZ in partnership with Te Puni Kokiri, facilitated by Connexis and supported by

industry (through hiring successful trainees) have greatly benefited Maori and Pasifika, as well as employers. At a local level, employers who are seeking young people to join their workforce would be wise to develop relationships with local schools and other organisations within their community such as sports clubs.

A number of collaborations between government agencies and industry have already been successful in developing programmes to get people work ready, licensed and drug free. We also have to be more strategic in our efforts to attract the right people to our workforce. For the very first time in our history, the civil sector now has a recognised trade qualification – Civil Trades – which enables us to promote infrastructure as a career rather than just a job. Offering an attractive career to both young people and career changers is a game changer, but requires employers to support its implementation. This means that the civil industry as a whole must agree what competence looks like. Until now, the civil industry has been rather ad hoc in its approach to defining and recognising competence. The variety in standards has been huge, ranging from rough and ready through to sophisticated and professional. Many employers have proprietary in-house standards, which carry little or no weight outside of their organisation. The emergence of Civil Trades is set to change all of this, with one national standard around what competency looks like and how it is recognised. Civil Trades and the resulting enhanced industry skill level and marketability will benefit everyone involved. Employers will know what they are getting, employees will have a recognised trade and transferable skills. The wider industry, asset owners and New Zealand as a whole will also reap the benefits. The increasing demand for infrastructure will undoubtedly provide challenges for industry. However, with a willingness to innovate, collaborate and to act strategically, including supporting the emergence of Civil Trades, the timing to meet the people challenge couldn’t be better. Civil Trades is a vital component of a strategic solution to current issues. In order for it to be effective, industry employers need to step up and increase the pace of uptake. The time to do it is now.

AUGUST 2016 65

CONTRACTOR COMMENT

Avoiding just-in-time bid delivery KERRIE McEWEN AND CHRISTINA LOW, SENIOR CONSULTANTS, PLAN A

YOU MIGHT KNOW THE FEELING – it’s the one where every second

before the deadline counts. Palms are sweating. No-one in the bid team has had enough sleep. Tension mounts. The question hangs (unspoken) in the air: “After weeks of work on this important tender, will we actually meet the deadline?” While just-in-time delivery is an efficient way to manage inventory, it’s a risky business submitting tender responses at the last minute. With ‘down to the wire’ deadlines, there’s no wriggle room to allow for technical gremlins, power outages, traffic jams, or stress-induced human error. Unfortunately this is a scenario faced by many bid teams, but it doesn’t have to be this way. Winning the next tender could be the difference between your company’s sustainable growth and success, or downsizing. Although it may seem like a hassle at the time, responding to tenders is the lifeblood of many contracting businesses. So, what’s driving teams of professionals to jeopardise their chances of success by risking a late tender response? Is it because they like the adrenalin rush? Or is it because they don’t have a plan? Or, perhaps they had an initial plan but nobody managed the process? Adrenalin’s best on a mountain biking track or the rugby field. To avoid nail-biting, just-in-time tender delivery or worse (ie, submission of a poor quality bid or missing the deadline, completely), here are some of our top tips for submitting a winning tender, on time, without the last minute stress. 1) Sort out your win strategy early on. Spend some time at the start of the tender process to understand what will make a difference to your client. Be specific about this contract. Ask your team for input on what makes your client tick; what delights them; and what behaviours they get annoyed by. Identify how you will deliver this contract for your client in a way that’s better than any of your competitors. Shape your response around these key points.

66 www.contractormag.co.nz

2) Make a plan and factor in definite milestones. Your tender will probably include a programme which details how you will deliver for your client. Apply this approach to your tender submission by creating a critical path. Key milestones should include firm internal deadlines for initial content from technical experts and regular progress reviews. And, although the deadline might still seem a long way in the future, consider submission logistics early. Plan for and factor in printing and delivery timeframes. For submission via email, make sure your file size won’t clog up your client’s email system. Or, if the bid is to be delivered through an online portal, register as soon as possible and become familiar with the system. Give yourself enough time to upload your files with some room to spare. If worst comes to the worst, and there is a technical glitch, get in touch with the system administrator straight away about the issue. 3) Get the ‘buy in’ of senior management from the start for both your win strategy and the bid plan. This is really important. Don’t leave big decisions which result in a complete rewrite of the bid till the last minute. This is inefficient at best and, at worst, risks derailing the whole bid process. 4) If you’re serious about winning, manage the process like you’ve already won – pretend your performance on this contract is already being measured. Make sure your bid team and contributors understand this, and have them commit to the plan. Proactively prevent and address bid ‘programme creep’. Make sure that management commits resources to where they’re needed. Getting support from senior management early on is key here too. 5) If writing isn’t a strength, consider getting professional tender writing help. Think about your key bid contributors. Do they prefer talking to writing? If they prefer writing – and be honest here – are they any good at it? Too much technical jargon and long-winded statements can detract from a great proposal. Similarly, typos and lacklustre presentation can be ‘red flags’ to some tender evaluators. A great bid writer will capture your technical experts’ thinking and present it in a compelling and clear way. They’ll help you to identify your win themes and will weave these seamlessly throughout the document. They’ll continually consider the benefits of what’s being presented to your client. And, they’ll allow your technical experts to get on with their day job – important if you’re the incumbent contractor or have other clients to keep happy. Wouldn’t it be interesting if tender evaluators were a ‘fly on the wall’ during your bid preparation process? It’s worth thinking about. Following these tips will not only greatly reduce the chances of a nail-biting deadline; they’ll set up your team for tendering success. Good luck with your upcoming tenders!

COMMENT CONTRACTOR

Providing a voice for industry JONATHAN BHANA-THOMSON, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, HEAVY HAULAGE ASSOCIATION

THE ROLES OF AN INDUSTRY association are many, but the primary

one is presenting a voice from the sector to the many authorities and organisations that they deal with. Our own association was formed as a result of the fact that the specific needs of the heavy haulage industry were not being addressed by the powers that be at that time. Since that time when it was a purely voluntary organisation in terms of management, it now has a paid staff (albeit small) and an efficient governance structure that represents the interests of its members. Over time we have also expanded to become the voice of not only heavy haulage but others with similar concerns, being the housemoving sector, the load pilot sector and the heavy recovery sector.

From the small to the large The challenge from an association perspective is to ensure that all concerns are dealt with – from the smallest member to the largest member, bearing in mind that the biggest issue for a smaller member may be only minor to a larger company – but at the same time we want to ensure that issues brought to the association are resolved. So at present we have the review of the Vehicle Dimensions and Mass Rule – the rulebook for the safe transportation of anything oversize, as well as normal freight – which probably affects every single member of the association. It is obvious that it is really important to get this right, and ensure that the industry voice is put forward to NZTA and the Ministry of Transport. This is particularly the case as the last time it was reviewed was about 15 years ago, and it may be another 15 years before we get the next opportunity! Then at the same time I’ve been approached by a member, unsure who to contact about getting some trees pruned back as they are growing too close to the roadside and preventing the transport of wide oversize loads through a bypass route used by the whole sector. In both of these cases, the fact that an industry association is making representations about the issue, indicates to the regulatory party that this problem being raised is serious and must be resolved. It isn’t just one company concerned about the problem; it’s a matter that affects an industry sector.

A face for the sector A theme that has been coming through in recent times, is that working through an association, and with industry members willing to attend meetings representing the sector, provides a great way for both sides to put aside the faceless “truck-driver” and “government” edifices that get put up. For each side to see that there are actual human beings on either side and that they are generally there to do their job effectively, then when issues are raised talking about them in face to face situations, is highly beneficial for both parties. A recent example

was where oversize loads and road maintenance crews were finding that they didn’t know where each other was carrying out their activities – especially at this time of the year when due to weather and other issues they are often delayed or rescheduled. A meeting was held with all parties represented and it turned out to be very beneficial as there were solutions identified that may not have been realised without putting all parties together in the same room at the same time. As much as possible I always believe in a two-pronged approach at meetings where a member is able to attend alongside the association CEO to bring that reality to the meeting, while at the same time getting the bigger picture from the association perspective. Recent examples have been a meeting with the new NZTA CEO, meetings with project teams such as for the new interchange at SH2/58, and attendance at freight forum meetings that are starting to take place around the country.

Bringing about step change Sometimes it is possible to bring about changes that really take things forward and make major advances for the industry. Often these are long-term projects and take time to progress through the various steps that are required. They do evolve and grow over time or have the rough edges knocked off, but through the perseverance of an association significant outcomes can be achieved. Major achievements by this association include the Foundations builders licence for housemovers, the significant changes that have occurred to make the VDAM Rule workable for industry, and the guideline documents that have been invaluable for members. Some projects we have yet to achieve and we see the benefits of them, but have yet to convince the right people in the right places of the need to change and advance forward. Other times there can be unexpected benefits of raising issues with regulatory authorities. Last year the association provided major feedback and met with a network power authority that had changed aspects of its overheight load policy without discussion with the industry. The association put forward a range of different solutions that the members wanted to see. Out of this the network company has streamlined its processes and in fact come up with a change to permitting of overheight loads that could prove to have even longer term benefits to the industry than we could have imagined. If it works as we expect this model could, then it can also be promoted to the more than 25 other line network companies around NZ as the way forward. Without the support and information that members provide the association cannot do its job, but also the association has its own role and purpose to represent the whole industry. Together the old adage of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts is true more than ever. AUGUST 2016 67

CONTRACTOR COMMENT

Employment relations and criminal charges CHARLOTTA HARPUR, HEANEY & PARTNERS

IS AN EMPLOYER LEGITIMATELY entitled to know about an

employee’s behaviour outside of the workplace? Even if a criminal court imposes a suppression order aimed to protect the offender’s employment, is the employer nevertheless entitled to know about the offending? This question was recently considered by the Court of Appeal where an employee’s guilty plea to criminal charges arising from a domestic dispute was subject to a suppression order of the criminal court. The case highlighted the duty of good faith that employers and employees owe to each other. The duty is set out in section 4 of the Employment Relations Act 2000 (ERA) and covers all contracts of employment. It provides that the duty of good faith is wider in scope than the implied mutual obligations of trust and confidence. It requires the parties to an employment relationship to be active and constructive in establishing and maintaining a productive employment relationship in which the parties are, among other things, responsive and communicative. The duty can stretch beyond activities at work. This gives rise to the question of how far an employee can keep issues in their personal life hidden from an employer. An employer may well be concerned about any misdemeanour by employees that may have the potential for affecting their performance or otherwise reflect badly on the employer’s business. At the same time, employees have a right to privacy. Some guidance has now been given by the court of appeal. The case concerned a night-time security guard working at a university campus. The guard had pleaded guilty to an assault on his partner and damage to property. The district court judge considered that it was likely that he would lose his job if his name was made public and, as a result, entered a discharge without conviction for the offences as well as a suppression order of the guard’s name and the nature of the offending. A suppression order prohibits any publication of the information covered by the order. Unknown to the security guard, another employee of the university had got wind of the case and sat in the public gallery during the sentencing hearing when the orders were made. That employee then passed on information about the offences, the guilty plea and the suppression order to the university management. The university suspended the security guard and conducted an investigation followed by a final warning. The security guard took his employer to the Employment Relations Authority on the basis that the suppression order meant that the employer had no right to know about the criminal charges laid against him. The employment case was ultimately appealed through the Employment Court to the Court of Appeal. The court considered the duty of good faith and held that the employee was required to inform the employer about the 68 www.contractormag.co.nz

The fact that the orders made by the criminal court were made specifically to protect the guard’s ongoing employment was not sufficient to override the duty of good faith owed.

charges made. As a result, the fact that it was reported by another employee made no difference; it could be regarded as notification by proxy. The fact that the orders made by the criminal court were made specifically to protect the guard’s ongoing employment was not sufficient to override the duty of good faith owed. The court of appeal stated that the employer had duties under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 (HSWA) to protect the safety of other employees and the public that would clash with relevant offending being kept hidden. The limiting factor was that the conduct must be relevant to the job performed. In this particular case the role as a security guard charged with keeping people safe late at night and with the potential for confrontational situations did not sit well with a charge of assault. It did not matter that the charges were not work related. The court cautioned that it was important to distinguish cases where an employer might use the fact of some undesirable conduct not directly related to the employee’s responsibilities as an excuse for taking action against a particular employee. In terms of the suppression order made, the court of appeal held that passing on information to an employer did not amount to a “publication” of the suppressed information. Care needed to be taken though to avoid spreading of the information beyond key members of staff. It is hard to know exactly where the line would be drawn in terms of non-work related matters that an employee is required to divulge to the employer. Most criminal charges would have the potential for affecting the reputation of an employer. Whether the offending needs to be of such a nature as to bring HSWA into play is not clear. What is clear is that an employee’s private life has the potential for spilling over into his or her work life. What is also clear is that the duty of good faith is a key duty in any employment relationship. Case ref: ASG v Harlene Hayne, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Otago [2016] NZCA 203

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CONTRACTOR MOTORING

Light commercials rule the road and sales records

The New Zealand new vehicle market is on a roll at present, with sales records continuing to tumble every month. JUNE’S FIGURES WERE NO DIFFERENT. Well actually, they were.

In fact, with total new vehicle sales figures of 13,699, June 2016 was the strongest June in 34 years and the second-highest month ever experienced by the New Zealand market. As with previous months over the past couple of years, the lion-share of sales came from the combined SUV segments, which accounted for 36 percent of vehicle registrations during June. But the SUV segments were followed closely by the Pick Up/ Chassis segments, with 25 percent share. Also, June’s top four models were all light commercial vehicles, reflecting ever-increasing demand for both 4x2 and 4x4 utes. June’s commercial vehicle registration figure of 4513 was the highest on record, helped along by the Fieldays 2016 agribusiness exhibition. This is only the third time in New Zealand new vehicle market history that more than 4000 commercial vehicles were sold in a single month. The previous two times (4002 registrations in 2014 and 4009 in 2015) were also in June and also off the back of Fieldays and its extended run of related special offers to buyers. Remember those Fieldays-related television advertisements you saw all the way back in April? That was no broadcast scheduling error; Fieldays offers are now so powerful for 70 www.contractormag.co.nz

distributors they’re offered as dangling carrots to new vehicle buyers for far longer than the actual agribusiness event is held. Within the light commercial market, the Ford Ranger retained its position as the top-selling model for June, with 19 percent market share (836 units). It was also the top selling model overall for the month. The Toyota Hilux was the second-best seller with 18 percent market share (811 units), with the Holden Colorado in third place with nine percent market share (410 units). Reflecting the increasing popularity of SUVs, the top three passenger vehicles for the month of June were all SUVs. Toyota was the overall market leader for the month of June with 19 percent market share (2666 units). Ford was second on 11 percent (1478 units) and Holden third with nine percent (1274 units). In a statement regarding June’s record numbers, David Crawford, chief executive officer of the Motor Industry Association said, “Distributors that attended the annual Fieldays reported healthy demand for new vehicles. “Other factors that are key drivers of new vehicles are record levels of net immigration, healthy trade sector and strong business confidence.” The numbers reflect the continued changes in buyer demand, with the big Aussie sedans and wagons of old firmly replaced with SUVs and, increasingly, one-tonne utes.

Not every Volkswagen van needs a ladder on top… RATHER THAN SHELLING out for that $300,000 home-awayfrom-home that ends up sitting in the driveway (or at the offsite storage yard) for 10 months out of 12, Volkswagen offers something rather unique in the new vehicle market here that also presents a rather sensible compromise. It’s the latest version of Volkswagen’s dedicated camper model; the California. And it packs enough retro elements to remind instantly of its classic Kombi ancestor. The California Ocean is unique in the automotive world, in that it’s the only campervan to roll down the same production line as other commercial vehicles, namely Volkswagen’s Transporter and Caddy delivery vans. By default, Volkswagen New Zealand is the only local distributor that can offer a campervan model off-the-shelf in their showrooms alongside their hatchbacks and SUVs. The California Ocean is no half-measure novelty item though; its cleverly packaged interior design is a product of all the experience the company has manufacturing campervans (with the assistance of Westfalia-Werke; the company that has sub-contracted to Volkswagen for campervan creation as far back as 1951). That the California Ocean features such an effortless ‘old school’ vibe is probably down to the two-tone exterior paint and wheels, but regardless it looks fantastic. The two-tone paint comes in a number of variations, while there are also optional alloys with shiny centre discs that do just enough to cheat the look of an old-style Volkswagen hubcap. The five meter-long van is a four-berth model (although probably more comfortable as long-weekend transport for two). The electronically-deployable roof reveals a surprisingly spacious overhead double bed (the sleeping squab and bedding can stay put even when the roof is in the ‘down’ position), while the rear bench can be lowered to create another double bed in a pinch. Aside from bedding, utensils and a good book, almost everything else you’ll need comes with the California Ocean. There’s a stainless-steel sink, under-bench storage for

pots, plates and glassware, a top-opening fridge box, a twoburner stove and onboard 9kg gas bottle, along with extra storage in curved corner cubbies. The side-door slides open electronically and you can zip open a compartment in the tailgate to reveal two integrated outdoor chairs to sit and admire your chosen view from, which is a clever touch. It’d take an adventurous sort to consider the California Ocean a home-away-from-home for a month or more. But for intrepid couples looking to spend a long weekend trekking around the provinces or surfing the West Coast, it’s a neat way of exploring. You’ll turn a lot of heads too. Incidentally, as far as Volkswagen campers go, the California Ocean’s $130,000 sticker price represents something of a bargain these days. If you can’t shake the nostalgia and are looking to buy an old 1960s Type 2 ‘splittie’ (so called because of the two-piece front windscreen which was a part of the design up until 1967), or even a later 1970s ‘bay window’ Kombi, prepare to part with some serious money these days. Six-figure sums are not unheard of. Alternatively, here’s a modern option that won’t have you stranded beside the motorway at 5.30pm on a Friday night. And crucially, the Volkswagen California Ocean still retains a character all of its own.

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AUGUST 2016 71

CONTRACTOR CLASSIC MACHINES

ASSIC

C H I N E S

Wabco 229 Series End of a long lineage

In a successful attempt to keep up with the competition, Wabco finally incorporated full hydraulic controls into the Model C Tournapull. BY RICHARD CAMPBELL.

STARTING WAY BACK in 1939 with the original Model C

Tournapull, LeTourneau (later LeTourneau-Westinghouse and finally Wabco) had traditionally used cable control systems on its motor scrapers, firstly mechanically controlled via a power control unit (PCU) and at the beginning of the 1950s, with electrically operated winches. At the time, these control methods were perfectly satisfactory, but technology rarely stands still. When the 1960s rolled around, hydraulic control had matured to a point where it was considered a viable and reliable control system for operating scrapers. A watershed year was 1962 when Caterpillar introduced a full range of its new “600” series motor scrapers, all of which incorporated hydraulic controls. Wabco, however, steadfastly resisted the trend and instead went out on a bit of a limb with its C-500 motor scraper (see Contractor, Dec 2014) which was quite innovative, but still cablecontrolled and not a commercial success. In order to maintain market share, something had to be done. Wabco designers took a standard electric steer Model C Tournapull from the production line and completely reengineered it to incorporate hydraulic steering. This also required an all-new vertical hitch and kingpost structure. The basic “tub” of the tractor unit was still a C Tournapull but everything above it was changed or refined, including for the first time on a Wabco scraper, integral fenders on the tractor unit. It was then the turn of the scraper to undergo a makeover. Very quickly, the Wabco engineers realised that the existing 72 www.contractormag.co.nz

Model C scraper was unsuitable for conversion to hydraulic control and so an entirely new design was formulated. This looked nothing like previous Wabco scraper bowls having an inside supported rear axle and a fully hydraulic apron which drew its influence in no small fashion from that of Caterpillar’s. The end result was the Wabco C229F motor scraper, Wabco retaining the “C” in the designation for a couple of years as homage to the previous C Tournapull and also for customer recognition as to where the model sat within the product range. The “C” was later dropped from the designation. Introduced to the contracting world in 1967, the C229F was a worthy successor to the earlier C Tournapull and sales of the new machine were steady. It was also put into production at Wabco’s Rydalmere, Australia, and Campinas, Brazil facilities the following year. Weighing 24 tons empty and carrying 15 cubic yards struck, and 21 cubic yards heaped, the Wabco 229 retained the GM 8V71 powerplant of the former C Tournapull with its output being increased from 290 to 318 flywheel horsepower. An Allison CLBT4460 powershift transmission was standard and no manual transmission options were offered. However clean and modern the 229 appeared, there was no mistaking the lineage of the machine. It was pure LeTourneau. Manufacture of the 229 ceased in Australia at the end of 1971 but continued in Peoria, USA and Brazil. Following on the success of the 229F, an updated 229G was offered from early 1971. Cosmetically little different from the 229F, the 229G incorporated integral ROPS mountings and rear scraper fenders

1. Fresh out of the Peroria factory, a brand new Wabco C229F gets the once over from a proud employee. The design of the 229 was very rugged as can be seen from the massive gooseneck assembly. The non-muffled GM 8V-71 can be easily seen under the hood. A fine looking machine indeed. PHOTO: AUTHOR’S COLLECTION

2. Wabco C229F at work on a major railroad realignment job in Colorado, USA in 1970. Unlike a lot of other scrapers, the operator did not sit over the left wheel which gave a much smoother ride. The C229F did, however, have a tendency to nose dive during a turn if you weren’t careful. The owner has placed a metal plate just above the bumper to prevent earth from penetrating the radiator. PHOTO: AUTHOR’S COLLECTION

(both required by US law) and a muffler on the 8V-71 engine which was now turbocharged and producing 333 horsepower. It also featured the six-speed Allison CLBT4465 transmission with integral retarder. Bowl capacity remained the same as the 229F but empty weight had risen to 25½ tons The final production version of the 229 was the 229H which first appeared in 1977. It differed from the 229G in having a permanent ROPS structure, a cleaning up of the tractor panelwork which made for easier manufacture and further engine and transmission modifications.

3. Near Petersburgh, Virginia, USA, two Wabco 229Gs go about shifting earth for a seven mile stretch of new highway. As can be seen, one of these machines belonging to W Tuck-Son is older than the other and is fitted with the traditional Wabco sun canopy while the newer machine has a ROPS. Photo dated 1974. PHOTO: AUTHOR’S COLLECTION

Still powered by the reliable GM 8V-71T, this now produced 350 horsepower and was mated to Allison’s state-of-the-art CLBT750 five-speed powershift transmission. Empty weight was now 26½ tons. Interestingly, the Wabco 229H was the last motor scraper offered by any manufacturer to be still equipped with a bull gear and pinion final drive, everyone else having switched to planetary drive by the early 1970s. The 229H continued in production until Wabco’s unfortunate demise in 1984 when it became part of Dresser Industries. The very last 229H came out of the Campinas, Brazil plant in 1986.

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AUGUST 2016 73

CONTRACTOR CLASSIC MACHINES

1. S itting on the loading dock at Wabco’s Peoria, USA facility is a brand new 229G. This particular unit is kitted out with a lot of optional extras including a cab and external ROPS. The gap between the top of the cab and the ROPS is for the installation of an air conditioner if required.

PHOTO: AUTHOR’S COLLECTION

2. The very last of the line, a Model 229H at Toccoa, Georgia, USA. Very few extras on this unit other than the ROPS which was mandatory by this point anyway. You could order your new 229H painted yellow or white. Even with the internal improvements over the former F and G models, the 229H was still a simple, reliable earthmover.

PHOTO: AUTHOR’S COLLECTION

Dresser now owned the complete Wabco Construction & Mining Divisions assets including motor graders, off-highway trucks and motor scrapers plus their manufacturing facilities. The only money-making segment of Wabco’s range at the time of Dresser’s takeover was Wabco’s dump trucks which Dresser marketed under its own name for a few years until it sold the dump truck business to Komatsu (which continues to do very well out of the technology). Dresser didn’t need motor graders – it already owned Galion (also later sold to Komatsu) and had a motor scraper line acquired from the collapse of International Harvester’s Construction Division so didn’t really need another one of those either. So, the pioneer of motor scrapers faded into obscurity, a very sad tale indeed. The Wabco 229 was a contemporary of the Caterpillar 631, Allis-Chalmers TS-260, Euclid S-24, International 270 and Michigan 210. 74 www.contractormag.co.nz

Footnote Why Dresser didn’t pass on Wabco’s scrapers to Komatsu along with the dump trucks is a mystery. Komatsu did manufacture scrapers of its own design but they weren’t very good (and they knew it), and were not particularly reliable or well liked. Wabco’s scrapers were a far better design and I’m sure the whizz-kid designers at Komatsu could have improved and evolved upon the designs as they did with the Wabco dump trucks. We will never know.

The New Zealand connection As far as the author is aware, no Wabco 229 scrapers have ever been imported into New Zealand. There are plenty of the elevating scrapers, 222F, 222G, 222H and 252FT but the open bowl 229 appears to have been completely overlooked by local contractors, despite its success across the Tasman with Australian earthmoving companies.

3. A ustralian-assembled 229F at work on an industrial subdivision, 2002. A credit to the owner, this machine is over 40 years old and still looks like it just came out of the factory. Wabco’s Rydalmere, NSW plant turned out just over 20 229Fs before production ceased in 1971. Subsequently, 229Gs and 229Hs were imported fully built up from the USA as required. PHOTO: INTERNET

4. F or Sale – one pre-loved Wabco 229F. Sitting in a dealer’s yard in South Carolina is this fairly tidy example of a Wabco 229F with external ROPS. The previous owner has extended the rear push block a little to give the rear tyres added protection from errant push tractor operators!

PHOTO: INTERNET

B R I E F S P EC I F I CAT I O N S Wabco 229F (the most common version produced) Engine: General Motors 8V-71 naturally aspirated V8 diesel producing 318 flywheel horsepower at 2100 rpm Transmission: Allison model CLBT4460 6-speed powershift transmission with two loading ranges and an integral retarder

Differential: Power transfer no-spin type Top speed: 28 mph (40 km/h) Brakes: Shoe type, air over hydraulic wedge

For the model collector

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The Wabco 229 has been completely ignored by model manufacturers. While there is a ridiculously expensive limited edition of its larger sibling, the 339, available in 1:50 scale, there are no examples of the 229 available in any scale. For the enterprising modeler, one could scratch build an example using the old Lindberg 1:60 scale Wabco 333FT tractor unit as a starting point as the tractor scales out to 1:50 when reduced down to a 222F, the author having successfully performed this conversion. However, the bowl would have to be entirely built from scratch.

Steering: Full hydraulic, 90° each direction Turn circle: 30’ 9” Capacity: 15 cubic yards struck, 21 cubic yards heaped Operation: All hydraulic with bulldozer ejection Length: 40’ 5” Width: 11’ 4” Height: 11’ 7” Op weight: 24 tons (empty), 50 tons (loaded)

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AUGUST 2016 75

CONTRACTOR INNOVATIONS

New Gough Engineering agencies

Pile integrity testing Concrete Structure Investigations (CSI) says it is the only organisation getting reliable results from Pile Integrity Tests (PIT); establishing toe depth and identifying segregation, necking and pile breakages. The company has done a lot of work recently in quality assurance on new piles. CSI says it is also able to obtain reliable results from existing bored piles, driven concrete and timber piles. “CSI is developing new technology that will eliminate some of the limitations currently applied to the Pile Integrity Testing (PIT) method,” says the company. “PIT uses single axis accelerometers to measure reflected impulses from a hammer strike at the top of the pile. When attempting to use PIT on the piles of an existing structure; attached beams, pile caps and columns will give additional reflections that must be isolated. Also, when striking a large ground beam over a small pile, the majority of the wave will continue to reflect inside the beam, with only a small amount of energy making it into the pile. By moving the accelerometer down to the side of the pile below these structures, the signal to noise ratio can be improved. “However, while all movement at the top of the pile can be assumed to be upward propagating waves reflecting downwards, a side-mounted accelerometer will detect waves travelling in both directions.” CSI offers a wide range of non-destructive testing methods and has been able to offer these to the civil industry, for work on bridges, wharves, water treatment plants and all infrastructure with concrete and steel. CSI’s technology was a winner at 2016 the Emerging Gold Award (Services category) at the Wellington Gold Awards. More information: www.csiscan.nz, ph 0800 33 77 67.

Gough Engineering has secured two world-class industry agencies to complement its New Zealand operation and is now the national distributor for Simem products and the South Island distributor for Wam products. Simem is involved in the design, development and manufacture of customised plants for materials processing and recycling, and is recognised as a world specialist for concrete batching plants. Bison is the name of the latest solution from Simem for the transportable continuous mixing operations which was launched at bauma 2016. “This is the result of extensive research and development to provide a combination of high capacity plant, with the finest batching accuracy, all compacted within the size of a standard transportable trailer,” says Gough. “The combination of the Simem articulated concrete batching and mixing programme with the design and supply of distribution and forming equipment, along with the proven expert support of Gough Engineering, will make it possible to offer turn-key solutions for any industrialised concrete element casting process in New Zealand,” says Gough Engineering manager, Shane Pooley. Founded in Italy, the Wam Group is a market leader in screw conveyors and its comprehensive product range includes equipment for bulk solids handling and processing, dust filtration, waste water treatment, vibration technology and renewable energy generation. To support the new partnership, Gough Engineering has set up a Service and Maintenance Division. This new division will provide engineering support to complement the client project team towards the delivery of the contract objectives in the safest and most efficient way possible, minimising risks and mitigating cost.

Heavy duty powered air respirator The 3M Adflo powered air purifying respirator is said to have become one of the most popular and widely awarded powered air welding respirators in the world. A slim, robust system designed specifically for welders has now been released in a heavy duty version to deliver added features and improved performance. This new HD series features the new super lightweight heavy duty battery (40 percent lighter than the previous model) which can extend battery operating time to 12 hours. This can give the welder an extra four hours over the standard systems. The series also features the new one hour rapid charge. This allows the welder to charge the heavy duty battery from zero to 80 percent capacity in about one hour. Existing Adflo customers can upgrade to the lighter HD system with rapid charge by purchasing an upgrade kit that includes the all new HD battery pack and charger. More information: www.speedglas.com.au. 76 www.contractormag.co.nz

INNOVATIONS CONTRACTOR

Award for repairing foundations

LED light towers Hirepool has recently taken delivery of 30 new Generac Hybrid and LED light towers, which according to distributor Youngman Richardson & Co are the first light towers in the world to guarantee greater reliability and ensure perfect eco-sustainability. “It’s not often that a product comes along like this,” says Hirepool general manager of sales and marketing, Gary Richardson. “The VT Hybrid is unique and there has been demand for this type of lighting from contractors for some time. “So when Youngman Richardson indicated they were now available we didn’t hesitate. There is a lot of work happening at night at the moment, some of it close to residential areas and with big construction projects underway in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch everyone is going to want to have them.” The new VT Hybrid features a nine metre telescopic mast with 340-degree rotation and gives an 86 percent reduction in emissions along with the added benefit of lowering operating costs. The lighting towers feature four 150W LED floodlights that are powered by a rechargeable battery with a running time of seven hours. After this period the small diesel generating set starts automatically powering the floodlights and recharging the battery at the same time to provide an overall increase of 870 percent in uninterrupted operation. Overall offering over 700 hours of continuous run time. According to Gary this product has considerable market potential across road works and construction sites. “The features are great and it allows night work to be undertaken in almost daylight conditions. In fact the VT Hybrid is so quiet you no longer have to shout to be heard.” More information: Contact Youngman Richardson & Co, ph 09 443 2436 or for South Island enquiries, 03 341 6923.

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Mainmark has won the International Project of the Year Award at the 2016 Ground Engineering Awards for its Christchurch Art Gallery project in New Zealand. The project saw Mainmark re-support and re-level the 33,000 tonne gallery in just 52 days, rectifying foundation damage caused by the 2010 and 2011 Christchurch earthquakes. The judging panel commended Mainmark, saying, “The entry showed a strong and innovative combination of technologies which delivered a great result for the client.” Tim Pope, chief operations officer at Mainmark, says the re-levelling project was a landmark project for the company and the industry, and set a new benchmark in earthquake remediation for large scale buildings. The Christchurch Art Gallery was resurrected using Jet Grouting and JOG Computer Controlled Grouting to re-support and re-level the 6500 square metre foundations, without requiring excavation or the occupants or exhibits to vacate. The same technology is used on bridges and underground infrastructure.

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AUGUST 2016 77

CONTRACTOR CIVIL CONTRACTORS NEW ZEALAND

CCNZ Updates CablePrice’s Partnership with CCNZ CCNZ would like to acknowledge one of our Core Associates, CablePrice, which has recently renewed its associate membership with CCNZ for the 2016/17 year. CablePrice has been a major supporter of CCNZ for many years. Its support for the regional and national excavator operator competitions and sponsorship of the CCNZ Conference themed dinner amongst other things are much appreciated.

Ongoing support from Major Associates We would like to express our sincere appreciation for the ongoing support of the following Major Associates which have renewed their CCNZ Major Associate membership status for the 2016/17 year. ENZED, Doug the Digger, PowerCo and AB Equipment.

CCNZ seeks input into Worker Health Code WorkSafe is currently developing the Worker Health in Mining draft code of practice. CCNZ has been seeking member input and by the time this magazine is published will have made a submission on behalf of the industry. Key issues are around: • Identifying and assessing risks to worker health in extractives operations; • Selecting and implementing controls for risks to worker health in extractives operations; • Developing a principal control plan (PCP) for worker health. For further information email or call Malcolm Abernethy malcolm@civilcontractors.co.nz 0800 692 376.

CCNZ meets with Labour Leader and MPs CCNZ president, vice president and CEO recently met with key Labour party politicians. The meeting was organised by Phil Twyford, spokesperson on Housing, Building and Construction. Also present were: Labour Leader Andrew Little; Iain Lees-Galloway, spokesperson on Transport, Immigration and Workplace Relations and Safety; Jenny Salesa, spokesperson on Employment, Skills and Training and Sue Moroney, spokesperson on Transport and ACC. Issues discussed included: • Investment in and funding of infrastructure development and maintenance; • People capability including trade qualifications, engage more women and targeted immigration; • The benefits of a healthy Civil Construction industry where there are opportunities for all sizes of contractors, a level playing field and a

single effective and affordable government prequalification system; • Health and safety and the need for government to support industry initiatives.

Technical and Committee Activity update CCNZ Technical Committees and technical manager Alan Stevens have been busy over the past month on the following activities: • Input into the recent NZTA Traffic Control Devices Steering Group meeting. Items discussed encompassed the traffic signs specification update, the Traffic Control Devices Manual update, an evaluation of the temporary road markings trials, a number of items regarding shared path markings and cycle way markings and signals and the consideration of a number of research projects / suggested innovations; • A review of the Land Transport Rule; Dangerous Goods Amendment 2016. It was decided that no formal feedback was required as the suggested amendments were all sensible in nature; • Input into the recently held National Surfacing Steering Group Meeting. Topics covered included the ongoing development of a Surfacing Selection Guide, various research activities with regard to chip seals in particular, the new performance-based specification for asphalt binders, an update on research regarding the use of crumbed rubber in binders, the specification for coloured surfacings, an update on the use of epoxy modified open graded porous asphalt, the NZTA M/10 Specification for Asphalt, supply arrangements for Glenbrook Melter Aggregate and the development of a guidance note when using melter aggregate in chip seals; • An industry meeting was convened to consider particular items relating to the NZTA M/10 Specification for Asphalt, the new NZTA M/1A performance specification for binders used in asphalt and to provide feedback on the draft performance-based specification for binders used in chip sealing activities. It was agreed that NZTA and Civil Contractors New Zealand will co-develop a training package to improve understanding of the M/10 Specification. Some minor further development work has been identified as being required for inclusion in the new M/1A Specification and this will be completed in the coming weeks. Good discussions were had concerning the draft performance-based chip seal binder specification, and the industry feedback will now be considered for inclusion in the draft document. • Discussions with representatives from the Automobile Association with regard to improving their understanding of temporary traffic management requirements / operations at work sites. If further information contact Alan Stevens on alan@ civilcontractors.co.nz or phone 0800 692 376

ADVERTISERS I N D EX Asphalt Supply Company 10 Bauma 32 Boss Attachments 21 BP Oil NZ 75 CablePrice OBC Caliber Products 38 CCNZ 64 Chevron New Zealand 69 CivilShare 27 Commercial Hire NZ 47 Connexis 33 Counties Ready Mix Concrete 77 78 www.contractormag.co.nz

CPB Contractors 61 CPB HEB JV 48-49 CSP Pacific 45 Equiptec 11 Fairbrother Industries 63 Global Survey 17 Gough Cat 7 HG Leach 55 Hirepool OFC, IFC, 3, 24, 25 Industrial Seatbelts 71 Jonel Hydraulics 59 Mercedes Benz Commercial 13

Mimico 15 NZ National Fieldays Society IBC OMC 9 Power Equipment 19 Prime Pump 41 Road Science 30 Southeys Group 35, 53 Torrent Flood Protection 39 Trimble 29 Transdiesel 23 VTNZ 4 Youngman Richardson 73

T.H.E EXPO IS BACK FOR 2017 2-4 MARCH

EXHIBITOR SITES NOW AVAILABLE T.H.E Expo is the gateway to New Zealandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s transport and heavy equipment industry. Here you will have the opportunity to network with a captive audience. Facts from the last event: - Over 40,000m2 worth of event space - Over 80 million dollars worth of sales were generated for exhibitors - Over 70% of event visitors are from the industry Visit theexpo.co.nz to find out more Alternatively call 07 843 4497 to receive a copy of the prospectus in the post.

T.H.E Expo is endorsed by:

Owned and operated by:

Inc.

New Zealand Equipment Suppliers Association

2-4 March 2017

Mystery Creek Events Centre, Hamilton

theexpo.co.nz

// C O N S T R U C T I O N E X C AVAT O R S

The design of the new Hitachi ZX130-5, ZX135US-5 and ZX225USLC-5 excavators are inspired by one aim - Empowering your Vision

100616_Hitachi_ZX130

SPECIFICATIONS MAKE

MODEL

WEIGHT (kg)

WIDTH

BUCKET (m3)

DIG DEPTH (mm)

BREAKOUT (kgf)

POWER (kW@rpm)

FLOW (L/min)

Hitachi

ZX130-5

13,100

2490

0.50

5540

Hitachi

ZX135US-5

13,700

2490

0.50

5490

104 kN

73kW@2000

2x117

104 kN

73kW@2000

2x117

Hitachi

ZX225USLC-5

24,300

2990

0.80

6620

158 kN

122kW@2000

2x212/1x189

See first-hand the features of the new Hitachi ZX130-5, ZX135US-5 and ZX225USLC-5 excavators with live demonstrations taking place throughout the country. For more information and to register visit www.cableprice.co.nz or contact your local CablePrice sales representative.

0800 555 456 sales@cableprice.co.nz www.cableprice.co.nz