Tar Barrel Tunnel Bypass

Re-routing rail for reliability and resilience

PROJECT: Tar Barrel Tunnel Bypass CONTRACTOR: HEB Construction CLIENT: KiwiRail VALUE: $29.3m

The Tar Barrel Tunnel Bypass (TBTB) project involved building a new road-over-rail underpass, several large retaining structures and a large earthworks cutting to allow the rerouting of a kilometre of the Main North Line to bypass Tunnel 21 MNL (Tar Barrel Tunnel) in Marlborough.

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chain issues, and working between live rail lines and the live SH1, the collaboration between HEB, KiwiRail, and designers Tonkin + Taylor was critical to this project’s success. HEB built these critical relationships through a charter, created and agreed on by all key parties. “We achieved all the project goals The bypass creates a quicker 80kph despite the project’s challenges. The alignment and a more reliable and commitment from all parties helped resilient journey through KiwiRail’s us to deliver the works within the critical Picton to Christchurch route. revised Covid budget and programme, HEB Construction delivered these with minimal impact to stakeholders. works from July 2019 to October 2021. KiwiRail sees this project as ‘a great

There were several challenges example of successfully partnering involved with this project. Located in to create reliability and resilience a very remote position on the railway, improvements for our national rail with challenges from Covid-19, supply network’.”

CCNZ / HIREPOOL CONSTRUCTION EXCELLENCE AWARDS 2022