EG Issue 8/2019

Issue 8/2019 Temporary situation Lessons learned after a scaffold collapse

Over troubled waters Bridge building in double time

Cheers, engineers!

How engineers are advancing the wine industry

Tear down the wall New thinking with old buildings

Disruption, modernisation, and transformation: shaping the future of the construction sector JOIN THE CONVERSATION AND PLAY YOUR PART IN CREATING A VIBRANT AND SUSTAINABLE SECTOR. NZ CONSTRUCTION FORUM WELLINGTON // 12 SEPT 2019 CONSTRUCTIVE.ORG.NZ

Constructive NZ CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY FORUM 2019

Contents

In this issue

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28

10 52 06 Over troubled waters After heavy rain washed away the West Coast’s Waiho Bridge, New Zealand Army engineers were called in to help replace it with the country’s largest Bailey bridge.

10 Tear down the wall Demolishing, deconstructing or repurposing buildings involves increasingly technical challenges, but unique opportunities can arise.

28 Next stop: Nelson-Marlborough Top of the south to you.

52 The secret life of engineers All aboard with avid sailor Barry Potter FEngNZ.

Features Engineering New Zealand Te Ao Rangahau PO Box 12 241, Wellington 6144 New Zealand P 04 473 9444 hello@engineeringnz.org www.engineeringnz.org GENERAL MANAGER – MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS Bridgit Sissons bridgit.sissons@ engineeringnz.org 04 474 8943 EDITOR Jennifer Black editor@engineeringnz.org DESIGN MANAGER Angeli Winthrop ADVERTISING SALES advertising@engineeringnz.org 04 473 9444 SUBSCRIPTIONS hello@engineeringnz.org CIRCULATION ABC audited net circulation for the six months ended 31 March 2019.

New Zealand 14,311 Print ISSN 2537-9097 Online ISSN 2537-9100 EG ONLINE PDF versions of EG are available for members on our website.

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DISCLAIMER Advertising statements and editorial opinions expressed in EG do not reflect the views of Engineering New Zealand, its members, staff, or affiliated organisations unless expressly stated.

This issue of EG was published in September 2019.

10 Tear down the wall Demolishing, deconstructing or repurposing buildings involves increasingly technical challenges, but unique opportunities can arise.

16 Temporary situation WSP Opus shares lessons learned after a scaffold collapse injured six workers. How do we prevent similar events from happening again?

22 Cheers, engineers! Five ways engineers are helping bolster New Zealand’s wine industry, where the total value of exports in 2018 was $1.7 billion.

28 Next stop: Nelson-Marlborough Top of the south to you.

Best practice 36 Worth its weight Initially built for gold miners, the Skippers Canyon Suspension Bridge has been wowing people for more than 100 years.

38 New pathway for rivers A return to more holistic approaches to river engineering and management.

40 Batten down the hackers Simple ways to protect yourself and your work from hackers as they become increasingly creative.

42 Work abroad with confidence Engineers working overseas may be unwittingly exposing themselves to insurance and liability risks.

43 Intersection People crossing paths with engineers.

44 Nature’s shake-down How do we use the lessons from Canterbury and Kaikōura to prepare for Wellington's inevitable big quake?

46 Demonstrating durability Durability under B2.

Shorts 48 In two minds The world has long been fascinated with identical twins.

So, when they both choose to study engineering, is it nature or nurture?

51 Day in the life This mechatronics engineering student is already helping develop New Zealand's transport system in innovative ways.

52 The secret life of engineers All aboard with avid sailor Barry Potter FEngNZ.

55 Leading questions Recently recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours, Arthur Amputch ONZM FEngNZ CPEng IntPE(NZ) provides leadership tips.

56 Bedside table A geotechnical engineer working on the re-entry of Pike River Mine talks about his reading choices, and gives a top pick for all engineers.

57 Review 59 Obituaries 60 Engineering Genius

03

Engineering Envy #69

AeroPress What happens when an engineer tackles coffee making?

The AeroPress. Inventor and retired Stanford University engineering teacher Alan Adler's thirst for the perfect cup led to a coffee maker that uses air pressure, forcing the water through the grounds by pushing the plunger down.

A heat resistant plastic chamber and a plunger fitted into the top forms an airtight seal. At the bottom of the cylinder is a filter cap, screwed in place to keep the filter and coffee grounds secure. AeroPress fans are so passionate there's an international competition in pursuit of the best brew.

Electricity used

0

Weight

369g Recommended water brewing temperature

80-85°C Cups per plunge

1

Weight of ground coffee per level scoop

11.5g

Competitors in World AeroPress Championships

3,157

What they said

Editorial

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Safety’s critical

“This is a major environmental disaster on the scale of the Rena oil spill.”

81-year-old Fox River rubbish clean-up volunteer John Duder FEngNZ IntPE(NZ).

“The development of the next-generation shinkansen is based on the key concepts of superior performance, a high level of comfort, a superior operating environment and innovative maintenance.”

East Japan Railway on 400kphcapable bullet trains being trialled for a 2030 launch.

Nau mai koutou katoa.

Georgia Institute of Technology Assistant Professor Azadeh Ansari

New Zealand’s construction industry had a horrific start to the year, with four serious workplace accidents in Auckland in four days in January. And unfortunately they’re not isolated incidents. Accidents continue to occur when people should be safe at work. As a profession, we need to be aware of our responsibilities.

We’re constantly learning more about the Health and Safety at Work Act, including the focus on “overlapping duties” during the development and delivery of new infrastructure. In this edition of EG, we look at the lessons WSP Opus learned after a scaffold collapse in South Auckland where, thankfully, there were no casualties. The aim is to increase engineers’ awareness of the scope of their responsibilities under the Act, and to help prevent further such incidents.

We also look at the thinking that needs to be applied when buildings and plants are decommissioned or demolished – from sustainability, environmental protection and repurposing of materials, through to worker wellbeing.

on ant-sized, vibration-powered, 3D-printed robots.

EG is introducing a new heritage section. As a past Board representative

"... the design has pushed the structural engineering envelope in New Zealand and is a world leader when it comes to base isolation foundation design."

New Zealand Commercial Project Awards judges on 2019 supreme winner PWC Centre (Wellington).

“Using a drone to inspect our aircraft will save time, taking around one to two hours, compared to up to six…”

Air New Zealand Chief Ground Operations Officer Carrie Hurihanganui on partnering with ST Engineering for drone inspections.

“We are working at the intersection of mechanics, electronics, biology and physics.”

to the Engineering Heritage Board, it has been great to see the hard work that goes into identifying, recording and celebrating the development of engineering in New Zealand and we’re delighted to recognise the past in these pages.

Six weeks of Board Roadshows have now wrapped up, with the exception of one in the United Kingdom later this year.

I valued the opportunity to talk to members around the country. Occupational regulation remains a hot topic. We believe the proposed system is too cumbersome with the addition of certification but we support the idea to license safety-critical work. There are models already in place, for example in the health sector, that could be adapted and applied here. We’re well aware of the challenge the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment has thrown down, and we’ll continue to work with them to frame the proposal.

I was pleased with the strong turnout of mostly immigrant engineers at the Settling in New Zealand sessions around the country, exploring the challenges and showing how we, as a profession, can help.

Ben Holland FEngNZ CPEng President, Engineering New Zealand

EG 8/2019 06

Photo: CPL Sean Spivey

Profile

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Over troubled waters WRITER MATT WINTHROP

In late March, heavy rain washed away the Waiho Bridge, cutting off the main road between two West Coast towns. New Zealand Army engineers were called in to

“But every day we’d meet up and discuss who was achieving what for the day, and that set the pattern for how the task ran and everything just flowed from

Following Officer Cadet School, she decided to pursue the opportunities in engineering that the Army had to offer.

“I went to Australia to do a Regimental

help. They worked around the clock with the NZ Transport Agency, Downer and contractors, to replace it with the country’s largest Bailey bridge.

The Waiho Bridge made world headlines earlier this year when a once-in-20-year storm caused it to collapse very quickly and dramatically. Jaw-dropping video footage shows a large section of the bridge toppling over in a heavy torrent of water before breaking loose and floating down the river. With the crucial State Highway 6 link between Franz Josef and Fox Glacier gone, the fall in visitor numbers cost the region an estimated $3 million a day in lost income.

When Second Lieutenant Laura Bayfield arrived on the scene with 16 Army engineers, she quickly grasped the enormity of the task at hand.

“At the start, there were a few nerves on my part. It was important we did this right, given the difference we were going to make for the West Coast, so we just got stuck into it.

“Assembling a Bailey bridge is a bit like a jigsaw puzzle, so putting it together was straightforward and everyone involved knew what they were doing.”

The challenge, she says, was adjusting to the methodology that Downer applies on the equipment used to lift each part of the bridge.

“In the Army, we do all that by hand.

And figuring out where we fit into the mix, working with NZ Transport Agency, Downer,

there.”

Westland’s famous weather also made things interesting, she says.

“The river had finally dropped, which meant we could get plant equipment under the bridge on the riverbed.

Suddenly, though, we had two days of torrential rain, which made the river rise again. It was unfortunate and slowed progress.”

Adding to the pressures wrought by nature was working under the glare of keen public interest, with everyone in the local community and wider region having a stake in the bridge. While there weren’t any set timeframes to complete the project, the expectation was they’d restore the crucial road link as quickly as possible.

“We just worked at the fastest rate we could. NZTA gave us the task of what we needed to achieve and we just worked at it. Thankfully, NZTA were dealing with the time pressure from the media so we didn’t have to worry about that.”

In the end, it took just 18 days for the joint Army/civilian team to rebuild the bridge. That’s no small undertaking, given that at 170m long it’s the largest Bailey bridge the New Zealand Army has helped build since World War II. “The new bridge has 52 bays over piers, whereas most of the bridges we do are 10 to 12 bays without piers, so it’s epic to be involved in this one.”

Second Lieutenant Bayfield enlisted in the New Zealand Army in January

Officer's Basic Course in engineering, which involved eight months of learning about what an army engineer does. We studied demolition, bridging, boating, chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear warfare, construction – those kinds of things.

“I was interested in the variety of engineering there is. Whereas in some courses you’re specifically involved in one thing, engineering has such a broad range to choose from, that’s what interested me a lot.”

Leading the Army contingent on the Waiho Bridge is her biggest engineering achievement yet, she says – and her most fulfilling.

On 13 April, when vehicles started rolling over the Waiho River once again, everyone – from local businesses and tourism operators to Westland’s Mayor – was beaming. For Second Lieutenant Bayfield, it was “awesome” to know she’d helped make that happen.

Fulton Hogan and all the other contractors – that took some getting used to,” she says.

2017, after graduating from Mount Albert Grammar School in Auckland.

Operation Tidy Fox An old landfill was partially washed away during the flood, exposing about 135,000kg of rubbish. It washed through the Fox and Cook riverbeds and terraces, plus along more than 60km of coastline. In June, DOC took over the clean-up response from Westland District Council. DOC staff, the New Zealand Defence Force and hundreds of volunteers have helped clean up the mess.

16 Temporary situation

22 Cheers, engineers!

28 Next stop: Nelson-Marlborough

Features

10 Tear down the wall

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Tear down the wall WRITER CHRIS ORMOND

With a growing awareness around safety, sustainability and environmental protection, the demolition, deconstruction or repurposing of buildings can present a myriad of technical challenges. These projects can also be emotive, but unique opportunities do arise.

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Some buildings have a significant place in the community because of their heritage, says Carron Blom FEngNZ, Managing Director of Anguillid Consulting Engineers and Scientists.

“Sometimes many generations of people are built around them, so there can be a sense of grieving when they come down.”

If a building is going to be demolished, sustainability will always come into play. Besides investigating ways of saving the building, this can involve looking at ways to involve the community at the deconstruction process.

For example, inviting the art community in at the planning stage to look at sequestering or repurposing materials.

It can be about using some of the building parts and equipment in a creatve way that celebrates the heritage of the site, Carron says.

“Part of it is capturing the stories. If an artist goes into a scrapyard they will just see scrap. If they go into a factory they can actually capture the story of what it is… it’s not just a piece of art – it’s a piece of art with a piece of New Zealand in it.”

A glass (and a) half full

While the impact lingers, former staff have secured jobs locally and around the country. Others followed the plant to Melbourne. David, now a lecturer at Otago Polytechnic, says while there isn’t a huge amount of manufacturing left in Dunedin, former Cadbury engineers have generally managed to secure work at other factories and businesses.

Some demolition work has taken place at the Cadbury site since the buildings were cleared. It is set to become part of Dunedin’s new hospital, with stakeholders currently working through plans as to how and when building work will proceed. The project will involve a lot more demolition but Cadbury’s old dairy building facade, with its art deco style frontage, was recently restored. All going well it will remain as a lasting memory of a business that had roots in Dunedin dating back to the 1800s.

It was a bitter pill to swallow for some, because the factory was performing. But as we understood it, this was more to do with the physical location, transport costs, etcetera.

One of the more high-profile decommissions in recent years was Dunedin’s Cadbury chocolate factory. David Bettis, a former reliability engineer at the plant, was involved in the massive task of decommissioning the machinery and preparing it for collection and transfer to the company’s Melbourne plants. It was a huge challenge technically. From an employee perspective, David also witnessed the emotional side of the announcement, and the eventual wind-up of one of the country’s most iconic factories.

“I think there was a lot of shock to be honest,” he says of the closure announcement.

“Some had been working there for 35 years plus – some started there straight from school.

“It was a bitter pill to swallow for some, because the factory was performing. But as we understood it, this was more to do with the physical location, transport costs, etcetera.”

Cadbury inevitably came under fire, but David says the company put a lot of thought into its exit process and deserves credit for that.

“They basically wanted everyone to leave there with a qualification relating to what they could do,” he says.

Training organisations were enlisted to guide staff through formal qualification procedures and CV workshops were held to help prepare them for future job opportunities. Formal graduation ceremonies followed, and it helped many in finding new jobs. David says some staff understandably left Cadbury soon after learning of the closure but the training was a good way to keep others

When the Kaikōura earthquake struck in 2016, one of the many areas extensively damaged was Wellington’s CentrePort. The demolition and deconstruction of buildings on the compromised port land continues today.

When it came to pulling down the port’s four 10,000m2 cold stores, due to the reclaimed land subsiding beneath them, there was no heritage value, but there were significant environmental challenges.

CentrePort Infrastructure Project Delivery Manager Greg Patience says plenty of thought went into working out how to deconstruct the huge cold stores with their notoriously

engaged to the end.

“It gave us something to focus on.”

undesirable polystyrene panels in a very windy spot adjoining the harbour.

– David Bettis

Harbour-side challenges

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The former Cadbury chocolate factory in Dunedin. Photo: KC Hunter/Alamy Interior of the decommissioned Cadbury factory.

Photo: Mondelēz International

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>> Greg says the agreed methodology needed to be flexible to achieve a successful project.

“After three days of deconstruction work, the methodology changed to a smarter and more efficient way of dropping these panels to contain the polystyrene,” he says.

Methodology work, led by Ceres Environmental Services, included soaking the floors with water to contain rogue polystyrene particles. With the constant use of vacuum cleaners, scrim fitted to the perimeter fence, and daily checking of all loaded trucks leaving the site, a tricky operation was carried out successfully.

Water soaking was a method also used more recently to contain office papers during the early stages of stripping out the nearby Statistics House. Greg says when it comes to health and safety, demolition and deconstruction often involves working in compromised buildings in an earthquake zone, so where possible strip-out works are planned with contractors spending minimum amounts of time inside.

Unfortunately, the CentrePort team is getting used to demolition and deconstruction planning, having already got through the majority of a 20-building

be recycled and repurposed – to the extent that concrete and glass crushed off-site will come back and be used for the new Kings Wharf project nearby. Other items will be repurposed in the CentrePort office and operational accommodation, as well as in other entities in the city.

With the cold stores, disposal of the polystyrene panels was achieved through Quality Demolition and Contracting. This company, along with Macauley Metals, has been recycling what they can from CentrePort.

Quality Demolition’s Shane Gray says landfills don’t welcome the lightweight, space-invading polystyrene from cold stores but he’s imported a compressing machine to deal with it.

“It basically compresses the polystyrene 30 to one – 30 cubic metres becomes one,” he says.

Shane says he isn’t aware of such a machine in New Zealand, and while its purchase was to minimise impact on landfills, investigations are continuing to find possible ways of repurposing the compressed materials – potentially overseas.

demolition programme. When the former BNZ building is demolished, approximately 98 percent of it by weight will

of what can happen when there's strong community will to stop demolition of iconic buildings.

Protecting the heritage The Heritage Christchurch hotel is a flagship example

Feature

Demolition of CentrePort's cold store buildings on Wellington's waterfront.

Photos: CentrePort

Formerly the Old Government Building, on Christchurch’s Cathedral Square, the prominent Italian High Renaissance-style building got a new lease of life in the 1990s.

It was a fix-up that required full earthquake strengthening and refurbishment with minimal aesthetic impact.

Driven largely by a public outcry following talk of demolition, the Christchurch City Council bought the building for preservation. At the time, the building cost a little under $750,000, with strengthening and refurbishment work costing roughly $3.75 million.

Engineers Holmes Consulting were brought on board to assess strengthening requirements and found the building's prognosis was good.

The previously unreinforced masonry building was seismically retrofitted to 100 percent of the New Building Standard and the refurbishment brought it back to its former glory, with key heritage features identified and retained.

Strengthening systems were carefully planned to provide both strength and stiffness compatibility, while creating valuable extra usable space through

Holmes Group Limited Chief Executive John Hare FEngNZ CPEng IntPE(NZ) says when buildings are strengthened there can be no guarantee of outcomes.

“Particularly when you get an event as big as the February 2011 earthquake, which was beyond code.”

He admits engineers can feel nervous when approaching old buildings after significant events to see how strengthening work has held up.

“In this case we were very pleasantly surprised.”

While some repairs and strengthening were required, there were no significant failures.

“As far as we were concerned, it was a great success,” John says.

“The approach that was taken, and the way it was implemented, meant that we had a building that was good not just for life safety but achieved a critical outcome overall for the protection of investment.”

From a heritage perspective, planning was a collaboration.

“It was a good interaction between heritage advisors and engineers as to what we could do in terms of exploring options and prioritising what we keep and what we modify.”

The building has been a prominent part of Christchurch

selective demolition and replacement of less heritagecritical areas.

City for more than 100 years and with any luck, will be around for generations to come.

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Temporary situation WRITER MATT PHILP

WSP Opus shares lessons learned after a scaffold collapse injured six workers. How do we prevent similar events from happening again?

>>

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On the morning of 21 February 2017, a group of seven workers were completing a maintenance project underneath Auckland’s Panmure Bridge when their scaffolding collapsed. Six fell into the Tamaki River. As a WorkSafe New Zealand spokesperson says, it was a lucky escape for the men, who suffered only minor injuries. “Had the scaffolding collapsed over concrete, instead of water, the resulting harm might have been very different.”

The scaffolding company, Affordable Scaffolding, was eventually fined $150,000 and ordered to pay reparations of $12,000. This was after a WorkSafe investigation found the collapse had been caused by overloading; that Affordable Scaffolding had failed to ensure the scaffolding was designed safely, and that its load calculations and design drawings had not been reviewed by an engineer before it was built.

needed to enable the permanent works to be built – or, in this instance, maintained. Scaffolding is an example.

So, too, are formwork and falsework, props, excavation support, and so on. According to WorkSafe New Zealand’s Engagement Lead for Construction, Melanie Dale, “temporary works feature highly in notification of incident and injury in workplaces across New Zealand”.

Some of what WSP Opus has learned from the 2017 incident should give engineers food for thought about the risk factors of temporary works – and this article will get to that. But the company has gone broader in its analysis of what went wrong and what can be learned.

The key lessons Muir Coup FEngNZ CPEng, Principal Engineer Procurement and Governance at WSP Opus, was among

Panmure was an example of the potential hazards

those who handled the company’s response.

“I wouldn’t want people in the industry out there thinking, ‘I don’t do much with scaffolding, so this doesn’t apply to me’,” he says.

“This started with a straightforward temporary works situation of some staging collapsing but when you dig into it, it goes much wider than that.”

As WSP Opus sees it, the biggest lesson was the need for clarity about everyone’s responsibilities on a project.

The second biggest? That there is collective onus on all parties to ensure health and safety on a site.

Some context. At Panmure, WSP Opus was engaged

by Auckland Transport to provide the Engineer to the Contract to manage the NZS 3910 contract between AT and Topcoat, which handled the repair work under the bridge.

Affordable was the subcontractor providing access.

WorkSafe considered that when it came to responsibility for the scaffolding design, there appears to have been a lack of coordination and communication between the parties, and a failure to grasp the Act’s notion of overlapping duties.

“I don’t think that concept is well understood,” says Muir, explaining what WSP Opus has learned from the incident.

“Traditionally, we’ve thought the contractor has control of a site and that you operate under their health and safety plan. But it’s become clear you can’t just delegate it to one person and forget about it.

“The expectation of the Act is that we coordinate, cooperate and communicate, agree who is doing what to eliminate or mitigate risks to health and safety, and document it.”

That coordination, and the subsequent ambiguity around responsibilities, became a factor in the incident.

As part of its EU with WorkSafe, WSP Opus has developed a guide to the obligations of the Engineer to the Contract under an NZS 3910 contract that it will disseminate to the

involved with “temporary works”, a term that encompasses all those parts of a construction project

industry, with the idea of helping smaller contractors and subcontractors understand everyone’s roles.

I wouldn’t want people in the industry out there thinking, ‘I don’t do much with scaffolding, so this doesn’t apply to me'.

– Muir Coup

The fallout didn’t end there. WorkSafe alleged the contractor on the project, Topcoat Specialist Coatings, and WSP Opus, who was engaged by Auckland Transport (AT) as the Engineer to the Contract, were also in breach of the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 (HSWA). Rather than taking court action, last year WorkSafe accepted Enforceable Undertakings (EUs) from both organisations.

Essentially, these are voluntary agreements to carry out a series of actions. In WSP Opus’s case, that includes sharing what it has learned to help prevent similar incidents.

Hazards with temporary works

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Collapsed scaffolding at Auckland's Panmure Bridge. Photos: WorkSafe

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Temporary works used during construction of this bridge pier designed by Mark Hedley were reviewed by another Chartered engineer. Photo: Mark Hedley

The guide recommends that all parties assess and agree a risk profile, then develop a site-specific safety plan.

“That’s a requirement under 3910 but I just don’t know how well it is applied,” says Muir.

It also stresses the need for everyone to monitor compliance.

“You can’t just go on a site and say, ‘ I don’t have to worry because the contractor is meant to be managing that’. If the contractor is not complying, we can’t turn a blind eye.”

Clients, too, need to be involved. Under the Act, by undertaking some contract management roles or commissioning work with their own employees or even supplying plant and materials, clients may have greater responsibilities.

“Some clients have the view that if they hire a contractor and a consultant to manage the contractor, they can step away. But the Act is clear: duties can’t be transferred to another person.”

The aim of the guide, he says, “is to give people much more clarity about expectations”, and that should help mitigate all sorts of dangers on a site, not just those surrounding temporary works. It focuses on the HSWA’s

The Panmure incident showed that the risks of temporary works’ failures are very real. Arguably, the industry doesn’t give those risks as much attention as it should.

“When working on temporary works, we would like to see PCBUs [Person Conducting a Business or Undertaking] … implementing the highest level of mitigating controls to keep people safe,” says WorkSafe’s Melanie Dale.

overlapping duties of multiple parties working on a construction site.

“But that was 1980 and it is now well out of date”, Mark says.

Raising awareness and standards Mark Hedley FEngNZ CPEng IntPE(NZ) is a senior engineer who specialises in temporary works for Downer. He points out that temporary works aren’t subject to the same legal requirements as permanent structures, which need building consent and approval from the territorial authority.

And yet, he notes, “a permanent structure may never in its lifetime get its full loading, but a temporary works will, and it will probably be next week. It must be robust.”

How well are temporary works done in New Zealand?

Following the 1975 collapse of a ramp during the construction of Auckland’s “Spaghetti Junction”, the then Ministry of Works produced a document on how to design and check such works.

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“It has been left to people’s initiative to develop systems they think will be suitable and safe.”

That has been fine for the big contractors, who generally employ in-house specialists, but smaller firms can struggle to afford the necessary engineering expertise. Meanwhile, the construction industry’s growing complexity and high turnover tends to exacerbate risk.

“I feel that we’re behind the rest of the world, particularly the United Kingdom, in terms of good process.”

For those reasons, Mark and others such as Brendan Attewell CMEngNZ CPEng from Fletcher Construction have launched the Temporary Works Forum to try to raise awareness and standards. Earlier this year, the Forum put out a good practice guide for temporary works. It is holding public meetings around the country and plans to develop guidance notes on aspects such as scaffolding.

It's available at sesoc.org.nz under Special Chapters.

We want anyone who carries out that sort of work to follow that process, even if it does cost more.

– Mark Hedley

Mark argues that Chartered engineers need to be involved in the design, review and inspection of anything other than the simplest kind of temporary works.

“It’s about educating people on when you need to introduce these experienced people, and having good processes for design, review and inspection.”

In the case of smaller firms, he adds, “we’re trying to provide as much help as we can. We’ve produced a process to help them identify those temporary works that do need an experienced and competent engineer.

“We want anyone who carries out that sort of work to follow that process, even if it does cost more. It has to be in place to eliminate potential risks.”

Muir Coup summarises: “No one wants an accident on

Mark Hedley (pictured top) and others launched the Temporary Works Forum, which hosts public meetings around the country.

Photos: Mark Hedley

their watch, and it’s too late to do anything when it has happened”. >>

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Cheers, engineers!

WRITER AARON WATSON

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It’s 200 years since missionary Samuel Marsden planted about 100 grapevines in Kerikeri, at what’s generally considered New Zealand’s first vineyard. He believed the country promised to be “very favourable to the vine”. He was right – and it wasn’t just in the winterless north. Wine exports were worth $1.7 billion to New Zealand in 2018 and engineers play a key role in nurturing and sustaining this industry. >>

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Cool, clear water

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1.

Fortifying an industry

From an engineering perspective, New Zealand’s wineries have made good progress in the past 20 years, says Beca’s Technical Director, Murray Chalmers.

He believes the 2007 Gisborne earthquake prompted thinking about seismic resilience – something the wine industry hadn’t done as it grew organically. After subsequent, more damaging earthquakes there’s now an appreciation in the industry that tanks, their foundations, and hold-down bolts, plus the walkways on top of the tanks, should be designed as an interacting system. But there is still room for improvement.

“With tanks up to 12m tall and walkways supported by the tanks or adversely affected by them in an earthquake, there is a critical life-safety consideration,” Murray says.

Greater regulator clarity is needed around tank-design requirements. Some territorial authorities exempt storage tanks from building consent. They consent only the walkways and foundations, leaving it to the supplier to determine the compliance level required, he says.

The compliance level sets the strength needed in the design. The importance level (IL), reflecting the risk to life, and design life (50 years for a permanent tank) are the key decision parameters. Across the industry, Murray says, there is no consensus on this, even with prescribed requirements in design standards.

“Historically, some engineers designed tanks to IL1 with a 25-year design life,” he says, adding that’s best suited to “a farm tank that nobody is near 99 percent of the time”.

More recently, the industry has been adopting a higher importance level (IL2) for the design of tanks, due to lifesafety considerations, and a longer design life appropriate for permanent structures.

“Wine is sunlight, held together by water,” according to Italian physicist, astronomer and engineer, Galileo Galilei.

In Marlborough, technology and engineering consultancy SWE helps local winemakers ensure they have enough water – but not too much – to get the best out of their vines.

“They require precise amounts of water.

Our designs focus on delivering the optimum amount of water for great growth,” says Mike Cooper, SWE’s General Manager who has a background in civil engineering.

“These days, you can offer really high levels of accuracy in delivery through driplines.”

The irrigation experts also create storage solutions for vineyards, which are increasingly at risk of water shortage during summer.

“We have been involved in the construction of storage dams of up to 100,000m3. The challenge is finding the space to put something that size on valuable vineyard land,” Mike says.

“Most wineries realise that the value of having storage when the rivers may not be available for irrigation outweighs the cost of the land.”

In an industry where water is a key ingredient of the product, SWE covers all the bases – from pipe networks and pump systems to dealing with wastewater. Their aim is to deliver innovative technology solutions that support their community and respect the environment.

While in Marlborough, the sunlight takes care of itself.

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3.

Fighting the shakes

Many wineries haven't focused on seismic resilience when buying, building or installing infrastructure and equipment, says Adam Walker CMEngNZ CPEng IntPE(NZ), director at Structex in Christchurch.

But he says the large earthquakes of 2011 and 2016 focused minds on the importance of withstanding shaking.

“In these quakes, a lot of that infrastructure performed poorly. There was some loss of product but the real issue was the loss of storage and winemaking capability.”

That impact was felt on subsequent vintages, with consequent revenue falls and brand damage for wineries that could not keep up with their supply commitments, he says.

“Business interruption – that’s the risk that we have seen.”

Engineers are able to “put a seismic lens” over the design of plant and equipment to reduce the risk of business interruption from an earthquake. This can be part of the design of new infrastructure or a mitigation of seismic weak points in existing systems.

Structex director Will Lomax CMEngNZ CPEng IntPE(NZ) has developed the OnGuard anchoring system to keep wine tanks stable during seismic events, a solution that could assist winemakers in many quake-prone regions of the world.

“It’s about identifying weak points and allowing things to move where they need to, or tying them down where they need to be secured,” Adam says.

Another innovation that's catching on is lowering piping and minimising the need for catwalks to reduce health and safety risks.

Adam sums it up succinctly: “Engineers are good at challenging the status quo.”

1. Extending the services pipebridge allowed quick restoration of winemaking capacity after the 2016 Kaikōura earthquake.

Photo: Structex 2. SWE's Mike Cooper on site with a client. Photo: SWE 3. Inspecting replacement tanks and service supports after the 2016 Kaikōura earthquake.

Photo: Structex

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Sustainable production

>>

4.

David Turnbull and daughter Olivia (GM Tupari Wines).

Photo: David Turnbull

Engineer and vigneron

David Turnbull consults internationally on petrochemical plant design, but at home in Marlborough, he's part of the wine industry.

However, the director (and expert lawn mower) at Tupari Vineyards doesn't describe himself as a winemaker.

“I might be called a vigneron – a person who causes wine to be made. Being an engineer allows me to ensure grapes are grown and wine will be made in a safe, environmentally-friendly way to ensure maxiumum quality, at an economic price."

Tupari in the Awatere Valley is a family business with a philosophy of kaitiakitanga – guardianship – and has New Zealand Wine Growers sustainability accreditation.

“I was raised as a nipper on an inland Marlborough farm so chose Marlborough to settle after the big OE. At about that time, Marlborough was invaded with grapes, which has proven an interesting and profitable business – especially as we lucked out in having some excellent vineyard land, which I originally bought to raise sheep,” David says.

His engineering training helps him understand the winemaking process, and the importance of having good people around.

"Being an engineer, dealing with engineering teams, helps me choose and establish a team to do the vineyard and winemaking work.”

In a world where conscious consumers want to know the products they buy are produced sustainably, Dr Belinda Mathers’ process engineering background helps create this with confidence for wine drinkers.

As the General Manager Technical at Enviro-Mark Solutions, Belinda runs a team overseeing the science and systems evaluation that certifies carbon-emission management and reduction plans for wineries like Yealands and Villa Maria.

“With all of our clients, there are a range of different reasons people come to our service. For people with products – wine, for example – it is to get something that shows their purchasers that they are doing the right thing,” Belinda says.

“This can be very valuable in international markets.”

Enviro-Mark Solutions can evaluate the totality of a wine business, from creation of vineyards through to what happens to the bottles once the wine is consumed.

Ensuring the accreditation system delivers according to agreed standards, and remains in line with international best practice, is crucial for the sustainability credibility that wine producers need.

5.

Phacelia flowers in Villa Maria's organic Joseph Soler Vineyard attract beneficial insects. Photo: Villa Maria

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EG 8/2019

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Next stop: Nelson-Marlborough

Top of the south to you Population Nelson region

Marlborough region

46,437

43,416

Land area Nelson

424km

2

Marlborough

10,458km2

Engineering New Zealand Branch membership

330 Did you know‌ When the Nelson region was developing, the mountains made it difficult to make real progress with transport. A railway was built in the late 1800s, but never linked to any other line.

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WRITER RACHEL BERRY

Think Nelson-Marlborough, think wine, horticulture, forestry and tourism. Most of all, think community. As these three projects show, engineering and technology are helping to create a real sense of connection in the top of the south.

Engineering a warm welcome More people than ever before are discovering the appeal of the regions at the top of the South Island. Nelson Airport is now the fifth busiest in the country. The small, potentially earthquake-prone terminal was no longer fit for purpose: it was time for an upgrade.

Nelson Airport hired in engineering and architectural expertise in the shape of local consultancy Cameron Gibson Wells, as well as Dunning Thornton and Studio Pacific Architects from Wellington. They created a uniquely designed and engineered timber structure that finds its strength through form.

The space needed to be flexible with spans of up to 30m.

“I drew how deep a beam needed to be to span that far,” says Dunning Thornton Director Alistair Cattanach FEngNZ CPEng IntPE(NZ).

“We wanted to make a roof that had that same depth, but had it through form.”

The result is a folded plate roof made from locally sourced Nelson timber. Where a steel beam would be up to 2.5m deep, the beams in the new terminal are only 600mm, with the depth built into the folds of the roof.

“To make it cost effective, we’ve tried to make everything structural,” says Alistair.

“The make-up of the roof is structural; a services space, insulation and that’s all. There’s some acoustic requirement for noise intrusion; we needed to work out how to make it the lightest we could without compromising the acoustics. We’ve ended up with an integrated structural solution.”

Nelson Airport is on an estuary. The design elegantly deals with liquefaction.

“The new building is piled down through the liquefiable materials,” Alistair explains.

“We’ve created a suspended floor on top. You feel like you’re standing on the ground, but if there’s liquefaction, you’re still up on a wharf.” >>

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The project uses new seismic resilience technology, the Resilient Slip Friction Joint (RSFJ). It’s the product of a joint research project between the University of Auckland and Auckland University of Technology. The RSFJ protects buildings by absorbing earthquake forces and returning to its original position. It’s strong and completely adaptable, designed to fit the exact requirements of a project. It’s bespoke tailoring for seismic resilience, and a world first.

“In New Zealand – and in the United States and Japan – we’ve pioneered the use of old German train buffers to absorb earthquake energy,” Alistair says. “[RSFJs are] kind of a simpler, more tuneable way of doing the same thing, where you’ve got friction surfaces and you can just tune how much push there is on the friction. You can do exactly what you want.”

The state of emergency ended on 27 February with no loss of life and minimal property loss. The event proved how useful these technologies can be – and where there’s room for improvement.

“The ideal scenario is to be able to walk into an operations centre, look at the screen and be able to work out what’s going on,” says Joe. “We were striving to achieve a real-time situation report that’s multi-agency, fed from accurate information, from which you can take a snapshot at any time. We achieved that in part, and what we had helped. We got a good result.”

Engineering a better bridge The bridge over Ōpaoa River has stood on State Highway 1 for more than 100 years. Now, an NZ Transport Agency

On 5 February 2019, a spark from some farm machinery ignited a fire near Wakefield. In the dry conditions of a Nelson summer, it quickly spread to cover an area of 25–30km2.

“It was clear early on that the size and scale of the event were going to be hard to predict,” says Joe Kennedy, Manager Emergency Management for Nelson Tasman.

A state of local emergency was declared the following day.

Agencies including Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ), Police and Nelson Tasman Civil Defence Emergency Management (CDEM) got to work. This was forest terrain.

Even where the flames were extinguished on the surface, root networks were burning underground. Heat remained underneath piles of logs and leaves. FENZ flew drones carrying infrared cameras over the fire each night.

“The drone operators had three or four drones up most of the time,” explains Simon Fleisher FEngNZ CPEng, Local CDEM Controller for Wellington, who joined the Nelson response.

“They were continually assessing the state of the fire, to map where it was going and to work out where hotspots were, so they could better direct firefighting efforts.”

To share information effectively, FENZ and CDEM used geospatial information systems (GIS). Maps, imagery, weather conditions and other data can be overlaid to get an accurate picture of the entire situation. While FENZ were extinguishing and containing the fire, CDEM were deciding, among other things, who needed evacuating and which way to send them. Using GIS meant this could happen more quickly.

While FENZ and CDEM were working separately, Joe says they formed a partial common operating picture to help with briefings and clear decision making.

“It was really helpful to have cordon and evacuation perimeters mapped quickly by the GIS team, because

project is improving traffic flow and earthquake resilience while celebrating the bridge’s heritage.

“The issues are resilience and width,” explains Brent Morgan CMEngNZ CPEng, Principal Project Director at WSP Opus.

“It’s 5.5m wide with two lanes over it. So, two lanes of 2.75m – larger vehicles are literally hitting wing mirrors as they go across.”

The solution? Old and new, side by side. A new, technically complex and partially-curved bridge will sit alongside the existing bridge. It will look simple and slender; pre-cast beams on piers and headstocks with a cast in-situ deck on top.

Octagonal piers on the new bridge will complement the shape of the old bridge’s bowstring arches. The old bridge’s concrete braces will be mirrored in a pattern cast onto the safety barriers of the new bridge. While traffic will use the new bridge, the old bridge will become a dedicated facility for cyclists and pedestrians.

Ground works began in September 2018. Step one involved relocating underground telecommunications services. Step two: placing sheet piling immediately adjoining the live traffic lanes to allow the new abutments to be constructed.

Then, almost 500 stone columns went into the ground to counter the effects of liquefaction and improve bearing capacity at both abutments in an earthquake.

“It’s one of the highest concentrations of stone columns that our teams have done in New Zealand,” Brent says.

“The percentage replacement for this was quite high to get the necessary conditions we needed for the bridge abutments”.

When the bridge opens to traffic around Easter 2020, it will be as much a gift to the local community as an engineering job well done.

“It’s not just all about concrete and building a bridge,” says Brent.

things were ever-changing. A picture paints a thousand words.”

“There are a whole lot of other things going on here; a real connection with the community.”

A blaze of activity

>>

Feature

1

1. Artist's render of Nelson Airport's new terminal building. Image: Studio Pacific Architecture 2. Drone technology used during the February Nelson fires.

Photo: Fire and Emergency New Zealand 3. Construction of the new ĹŒpaoa River bridge.

Photo: WSP Opus

2

3

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Celebrating outstanding commercial construction

38 New pathway for rivers

40 Batten down the hackers

42 Work abroad with confidence

43 Intersection

44 Nature’s shake-down

46 Demonstrating durability

Best practice

36 Worth its weight

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Heritage

Worth its weight CINDY JEMMETT

Opened in 1901, the Skippers Canyon Suspension Bridge was built to transport goldmining equipment across the Shotover River. But for well over 100 years, it has been predominantly tourists making the crossing, admiring the bridge and the views of the canyon.

Gold was first discovered in Skippers Canyon in 1862. Thomas Arthur and Harry Redfern, “dead broke” itinerant workers, had come to the area to shear sheep. They went prospecting on their day off and found 113g of gold. They quit their jobs and over the following week recovered 5.6kg of gold, making their fortunes.

A year later, there were more than 4,000 people living in Skippers. Entry to the narrow, deep gorge was via a precipitous walking track or up the flood-prone riverbed. Access slowly improved but it was another 27 years before the Skippers Road was largely complete. Construction had been challenging and more than one man lost his life undertaking the dangerous work. In some places where the cliffs were sheer, workers were lowered over the edge with ropes so they could hand drill into the rockface to plant explosives or chisel away the rock.

scale operations that required heavy equipment. A much more substantial bridge was needed to transport this equipment.

In 1898, work began on the Skippers Canyon Suspension Bridge. It was officially opened in 1901 by James McGowan, the Minister of Mines. At 91.4m above the river, it’s New Zealand’s highest suspension bridge. Its span is 96.3m and it is 2.2m wide. Fourteen steel suspension cables with deep rock anchorages are strung over 11.6-metre-high reinforced concrete towers. The use of concrete showed the growing popularity of this new construction material.

Skippers Canyon Suspension Bridge A small bridge, just 6m above the water, offered passage across the Shotover River. It was often damaged by flooding and the approaches on either side were

Tourism: another type of gold By the time the bridge opened, the glory days of goldmining in Skippers were already fading into the past. Instead it was tourists who sought to traverse the bridge and experience the canyon.

The challenge of the road and the ruggedness of the scenery drew tourists from its earliest days. Ten-seater horse drawn wagons offered day trips from Queenstown. Motor vehicles were given unrestricted access from 1926, and after World War II, specially designed six-seater buses gave an increasing number of tourists a thrilling taste of the canyon.

Thrill was pushed to new levels in the 1970s as the range of activities on offer grew. Jet boating and whitewater rafting provided new ways to experience the

narrow and steep. With the easy gold soon taken, miners’ dreams lay in larger

canyon. And in 1989, AJ Hackett Bungy offered jumps from the bridge.

From the early 2000s, Lord of the Rings fans have been drawn to the area. Looking from the bridge, it’s possible to see the filming location for the Ford of Bruinen.

Real and imagined landscapes collide.

Skippers has long been a place of imagination and dreams. Dreams of gold, of adventure, and the romance of an untamed landscape. Engineering brought these dreams closer, allowing us to safely cross the river and to access this remote area. In caring for our engineering heritage, we celebrate both the technical achievement and the social and cultural values connected with it.

The Skippers Canyon Suspension Bridge is recognised on the Engineering New Zealand Heritage Register as an engineering achievement of outstanding heritage significance. A plaque to recognise the bridge was unveiled earlier this year.

Best Practice

37

Photo: G. Riethmaier/Archives New Zealand

Skippers Canyon Suspension Bridge

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EG 8/2019

New pathway for rivers

Opinion Heide Friedrich MEngNZ leads the Water-worked Environments Research Group at the University of Auckland and is Chair of the Rivers Group (riversgroup.org.nz). She has lived and worked in Germany, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, both in industry and academia. Her current research interests are focused on studying the physical processes in natural aquatic environments, such as rivers, and how water interacts with and shapes its surroundings.

Best practice

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HEIDE FRIEDRICH MEngNZ

There’s a return to more holistic approaches to river engineering and management as people from a range of disciplines work together to achieve better river flow and improved flood prevention.

Earlier this year, the Environment Aotearoa 2019 report highlighted nine issues that need tackling. The Ministry for the Environment and Stats NZ report states the way we live and how we make a living are having a serious impact on our environment. When it comes to rivers, our waterways are not only polluted in farming areas, but also in urban areas.

It’s becoming increasingly common that changes to water flow, partly caused by the presence and operation of hydraulic structures, are affecting our freshwater ecosystems and connectivity.

Worldwide, there is a trend to go back to holistic approaches to river engineering and management. As engineers we are traditionally reductionists: we reduce systems to identify what is force, and what is action and reaction. Legally, a river is defined as the bed, the banks and margins, and the water. In current discussions we often come back to the question: how much space does the river require? This means taking into account not only the riverbed and the water, but also the banks and margins.

Communities have an inherent faith in the engineering works and systems that have been constructed to protect them.

flooding, and in turn feel more powerless each time it affects communities. As river engineers and managers, do we need to more proactively communicate to our communities how the river will behave and respond, and explain clearly the residual risk, which is always there? This also leads us towards current discussions on the need for licensing of professional practising for river design.

In Aotearoa we do not have to look far for examples of holistic river management.

It’s part of the traditional Māori world view to see rivers as sentient beings, illustrated by the Māori saying “Rivers are the veins of Papatūānuku, Earth Mother, and the water in them is her lifeblood”.

There are increasing pressures on riverine environments, not only when it comes to freshwater quality, but also regarding the space provided for river networks.

In addition to protecting our freshwater quality, we have to understand and manage the space needed for healthy river systems.

In 2009, the Rivers Group Manatiaki Kōawa was formed to provide a forum for those involved with, and with an interest in, rivers, flood risk management and the operational and environmental issues of catchments and river systems. A joint technical group of Engineering New Zealand and Water New Zealand, the group also incorporates a wide range of related fields and professionals, promoting a multi-disciplinary, culturally

We’re becoming increasingly aware of, and understand, complexities associated with

sensitive approach to river management in an integrated and holistic manner. Instead

of controlling the river with traditional engineering approaches, the Rivers Group Manatiaki Kōawa provides a platform for people working with rivers to jointly explore new, interdisciplinary pathways that aim to inform river management practices that encourage dynamic river systems. We need to give room to the river, a concept that passed legislation in The Netherlands, aiming to give unpopulated space to the river to spread out as needed, and thus reduce the effect of flooding on society and infrastructure.

We’re excited to bring the River, Coastal and Estuarine Morphodynamics Symposium to Auckland in November, with the theme: Ka mua, ka muri: Looking back, moving forward. Delegates' backgrounds include engineering, physical geography, mathematics, biology and social sciences, connected by a strong interest in the latest understanding, technologies and applications of environmental morphodynamics monitoring. This aligns well with the Rivers Group’s objective to facilitate cross-disciplinary interaction between individuals, communities and professionals involved in catchment management, flood risk management and river management throughout New Zealand and to promote best practice, leadership and the sharing of technical knowledge.

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EG 8/2019

Batten down the hackers JOHANIEK SULZBERGER

There are some simple ways to protect yourself and your work as hackers become increasingly creative.

Our increasingly digital environment is changing the very heart of how we work and live. As we embrace smarter, more connected technologies, more people are working remotely, storing and accessing data via the cloud, and digitally connecting more and more devices in workplaces, homes, cars, hospitals – even bodies. Digital platforms are being leveraged to increase efficiencies and gain deeper consumer insights. This creates new opportunities for individuals, businesses, governments, societies and cyber criminals.

In 2018, New Zealanders lost $14 million to cyber security attacks, according to a report from the national Computer Emergency Response Team. Criminals can access and use information for fraud, theft and malicious activity. They can also tamper with or take control of computers and devices remotely. The first known successful cyber attack on a power grid happened on 23 December 2015 in Ukraine, temporarily disrupting electricity supply to end users. Emerging technologies have since continued to evolve rapidly, and cyber criminals can make an increasingly large impact.

Strong cyber security can’t be considered an optional add-on – it’s now a critical component of standard business and personal digital “hygiene”.

Threats in the workplace Malware is a big threat to end users – malicious software that can cause data loss, steal credentials (such as bank logon details), install ransomware or make machines unusable. Malware typically installs itself through malevolent emails, unpatched software or by visits to malicious websites. Mitigate the risk by ensuring a business or home network is secure, be wary of emails you don’t know or trust, and update software as soon as new versions become available.

When considering your office or home network, anything exposed to the Internet is a potential vulnerability. Secure your router, which connects your business or home network to the internet. Ensure you change the default login credentials for your router, along with your wifi name (SSID) and password. Some routers come with built-in firewalls – if yours does, ensure it is enabled.

Another big risk is a “she’ll be right” attitude. Increased awareness and basic security measures at your office and home can go a long way in protecting your business, your customers and yourself.

Beware of “social engineering” – the use of psychological manipulation to get people to do things or provide information.

There’s phishing, typically involving a fake email, attempting to trick victims into providing personal – especially financial – information. Spear phishing is more targeted, often aimed at businesses, departments or individuals. For protection, use multi-factor authentication when

logging in, ensure any antivirus and firewall software is up to date, and use bookmarks or favourites to access websites rather than using links in emails.

Common security pitfalls Passwords Create strong passwords and don’t reuse them across sites.

Internet activity Avoid using public wifi spots, especially with sensitive/confidential data. Be conscious of what you share on social media.

Devices/software Ensure your web browser and operating system are set to automatically install updates. Keep mobile app installs to a minimum – every app increases the opportunity for malicious activity. Install antivirus software on your devices.

Back up data Ensure data is backed up regularly – especially on personal laptops. Use an automated cloud backup solution to “set and forget” backups regularly.

Activity and habits Always lock your computer when you are away from it. Beware of shoulder surfers – people looking over your shoulder in public places to gather information.

Johaniek Sulzberger is Marketing and Communications Manager at Blackwall.

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EG 8/2019

Work abroad with confidence STACEY CAMPBELL

Engineers undertaking work overseas may be exposing themselves to insurance and liability risks, without knowing it.

Engineering New Zealand was recently approached by a member who works in countries around the world. Until this year, he believed his professional indemnity insurance policy applied worldwide, and his insurer had not told him any differently.

However, he has recently learned that may not be the case.

Some countries have laws requiring that engineers have local insurance cover, above and beyond their “home” policy.

Some countries also require that this insurance is brokered by a local agent.

This means it’s not always simple for a New Zealand-based broker to obtain policies for their clients in each country.

Chantelle Charlton, Senior Insurance Broker at Abbott Insurance, said it is an issue that many engineers are not aware of. And the wording of some insurance policies can cause confusion. Although a policy written and brokered in New Zealand may say that it applies globally, local laws in other countries could trump that policy.

“If an engineer has territorial and jurisdiction limits set as worldwide, this does not bypass the step of requiring ‘local paper’ in some instances,” Chantelle says.

It is important engineers seek legal advice relating to each country where they intend to work, she says.

“Every country is different, and I

of the country where the work is to be conducted.”

Craig Lewis FEngNZ IntPE(NZ), Chairman of the Consulting Engineers Advancement Society Incorporated, says international insurance obligations can be complicated for engineers planning to work overseas. Some countries, such as Japan and the United States, have tax and stamp duty obligations relating to insurance policy premiums. Engineers who are not appropriately covered could find themselves liable to overseas governments’ tax departments, in the event of a claim.

Getting adequate cover to work overseas can add significant costs to an engineer’s insurance premium.

Depending on the timeframe and scale of an engineer’s overseas work, projectspecific cover could be more appropriate and cost-effective than obtaining cover to work in that country long term.

Craig recommends engineers who plan to work overseas speak to an insurance broker who has specialist experience and knowledge of international professional indemnity insurance. Some smaller insurers who primarily deal with New Zealand-based clients may not have the necessary experience to advise on international requirements.

It is also important for engineers to ensure they are covered for each overseas project they plan to undertake.

Professional indemnity insurance isn’t

recommend clients seek legal advice to make sure they are abiding by the law

“just another insurance policy” you can sign up to and forget about, Craig says.

It is important to have an insurer who knows the engineering industry and can advise of any additional requirements that apply to overseas work.

He says it isn’t always complicated.

For instance, some Pacific Islands have reciprocal agreements with New Zealand, meaning you shouldn’t need separate cover to do work there. And many other countries do not require local cover.

However, you should still always disclose to your insurer any work outside of New Zealand – this is a standard requirement of annual policy renewals.

It’s also critical that engineers carefully check the contractual terms they sign up to when working overseas, to ensure they do not agree to take on liability that exceeds their insurance cover. Engineers who are used to working with standard form contracts in New Zealand may find overseas contracts have significantly different and more onerous terms of engagement, and may need legal advice.

Before you go ——Contact your insurer and confirm in writing you’re covered for your overseas work.

——Check your engagement contract to ensure you’re not signing up to greater liability than you’re covered for.

——Any doubts? Seek legal advice from a construction or insurance lawyer.

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43

Intersection

Intersection

People crossing paths with engineers.

Name: Stephen McDougall Based in: Wellington Role: Director, Studio Pacific Architecture Education: Bachelor of Building Science; Bachelor of Architecture, Victoria University, 1984 My career path… has been fairly linear. In the mid 1980s, I headed to Queenstown as a graduate architect, then back to Wellington to complete my architectural registration. I then spent four years in London where I met my two fellow founding directors. We plotted the birth of Studio Pacific Architecture, opening in New Zealand in February 1992. We’ve since grown to a team of around 80.

My role is… varied, depending on project size, scale, work type and work stage.

My project involvement ranges from significant through to a light touch. The three directors have loosely defined internal roles. Mine has been described as the “Home Office” – working with others to instigate internal initiatives, social events, and fostering and supporting the culture of our fantastic, enthusiastic, engaged crew. As a self-confessed tech dinosaur, I’m happiest drawing by hand and contributing at an early stage where this lack of tech CAD ability isn’t such an issue. But I’m also a control freak and as design runs through all work stages, I’m constantly involved. I’m trying to learn to step back though.

I have a passion for… architecture and the opportunity to influence and improve people’s lives. My favourite projects are often the smallest and simplest; observing how a family’s life or a workplace is transformed through an often-insignificant intervention. I also have a passion for the “soft stuff” – fostering an environment where individuals can flourish and driving a happy workplace.

Architecture is a slow art and while we are very conscious and focused on design aspects and outcomes, we also pride ourselves on our processes and enjoy the long and often winding journey.

We work with engineers who are… likeminded and compatible team members.

Over the years we have developed strong relationships with many very clever, engaged collaborators. We are part of established project teams from many disciplines that often move from project to project. We understand each other’s idiosyncrasies and have full trust in the wider team. Establishing a number of relationships where mutual respect for the individual’s skill, talent and character is critical and makes the complex process easier and more fun. As building structure is “the new black”, the building design is often a direct result of the structural solutions. Working with the structural engineers who have input at conceptual level is therefore crucial and the best results come from this early involvement.

Some observations I’d make about engineers are… our favourite collaborators are lateral thinkers and bring the smarts of their own discipline, but best results come from their wider project commentary and involvement. Our engineers tend to be good at challenging us and contributing to broader project disciplines and ideas.

I wish all engineers… understood the broader benefit of significant diversity within our combined industry. While the architectural profession has better stats than engineering, we both have a long way to go and this requires across the board, conscious action to ensure change.

Engineering decisions impact on our work… at all stages of projects and they are a fundamental part of the backbone of most of our built environment. Architects and engineers have a responsibility to ensure the creation of robust, enduring, socially and environmentally responsible, practicable and beautiful projects.

My work impacts on engineering because… architects are often the lead consultant on building projects. Our broad role involves setting the tone of a project and carrying this through the various work stages. We orchestrate and coordinate the many disciplines and project contributors, which means constantly communicating with engineers.

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Wellington Fault trace, near Woodville. Photo: Lloyd Homer/GNS Science

Opinion David Whittaker FEngNZ CPEng is a structural engineer and Senior Technical Director who has been with Beca since the early 1980s. He is also President of the New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering (NZSEE), which was formed just over 50 years ago, soon after the 7.1 magnitude Inangahua earthquake in 1968. Find out about joining NZSEE at nzsee.org.nz

EG 8/2019

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Nature’s shake-down DAVID WHITTAKER FEngNZ CPEng

A large earthquake in Wellington is inevitable. Our challenge is to use the lessons from Canterbury and Kaikōura to prepare.

The 7.8 magnitude Kaikōura earthquake in November 2016 was a wake-up call for Wellington. Many buildings were damaged and a number, even modern buildings designed to current codes, were uneconomic to repair. It was also of concern that precast concrete floor systems were found to be particularly susceptible to damage. This type of construction has been the norm for several decades, meaning much of our modern building stock is more vulnerable to earthquake damage than we had thought.

Earth scientists and seismologists now say the seismic hazard in Wellington is greater than previously thought. On top of that, ground-shaking measurements from the Kaikōura earthquake show the waterfront and Te Aro flat areas are prone to stronger shaking than adjacent parts of the CBD. Sooner or later, there will be a large earthquake with Wellington’s name on it. Our challenge as a professional community is to use the lessons learned from the Canterbury and Kaikōura earthquakes to prepare Wellington, as best we can, for the inevitable consequences.

As part of this preparation, we need

The Wellington Fault, which passes right through the western margin of the city, is an obvious threat. Earth scientists tell us the Wellington Fault ruptures more or less every 1,000 years. While the next event may be hundreds of years away, no one really knows. Recently, GNS Science has also been undertaking investigations to better understand another potential source of trouble, the Hikurangi trench, located off the east coast of the North Island. Plate tectonics science tells us the trench is where the Pacific plate starts to “dive under” the Australian plate. The resulting “subduction zone” under the North Island has the potential to generate a “great” earthquake and tsunami, similar to the one that severely affected the east coast of Japan in 2011. Geologists say that in the area under the southern North Island, the plates are “locked up”, or locally stuck together rather than slipping past each other at a steady rate as they are elsewhere. The concern is that when the plates become “unstuck” that could generate a major earthquake scenario in Wellington.

While the focus of the codes we use to design buildings has been primarily to protect the lives of occupants, we now understand more attention is required to achieve better seismic resilience and faster functional recovery. A common misconception amongst the public is that the buildings we design to the Building Code are “earthquake proof”, or will

to envisage what large earthquake scenarios might impact the capital.

remain usable after a major earthquake.

The reality is far from that: even most new

buildings are designed for controlled damage at best. We need to change our approach.

The good news is structural engineers can design better-performing buildings that are more damage resistant, able to continue to be used and, if necessary, more readily repaired. While base-isolation is one well-known technology to protect buildings from earthquakes, there are other systems and approaches. Designing buildings to be stronger is one simple approach that does not necessarily cost a lot more. During the design phase, engineers need to instigate and maintain appropriate dialogue with building developers and owners to offer options that can minimise damage and disruption in seismic events.

Armed with better knowledge of all of these seismic exposure issues, we need to redouble our efforts to reduce seismic risks ahead of Wellington’s next big earthquake.

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EG 8/2019

Demonstrating durability Engineering New Zealand has been hearing from engineers and councils that demonstrating durability under B2 remains a problem, so we’ve been looking for

45 years is often the maximum design life achievable due to the thickness of steel available.

This can put engineers in a difficult

MBIE found that it was acceptable for the engineer to specify compliance through B1/VM1 provided the appropriate clauses and standards are shown.

solutions.

B2 is a part of the Building Code that specifies durability of elements of structures. For example, a structure that has a design life of 50 years should be constructed of materials with a tested life of at least 50 years. This has become an issue between engineers and councils, typically around the life of exposed steelwork.

Steel can be protected from corrosion and degradation either by sheltering it from the elements (and ensuring it remains within a weathertight building envelope) or by coating it with a corrosioninhibiting substance; for example, by galvanising or alternative coatings. These coatings are generally determined by verification methods in codes such as NZS 3404:1997 and AS/NZS 2312. Alternatively, if the steelwork is protected by remaining within a weathertight envelope, it is accepted that it will last for the life of the structure because corrosion should be minimal.

The problem with coatings is they protect the exposed steel only for 25 years at the most. Obviously for a building with a design life of 50 years, this poses an issue for the remaining 25 years. In 2018, NZS 3404.1 2009 was superseded by SNZ TS 3404:2018, which provides calculations in section 2.5 around how to calculate steel loss once the protective coating has gone. This lets you oversize steel members to allow for potential corrosion until the

position. However, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) has recently issued a helpful determination (2019/30) on durability issues.

The determination concerns an authority’s refusal to issue a building consent to carry out invasive investigation and reinstatement work on the potential corrosion of concealed structural steel elements in an apartment complex because the engineer’s producer statement did not include the structural durability of the proposed work. The design engineer had provided drawings, photographs and specifications for the proposed work, supported by a PS1 and PS2, but had not included B2 in the Building Code Clause(s) section of the producer statements, only B1/VM1.

They had also followed Engineering New Zealand’s instructions for providing supplementary letters and calculations to demonstrate how compliance with B2 was achieved, referencing relevant industry standards for concrete and steel structures and the environmental conditions of the site.

The determination notes the task of an authority under section 14F(a)(i) of the Building Act 2004 is to properly assess the adequacy of all information submitted for a consent application, regardless of the format of that information. It says the engineer used every available verification method available (NZS 3404:1997 and AS/ NZS 2312) to ensure B2 durability. It said for

We have been engaging with a number of councils and council checkers on the best way for engineers to show compliance. If steelwork cannot be shown to last for the full life of the building, then one way is to provide a maintenance plan for the steel work. This can be done in conjunction with SNZ TS 3404:2018, section 1.7. When doing so, ensure the maintenance schedule is clearly shown on drawings and in calculations. Putting a reference to the maintenance schedule in your design features report is a good idea, to help council checkers easily find the information. You should also ensure the steelwork in question can realistically be inspected and maintained as required.

As referenced in the determination, Engineering New Zealand has an example letter you can use to demonstrate B2 durability, which you can find on our website. We’re currently updating this example letter to take into account updated standards and the recent MBIE determination.

end of the design life of the building.

Unfortunately, especially near the sea,

the council to demand further evidence from that engineer was unreasonable.

We always welcome feedback on engineering practice issues you’re encountering: please email hello@engineeringnz.org

51 Day in the life

52 The secret life of engineers

55 Leading questions

56 Bedside table

57 Review

59 Obituaries

60 Engineering Genius

Shorts

48 In two minds

48

EG 8/2019

In two minds WRITER ALEXANDRA JOHNSON

The world has long been fascinated with identical twins. From Romulus and Remus, who were raised by wolves and founded Rome, to the British gangster twins Ronnie and Reginald Kray, stories abound about

On leaving school, Sachin decided on an engineering-commerce degree, and Rasik science and commerce.

“But when I saw the stuff Sachin was learning, I thought well, that looks more

better. We train the teams of operators and management and show them with numbers how they can increase productivity.”

Sachin says his engineering

twins’ uniqueness, their power and their mysterious connection. So, when they both choose to study engineering, is it nature or nurture?

Having a best mate from birth is the most wonderful thing about being an identical twin, say Rasik Makan and Sachin Makan MEngNZ, who were born just seven minutes apart. Now both trained in engineering and commerce and living in Australia, their lives have diverged but continue to mirror the other’s in many ways.

Sachin says their first job as young children was in the fashion and advertising industry.

“We did a lot of modelling, for DEKA, Farmers, Visa and a few others. They took a lot of photos of us together – the value with twins is you can swap them in and out when they get tired.

“It was really fun, you got a day off school, you were the star of the day, they’d feed you up and treat you like a king,” Sachin says.

The boys attended Mount Albert Grammar School and were interested in the same sports, hobbies and took similar subjects.

Rasik, who is the older twin, says they both avoided English and were more interested in the sciences, economics and mathematics.

They also had a penchant for swapping classes, to spice up the day.

“It worked out alright until I forgot I had

fun, and did a similar degree.”

Rasik says engineering is in their genes as their father and two cousins are civil engineers.

“It was around us as we were growing up, so it was an easy choice.”

While Rasik chose mechanical engineering due to it being more tangible, Sachin chose environmental and civil.

“Our dad did electrical engineering and I thought, well I’m definitely not doing that.

I never understood electrical engineering – you have to imagine electrons flowing through things, that’s too abstract for me.

I like working with things I can see and touch,” Rasik says.

The twins graduated with joint engineering and commerce degrees, then worked as engineers. But five years into their careers, they’re drawing heavily on their finance education.

Rasik, who now lives in Sydney, is an Analyst at Capella Capital.

“It’s an infrastructure advisory role and while it draws more on my finance background it definitely has an engineering component to it. It’s about the big picture – dealing with how engineering solutions can be used, the costs, looking at the design. It is focused more on the finance of the infrastructure than the infrastructure itself.”

Sachin recently moved to Melbourne and is a Senior Management Consultant at EY. “We go into manufacturing businesses and apply system-thinking principles

background is invaluable.

“I’ve worked for very technical companies and having engineering knowledge helps you get your head around how some of the materials and processes work, and that helps you establish credibility.

“To be honest, I like making money and so I’ve always liked working in business, and commerce has always appealed.

That’s why I’ve been focused on the commerce side of engineering and technical businesses. I definitely would not say I’ve stepped away from engineering, I have straddled the two and I think I will continue to do that.”

Rasik feels similarly.

“I really enjoy working where commerce and engineering are combined, and infrastructure and financing infrastructure is one of those areas.”

Both twins debunk the idea of a dominant twin.

“There is no dominance, we joke about that. We both take risks, but we seek each other’s advice, there’s no big bro, little bro, knowledge is shared,” says Sachin.

He says there is very little competition between them.

“You’d expect a twin to be very competitive – even since pre-birth you're fighting in the womb.”

Theirs is more a case of supporting each other.

“As a twin you have an advantage in that you can experience different things and come back and talk about it with someone

a test and they found out and gave me a zero,” says Sachin.

– looking at their equipment, their processes, and how they can do

who is relatively similar to you.”

Profile

49

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Shorts

51

ay in the life

Engineering New Zealand Student Member Amy Strang is an intern in NZ Transport Agency’s Future Transport team while completing her studies in Mechatronics Engineering at the University of Canterbury.

She works one day a week on a range of transport technology projects aimed at developing the transport system in new, innovative ways. Over the past year she has organised and attended transportbased hackathons – sprint-type design events where people collaborate to solve a problem. She has spoken at the Intelligent Transport Systems New Zealand TransportTechnology conference and will attend the Intelligent Transport Systems World Congress Youth Development Programme in October in Singapore.

07.30 Jump on the bus and head into town.

07.50 Watch the city wake up as I stroll to work.

08.00 Check emails and catch up on what’s happened over the past week. Have a stand-up meeting with my manager, Ryan, and we make a plan for the day.

08.30 In the mornings I may head out to the Canterbury Accelerated Pavement Testing Indoor Facility (CAPTIF), where equipment is stored for a remote sensing data project. This project started out as a High Definition mapping trial for autonomous vehicles (AVs), to learn about the technology and encourage

AV companies to come to New Zealand.

As it progressed, Ryan and I realised the data could be used for a much broader range of applications, so we now partner with a number of different organisations to test and trial remote sensing data applications.

09.00 Arrive at the lab, pop the equipment on the car and go for a drive to collect some data or test new equipment/ software.

12.00 Head back into town.

12.30 Lunchtime! When I can I love heading out to try some of the new eateries in the city. As Christchurch is being rebuilt more and more cool places are opening. It’s lots of fun trying them all.

13.00 In the afternoon I may have a few meetings to encourage conversations about technology being used in transport.

These meetings come in many forms including planning for hackathons, engaging with the university or meeting with people in industry working on similar projects. The goal is to connect people, enable innovation to take place and develop partnerships to deliver solutions.

15.00 I spend some time on my video analytics project. This started out as a computer vision assignment for university where I detected pedestrians from camera footage and formed a heatmap showing their movement paths. I’m now developing

Amy Strang Based in: Christchurch Role: Student and Future Transport Intern at NZ Transport Agency Education: Bachelor of Engineering (Mechatronics) (Hons), University of Canterbury, graduating 2019

this software to add capabilities such as detecting and counting pedestrians, cars and cyclists, and detecting lanes to track lane changes. This work will improve the quality of data transport planners receive so that they can make more informed decisions and design a safer, more efficient transport system.

17.00 Call mum to have a catch up while I take the bus home.

17.30 University of Canterbury Women in Engineering executive meeting to plan events that support diversity in engineering. Throughout the year we run speaker evenings, a mentoring programme, industry nights and social events for our members.

18.30 A yummy dinner at home with my flatmates followed by a bit of university study.

21.30 Time to relax. I love to read, play board games or watch Netflix to unwind after a busy day.

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EG 8/2019

The secret life of engineers

Shorts

Avid sailor Barry Potter FEngNZ’s responsibilities at Auckland Council include helping deliver the infrastructure for the next America’s Cup defence in 2021, along

boat servicing it every month to six weeks.

Marina is Tongan by birth but we met at Auckland University and married while I was with VSA. Northern Tonga’s Vava’u

with other key infrastructure construction such as City Rail Link. His career has been based around civil engineering and leadership roles on major infrastructure projects in New Zealand, the South Pacific and Asia.

and Niuatoputapu are my “go to” places when I need to re-balance my views on life.

When we flew out of Niuatoputapu, at the end of the project, I saw a yacht sailing on the Pacific Ocean below and vowed that one day we would sail back there from New Zealand.

When did you first become interested in sailing?

I didn’t begin sailing until my 30s. I’ve always loved the outdoors and in my teens and 20s did a lot of tramping and deer stalking. I bought a Sunburst class sailing dingy from an old school mate, and a book on how to sail, and took the boat to Lake Waikaremoana on a hunting/sailing trip.

From that point on, I was hooked.

How has sailing shaped your life?

In our early sailing days, my wife Marina and I took our two children on camping and sailing trips around the North Island, using the Sunburst as a trailer to cart camping gear. Over the years we have progressed through a few yachts to our current one, 43-foot-keeler, Monu’ia – Tongan for “lucky, the good life, blessed”.

We have sailed her to Tonga three times and our two grandchildren have grown up on her.

Why did you choose a Tongan name?

Tonga is a very special place for me.

After graduating I worked for two years as Tonga’s engineer to the outer islands with the Volunteer Service Abroad (VSA) scheme, and led the construction of the airfield on Tonga’s northern most island, Niuatoputapu. It was very remote, with a

How much of your life is spent on the water?

About 50–60 days per year – we’re lucky to have the Hauraki Gulf on our doorstep.

There have been years when sailing has been limited, for example when we lived in Beijing, and then there are other times when I’ve taken extended time out sailing in Tonga.

How does engineering come into sailing?

Sailing offshore has been described as “head down, butt up, fixing things in exotic places”. Several times, I’ve wished I had done mechanical engineering rather than civil!

Have you passed on your love of sailing to the next generation?

Our son sailed Starlings class yachts for several years and likes to go out fishing off Monu’ia, while our daughter just likes to sunbathe on the deck. Our 10-yearold granddaughter loves coming out on Monu’ia. Her dad is Ngati Whatua and she has been learning to sail through their kids’ sailing programme – she’s my last hope!

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Barry Potter FEngNZ Based in: Auckland Role: Director of Infrastructure and Environmental Services, Auckland Council Education: Bachelor of Engineering (Civil), University of Auckland, 1979; MBA, Massey University, 2002

got caught in a bad storm which did a bit of damage to the yacht, including losing the life raft during the night. I recall the discussion in the morning: “We’ve lost Plan B, so let’s take really good care of Plan A”.

The trip took longer than planned and the crew says we nearly ran out of food on the last day, but we still had muesli, yoghurt, rum and coke.

Do you have a “tell” as a keen sailor?

I probably look longingly at the water, or the bush when there’s no ocean to be seen. I’m sure I check the marine weather forecasts more regularly than most.

What’s the most dangerous situation you’ve ever been in on the water?

What’s next with sailing?

I have a cousin who has been sailing around the world with his wife for the past eight years, returning later this year to the Bay of Islands. Marina and I are thinking of giving them a surprise welcome home by sailing out to meet them. Outside of that,

I delivered a charter yacht from Auckland to the charter fleet that operates in Vava’u. We

a slow circumnavigation of New Zealand, plus trips back to the Pacific Islands.

Collaborate.

What could you do if you had access to the most innovative and creative students, to our future engineers or designers?

The College of Engineering is looking to engage with organisations, to collaborate on projects they may not normally have time, or the resources, to consider.

Sponsoring projects and internships is a great way to participate in education, complete projects you wouldn’t normally have time for, and get in-depth research or consultancy for your organisation.

Students are available at many levels of study, in teams or as individuals. Students’ areas of study include all disciplines of Engineering, Forestry, Maths, and Product Design. Projects and internships culminate in the production of a prototype, report or case study that is made available to your organisation.

To find out more about these opportunities please visit: www.canterbury.ac.nz/engineering/industry

or contact: Grahame Burgess College Relationships and Engagement Manager Tel: +64 3 369 4279 Email: engindustry@canterbury.ac.nz

Shorts

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eading questions

Arthur Amputch ONZM FEngNZ CPEng IntPE(NZ) Based in: Auckland Role: Technical Director – Civil & Environmental Engineering, Riley Consultants Ltd Education: Bachelor of Science (Pure and Applied Mathematics), University of Auckland, 1986; Bachelor of Engineering (Civil), University of Auckland, 1990; Master of Engineering, University of Auckland, 1994 What inspired you to become an engineer?

I spent part of my youth in Fiji. During one of my school holidays, aged 11, as I was sitting in the backyard of my parents’ home, I looked across the creek that divided freehold land from native land. I noticed a group of children struggling to get two cows to cross the narrow creek – a daily occurrence. I told mum I needed to find a way to help the children. I cut down two trees and placed them across the narrow divide to form a basic crossing. It was a success, until the first flood. I then enlisted the help of others to construct a proper crossing. It taught me two valuable insights that have guided me: I love solving problems, and joining forces with others leads to an even better outcome.

leadership or direction has not been apparent or forthcoming.

What’s the most innovative project you’ve ever worked on?

The design philosophy we adopted for the NZ Transport Agency SH1 Northern Corridor encroachment into the Rosedale Closed Landfill in Auckland.

The philosophy and subsequent design are simple and elegant, yet the solution addresses complex and challenging issues including safety during design, construction, operation and maintenance and remedies past degradation.

How do you connect your work with a sense of greater good?

I practice engineering in a way that gives back to the industry and wider community, and try to use my engineering skills for the benefit of others. For anyone in our profession, a legacy is not just the built environment, it is the transfer of knowledge between each generation of engineers for the benefit of future societies and communities. This is an ethical imperative for engineers.

What makes you a good leader?

Others have said I have vision and influence and that I inspire. I am independent, objective, empathetic, and I lead by example. I have been told I am able to make tough decisions for the greater and common good.

How do you start a difficult conversation with someone you lead or manage?

I let the other party know beforehand that we need to have an honest conversation.

It is essential to outline what you hope to achieve. Before I start, I look at it from the recipients’ perspective and ask myself how I would feel if I were on the receiving end. Always treat each other with respect, compassion and dignity.

Who is a leader in New Zealand you admire?

When I was studying at the University of Auckland, Sir John Hood KNZM HonFEngNZ featured as a guest lecturer.

At the time he had a lead role in the former Fletcher Challenge Corporation. I was very impressed by his manner and his clarity of thought and knowledge. He went on to achieve on the world stage as Vice Chancellor of Oxford University.

At the end of each day, what tells you whether you’ve been successful?

If I have helped or contributed to someone’s development. I also regard

What mistake have you learned most from?

I developed an engineering solution that was rejected by the client and the stakeholders. What was really wanted was assistance with developing a range of options so they could find their own solution. I learned the singular importance

What questions have you been asking yourself lately?

What is the next horizon? What is my next challenge? How do I best continue to make a worthwhile contribution to New Zealand?

My key strength as a strategic thinker

success as receiving positive feedback when I have taken a lead role where

of listening, and when to advocate and when to inquire.

remains largely untapped, so I would like to become more involved in governance.

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EG 8/2019

edside table

Chris Lee was one of three experts who re-entered the West Coast’s Pike River Mine in May to explore the drift. He was selected to provide expert geotechnical advice to the Pike River Recovery Agency, helping it manage strata control hazards and geotechnical risk through the ongoing planning and drift recovery phase. Chris began his career working for Solid Energy on the West Coast, then specialised in providing geotechnical support to underground mining operations. He has also been involved in civil tunnelling works as part of the Kaikōura earthquake recovery programme.

What’s on your bedside table?

A couple of books and mountain bike magazines. A lamp, my glasses and cellphone. There’s also a photo of our wedding day and an almost year-old Father’s Day card from my 5-year-old son.

Tell us more about the books.

At the moment I am reading Tragedy at Pike River Mine: How and Why 29 Men Died

by Rebecca Macfie. I also have a copy of A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson.

Chris Lee Based in: Nelson Role: Senior Geotechnical Engineer, Strata Control Technology (SCT) Qualifications: Bachelor of Science (Geology) and Post Graduate Diploma in Engineering Geology, University of Canterbury, 2002; Graduate Diploma of

Let’s focus on the Pike River book, how does it help you in your role?

This is my second reading of this book; it is a good reminder of the health and safety failings at the mine and why safety is the top priority for the Pike tunnel re-entry. Geotechnical engineering in a mining or tunnelling environment must

Mine Geotechnical Engineering, University of New South Wales, 2006

look to identify, or reasonably forecast, all hazards, and put in place controls to

eliminate or minimise risks – as far as practical – that could impact on the safety and other aspects of the project.

Which group of engineering professionals is this book most helpful for?

I think all engineering professionals, and particularly those who consult to high hazard industries, would find this book useful. It highlights the potentially catastrophic consequences of inadequate investigation and design, hazard identification, risk assessment and risk management during many aspects of the project. There are lessons in the Pike River book for all engineers, many of which were incorporated into the recently introduced Health and Safety at Work Act. What is the top book you would recommend to other engineers?

Rock Mechanics: For underground mining,

by B H G Brady and E T Brown. It discusses first principles and highlights the

Shorts

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57

eview

fundamental aspects of characterising earth materials for excavations, and presents simple, practical analysis and solutions to engineering challenges. A good reference document for practising underground engineers.

What book has most influenced the way you work?

I have read a range of books that have influenced the way in which I work. One that stands out is: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey, particularly in relation to developing teamwork, collaboration and continuous improvement strategies that are so important in all engineering disciplines.

That said, I think the most important aspects that have influenced and shaped my working career are the people I have worked with in the mining and tunnelling industry and the relationships I have formed.

Nanogirl’s Great Science Adventures A new podcast for children available on RNZ rnz.co.nz

Ebook/paper copy I am a fan of real books.

Library/own I tend to purchase books I want to read.

Bookmark/turn down page Bookmark,

It’s science, it’s entertaining, it’s interesting and it’s educational. Nanogirl’s Great Science Adventures is a collaboration between RNZ and Nanogirl, aka Dr Michelle Dickinson – a new, regular science podcast series for children. Each podcast answers a science question – Can we bring dinosaurs back to life? Is all bacteria bad? How high can birds fly? Why do stars twinkle? Nanogirl, her nanobot CLAIR (the Constantly Learning Artificial Intelligence Repository) and some curious Kiwi kids source a scientist who can answer the question in a way that’s easy to understand.

The children interact and have the opportunity to ask questions along the way.

The podcasts have all the hallmarks of a good oldfashioned radio programme, packaged in a modern way – engaging topic, energetic presenter, fun sounds effects, music and jokes. Punchy and pacy, they run for about 20 minutes, including instructions for an experiment children can do at home.

or remember the page number. Not into folding the pages.

Access the podcasts at rnz.co.nz

What work-related book is on your must-read list?

Ground Engineering – Principles and Practices for Underground Coal Mining

by Jim Galvin.

What do you read for fun?

I tend to read sports biography books.

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Obituaries Terence Neville Costello (Terry) FEngNZ 1931–2019 Terry Costello will be remembered for his long service to New Zealand’s engineering profession. He was a member of Engineering New Zealand for 59 years, joining in 1960, and promoted to Fellow in 2000.

Terry trained at the Ardmore School of Engineering and worked for consultants and councils before forming Cook Muldowney Costello, more than 40 years ago. He was significantly involved in a number of projects that shaped Northland, including the then Portland Cement works and the Marsden Point Oil Refinery. He was also involved in highway infrastructure projects in Asia.

As a co-founder of what is now Cook Costello, Terry will be remembered for creating intuitive engineering experiences and passing on much of his knowledge to others. In his retirement he maintained an interest in the changes and challenges to the profession.

Beyond work, farming and family were important parts of his life, along with community work through Rotary.

Bruce Wilson Riddolls 1943–2019 Dr Bruce Riddolls has been described as one of New Zealand’s leading engineering geologists. He studied geology at the University of Canterbury, and gained a Master’s degree focused on regional mapping, then a PhD from Exeter University in the United Kingdom. Bruce then returned to New Zealand and started his professional engineering geology career with the NZ Geological Survey, now GNS Science. He worked on hazards affecting development projects such as hydropower, mining, and line structures including roads, railways and pipelines. He then joined Worley Consultants (now AECOM) to manage its geological services to the commercial sector, local and central government, and in developing countries. Subsequently, he established his own consultancy, divested to Golder Associates, and spent some more time with AECOM before returning to consulting. He was skilled at high-level peer review of geological modelling for major projects.

Bruce travelled to Antarctica in the mid 1960s and spent several months exploring unknown areas. As a result of this visit, a mountain was named after him – Mt Riddolls.

He was elected Australasian Vice President for 1998–2002 on the Executive of the International Association of Engineering Geology and the Environment. He also served on the Management Committees of the New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering and New Zealand Geotechnical Society and was elected as Area Representative for Canterbury/Westland on the Board of ACENZ from 2002–2003.

Bruce enjoyed mentoring new engineering geologists, focusing on developing a good geological model. With his ability to nurture and guide, he helped aspiring engineering geologists start up their careers and this will be his legacy.

He died in Christchurch in June and is survived by his wife of 50 years, Tricia, and two daughters.

EG 8/2019

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Engineering Genius

The upper hand

New Zealand-based global prosthetics company Taska has engineered the world’s first water-resistant prosthetic hand. With motors for each finger, it maximises what a user can do. It can handle medium to heavy everyday activities including mowing lawns, washing a car, doing laundry or dishes without a glove and a short period of lifting up to 20kg. The hand comes in large and medium, which can work well for female amputees. Taska was founded by engineer Mathew Jury, who invented a prosthetic hand after breaking both arms, an elbow and a wrist. Software development takes place in Wellington, and mechanical design and assembly work in Christchurch.

Soft pads on fingertips and between fingers engineered to improve grip.

The Taska hand is made from composite plastics, silicons and metal alloys, giving a tough, textured finish. It can be submerged into water up to 1m deep.

Flexible fingers can spread sideways so the hand can grip a variety of objects.

The knuckle breakaway allows fingers to displace in any direction at the knuckle, allowing the hand to be overloaded without damage.

Motorised thumb rotation mimics a hand's real movement and improves grip speed.

The inbuilt flexible wrist can be locked into three positions, 0°, 20° extension and 30° flexion.

Buttons allow the user to change grips from General (for gardening, opening bottles, lawnmowing) to Flexi-tool (holding cutlery, tying shoelaces, writing) to Pincer Precision Grip (picking up small and delicate objects).

By squirt alone you can tell which bolts are tight, which ones are not and why.

All by eye without torque wrenches, match-marking or feeler gauges.

Squirter® DTI’s from Applied Bolting - the advantages are clear to see!

• Manufactured to ASTM F959M • Complies with minimum bolt tension specified in AS/NZS 5131 table 8.5.5 • Complies with installation requirements stipulated in AS/NZS 5131 section 8.5.7 and 8.5.8 • Enables efficient & accurate installation of AS1252 assemblies • Superior than a “Turn of Nut” bolt tensioning method • Saves time & removes doubt - easy to identify when tensioned correctly without checking manually • Safe and easy for Inspectors to see the tensioned bolts enabling virtually 100% visual inspections

Table 8.5.5 Minimum Bolt Tension Nom. bolt Dia. Min bolt Tens. kN M16 M20 M24 M30 M36

95 145 210 335 490

Combine Squirter® DTI’s with Blacks Fasteners structural bolts for a winning combination you can trust.

All Blacks structural bolts, nuts and washers are labelled with purchase order numbers, heat process numbers and are third party tested.

Dimensional properties comply with AS/NZS 1252.1:2016

Material: Medium Carbon Steel / Alloy Steel

Mechanical properties comply with AS/NZS 4291.1:2015

Nut threads comply with AS1252-6H, HDG Nuts 6AZ According to AS/NZS1214

Bolt threads comply with AS1275-6G

e: robert.seitsamo@blacksfasteners.co.nz t: 027 663 4525

www.blacksfasteners.co.nz

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