Case Studies

Owenga Wharf Replacement, Chatham Islands

Client:Chatham Islands Council Consultant:MWH NZ Ltd Contract Value:$1.6m

Micro piler unit designed & manufactured specifically for driving the 6000 225mm bridge spikes into the hardwood joists. This development was driven by the need to avoid potential injury from excessive labour

June, 2009 - December, 2009

This large and challenging contract was undertaken by Hunter Civil/Makeri Construction Joint Venture in mid 2009 to replace the Owenga Wharf on the Chatham Islands. Aspects of this contract were very challenging due to the location of the contract and supplying the required resources to the contract over the 800km sea journey. Weather and sea conditions and having to drill through very hard "Blue Basalt" rock to set the new piles in place made this project particularly demanding.

Due to some clever planning and resourcing, excellent work efforts by all those involved and some innovative thinking and construction methodologies, it was successfully delivered ahead of time and under budget in December 2009.

The completed wharf quality and innovations during construction, along with a strong partnering approach throughout the contract were recognised in August 2010 when it won the New Zealand Contractors Federation National Construction Awards for "Catagory 2, Projects having a value between $500,000 and $5 million".