CLG: Wynyard Edge Alliance discusses pre-construction
Wynyard Point in April 2018 before anything started.
Today’s 36th America’s Cup Community Liaison Group (CLG) focused on pre-construction ahead of the Wynyard Edge Alliance getting started on the project next month.
“Finally, after months of preparation, blood, sweat and tears, the day is finally here – we can get started,” said the Alliance’s Construction Manager Kurt Grant.
“Over the next few months we will be starting works in many areas around our project site ranging from Hobson Wharf, through to Halsey Wharf, Wynyard Wharf and Wynyard Point.”
Site establishment underway
The Alliance has started site establishment works where their offices and work yards will be located.
“As you may’ve seen already, we have started putting up fencing and setting up an office in the Eastern Viaduct. We’ll be established there in two weeks, when we’ll move in a team of about ten, which will take care of the Hobson Wharf extension, breakwater 8 and the other works in the area,” Kurt said.
“In January, we will be setting up a yard at the end of Halsey Wharf – this will be for logistics for our marine operations. We have already established a yard for the repair works on Wynyard Wharf, which have been ongoing for the past three months, and we will establish our main yard for all the Wynyard Point works at Hamer Street in December.
“We’ll also have facilities in the former ASB carpark, Sail NZ and Solthaven areas, all of which we will have taken over in December.”
Update on construction
Construction works have already started with the Wynyard Warf repairs, which was consented separately.
“These works are integral to strengthening the wharf – which is over 90 years old – so it can take the loads of our construction equipment drilling the piles for the infill bridges and, eventually, the base cranes for launching the race boats,” Kurt said.
“The repair works will continue until June 2019, going from north to south, towards North Wharf.”
As for the rest of the construction work, the Alliance will now begin working from east to west.
“We’ll be starting in December with pontoon removal in the outer Viaduct Harbour, which will allow us access into the area for dredging and to build breakwater 8, which will minimise the waves coming off the ferry terminal over at Queen’s Wharf,” Kurt said.
“The early dredging works will start in the entrance channel, to open this up, and will run from Hobson Wharf all the way out to allow access for the new boats. Other dredging will follow, with the contaminated material around Wynyard Point being taken care later in 2019.”
“The Hobson Wharf extension works will kick off in early January with the arrival of a 70 metre piling barge with a 400 tonne crane on it. Pile drilling and concrete works will start mid-January and are expected to be completed by September 2019, in time for handover to the Luna Rosa syndicate to construct their base building. Works on this site are planned to be two shifts a day and on Saturdays as required in order to meet the tight timeframe.”
The works for the other breakwaters and the Hobson superyacht areas will start later in 2019 and 2020.
Other upcoming works
Kurt also discussed the other works starting in early 2019, including a link road, which will be located at the north end of the current ASB carpark on Wynyard Point.
“This road will provide continuous loop access around the end of Wynyard Point, which allows for Brigham Street to be closed in the areas that will eventually become bases C, D and E. The works on this road will take around two months to complete,” he said.
“Grading and utility works in these base areas will begin in March – once the link road is done – with a final handover to the syndicates expected by July 2019.
“The work for the bridges going from the bases to Wynyard Wharf will start in March, which will allow the teams to take their boats across to launch. This will be finished by September.
“We’ll also eventually be relocating the SeaLink pontoon and operations over to the western side of Wynyard Point.”
“Our works for bases F and G will commence once we get access to what is currently the Bulk Storage Terminals site. This is planned to close in August, after which there will be demolition for three months. Once this is done our utility and base preparation works will begin, with the eventual handover of the bases planned for early to mid-2020,” Kurt said.
Management plans address environmental risks
The Alliance’s Environment and Sustainability Manager Brendon Barnett gave an update on the Alliance’s environmental management plans, some of which the CLG and mana whenua had input into.
“All of these, bar one, are now certified and across the line with the council. We’re working on completing the remaining one now, and it should be submitted by the end of the day. Once they’re all certified we can get started on construction,” he said.
Brendon explained the management plans are live documents, which will be updated throughout the construction process as needed, and the CLG will have input as part of the review cycle if the Alliance wants to make any material changes to plans relevant to them.
Asked about the biosecurity plan, Brendon said that it deals with vessels moving both internationally and domestically from Northport in Whangarei.
“We’re complying with Northport’s level of restrictions, as they have a higher level of restriction up there. When barges come to our site, they’ll be cleaned and anti-fouled, and when they move we will do an assessment outlining whether the barge has been stationary, how long it has been stationary for and what’s it been used for. We’ll then submit those assessments to the biosecurity teams at both Auckland Council and Northland Regional Council,” he said.
“There is one supply barge that will be moving back and forth quite regularly, and if we or the councils feel there is a risk we’ll put a diver underneath to do a check before the barge makes the move.”
Earthworks and sediment control
Brendon discussed the earthworks that will be done for the foundation construction of the bases on Wynyard Point, the Brigham Street seawall and ground improvements to allow the infill bridges, and service relocations.
“Approximately 2.4 hectares will be opened during the course of the works, but this will be done in a progressive staging manner to reduce the amount of exposure, given the nature of the soils and contamination area,” he said.
“We have an Erosion and Sediment Control Plan to deal with that, which basically says that nothing from that site area can be discharged into the costal marine area or into stormwater. This is because it’s all considered contaminated, unless it has been taken out and cleanfill put into it. The plan also talks about how water is treated on site, through a water treatment station.
“How it works is we will have a bund right around the whole area that is open. This will help to contain any water, if there’s heavy rainfall or anything like that, and it’ll stop any surface runoff. We’ll capture it all in the sump and then pump it to the water treatment station, which will be set up in the former Stolthaven site.
At that point the tanks will drop all the sediments out and adjust the pH of the water, containing the contaminates. It then discharges through to trade waste. Anything cleaned out from the tanks will go to landfill.”
Dealing with contaminated land
Wynyard Point has had a lot of industrial and commercial uses across its history, especially fuel and chemical storage, and over the course of time there have been spills which has resulted in contaminants in the soil and groundwater.
“You don’t have to dig deep to know about it, and only 500 millimeters down you can start to smell it. Even just walking around the sites you can sometimes smell it,” Brendon said.
“Because of this, most of the earthworks are going to be limited to site levelling, pavement and building support, and we’ll be looking undertake stabilisation on site when possible. Anything that has to be removed from the sites will go straight to landfill, and the works areas are fully bunded as well.
“If you’re down around those areas during the works, you’ll see our people will be dressed in full coveralls with facemasks. The reason for this is all the hydrocarbon contaminates, as well as low levels of trace asbestos in the soils around there, which can be risks to our people.
“Odours, dust and vapor will also be managed through fog cannons and wetting the areas down, making sure nothing is leaving site and having an impact on the public or people working in the area,” he said.
Managing the impacts of construction
“Work will generally take place between 7am and 5pm, although there will be some works until 10pm at night. After that, our noise limits drop from 75 decibels down to 60 decibels, and we’re reduced in what we can do,” Brendon said.
“After that time, between 10pm and 7am in the morning, there will be no piling going on, and the works will be limited to things like vehicle movements, resetting of site and anything we can do quietly and remain under 60 decibels.
“We’ll be doing constant monitoring to make sure we’re not having an impact on anybody,” he said.
The Wynyard Edge Alliance is working to reduce traffic in the Wynyard Quarter area by encouraging its team to take public transport and walk when possible, as well as having many of the supplies coming in from Northport on barges so heavy vehicles are taken off the road.
“There will still be the need for truck movements, such as concrete trucks, down at places like the Eastern Viaduct and Halsey Street. When we went through the consultation of the Construction Traffic Management Plan we agreed on the best routes to take through Wynyard Quarter and we’ll aim to do big concrete pours at times that don’t cause disruption and are outside of peak hours,” Brendon said.
There will also be updates and notifications of any road closures required with as much advance warning as possible, as well as monitoring of the traffic measures by the Alliance and Auckland Transport.
Brendon said the Alliance has done predictions around the level of noise and vibration caused by the standard works of the project, as well as what the impact radius would be, and that monitoring will be done as soon as work starts to ensure this modelling is correct.
Underwater monitoring will also be taking place, as an output of mana whenua engagement, in order to ensure there is minimal impact on marine mammals that may come into the area, such as orca and dolphins, as well as the leopard seals over at Westhaven.
“We’ll be monitoring with hydrophones – which are basically underwater microphones – to give us exclusion zones, as well as using spotters who will be out on our barges during any impact or vibratory works to look out for anything coming into the area so we can stop if needed,” Brendon said.
Brendon said communication and engagement will be an important part of managing the impacts and encouraged CLG members to get in touch with any concerns or questions.
Alliance committed to zero harm
The Wynyard Edge Alliance has an absolute commitment to achieving zero harm in its works.
“It’s our responsibility to ensure that everybody knows about the risks and the hazards on site before going out there,” Brendon says.
“We have project inductions which are required of anybody working on site – whether its for a day or for a year. We’ll also be running health, safety and environmental training around important aspects on site throughout the project, and this will be tailored to whatever specific works we’re doing at the time.
“There are weekly meetings to update everyone on site, as well as daily pre-starts before starting work. You’ll also see site rules and hazard boards around the site and near the gates – these talk about what’s happening, what to look out for and any requirements.
“We also have a ‘permit to work’ system, especially in the contaminated area there’s permitting around ground disturbance and limits on hot works and things like that, given the nature of the materials – we don’t want them to catch fire,” he said.