This contract was with Whangarei District Council for the refurbishment of the existing jetty on the Hatea Loop, a popular walking, running and cycling track. The works involved pile driving, demolition of some of the walkway and jetty, decking, kerbing, handrailing and other works. All of this was to be managed while ensuring the access to the Hatea Loop wasn’t compromised. Two of the existing dolphin structures were retained to preserve a bit if the heritage of the jetty.
The main challenge of this project was the limited access to the site. We had to crane some of the materials into the site from adjacent properties as the site access was too narrow. This was done at early hours of the morning to minimise disruption and spotters were used to ensure the public safety was not compromised. We were also working in a tidal environment which could not be accessed by piling equipment from land, which meant we drove the new piles off a barge, but the times available to have the barge on site was determined by the high tide. We used a pontoon to access the jetty when installing the timber headstocks and bearers.
The existing structure turned out to be slightly different layout to the design that was completed by the engineers (as the pile locations were not surveyed) so we had to redesign some components to make sure the structure was square when complete.
The most innovative part of this project was using the dredging barge to allow us to drive the piles. We were able to pitch the 16m long piles with the long reach dredging excavator which was at one end of the barge and pull the piles down far enough into the silt to allow us to get our pile driving equipment over the top of the piles for driving. Once the piles were pitched and safely secured in the ground we spun the barge around so that our pile driving equipment on the other end of the barge could be used. This methodology allowed the works to be completed with minimal disruption to the public and was far less intrusive than building temporary staging to access from land.
Steve Bowling Contracting Ltd is dedicated to ensuring quality performance standards are upheld on all projects within the competitive construction industry, with this project being no exception. The completed structure was finished with great attention to detail and the structure is certainly a feature of the ‘loop walk’.
