Boring times ahead for Waterview Connection project

The world’s 10th largest tunnelling machine is on its way to New Zealand from the Guangzhou, China factory of German manufacturer Herrenknecht.

The $54 million machine has been designed specifically to cope with ground conditions on the $1.4 billion Waterview Connection. PHIL WHYTE finds out about the biggest roading construction project in New Zealand’ history.

The Waterview Connection is part of the Western Ring Route road of national significance and will join Auckland’s Southwestern and Northwestern motorways to complete a 47 kilometre-long motorway alternative to SH1 and the Auckland Harbour Bridge.

Completion of the connection is expected to bring some relief to SH1 north of Manukau, and also for many major routes.

“There is also suppressed demand for travel, for instance between Manukau and West Auckland. An example of a motorway relieving suppressed demand is the fact that the completion of the Hobsonville link has eased travel between West Auckland and North Shore,” says the NZ Transport Agency’s state highways manager for Auckland and Northland, Tommy Parker.

The $220 million Waterview Connection, including the allied Southwestern motorway causeway upgrade, is being handled by a NZTA consortium of built by the Well Connected consortium, which includes NZTA and Fletcher Construction.

Many of the recent Auckland motorway construction contracts have been alliances.

“For reasons of risk management, NZTA prefers to have a balance of alliances and ‘hard money’ contracts,” says Mr Parker.

“The size of this project and the size of the tunnel boring machine (TBM) are both on a scale the likes of which we have never seen before in New Zealand.

“Since mid-2012 we have been preparing a trench that will not only form the southern tunnel approach, but provide the TBM’s launch pad,” Mr Parker says.

“This requires us to excavate to a depth of 30 metres initially, drilling and blasting through a 15 metre-thick layer of very hard volcanic rock.”

To construct two tunnels, each wide enough for three lanes of traffic, the TBM will pass beneath the rock and tunnel through softer, clay-like soil known as the East Coast Bay Formation. It is expected to take a year to complete the first tunnel, emerging beyond Great North Rd in Waterview, where work is already underway to prepare for its arrival and turnaround for the return journey.

“We have done a lot of testing and geotech modelling, and are expecting to be dealing largely with a sedimentary limestone composite. But we will be tunnelling below sea level, and there is the risk of the unknown,” says Mr Parker.

“We are using tunnelling best practice. As people know there are regular ventilation holes and the two tunnels will be linked so that one can be evacuated into the other if necessary.”

The tunnel boring machine (TBM) will start digging in October after arriving in Auckland in July and being reassembled.

The associated Southwestern motorway causeway upgrade is needed to cope with extra traffic generated by the Waterview connection from the Southwestern motorway and its twin 2.4km tunnels. The 61-year-old causeway will also be raised by 1.5m to cope with rising sea levels and widened from six to nine lanes, with priority space for buses and a cycling/walking path.

Mr Parker says that when completed in 2017, the project will help unlock Auckland’s potential for economic growth and will also have considerable benefits for its Northland and Waikato/Bay of Plenty neighbours. There will be no tolls to force traffic choices.

“Easing pressure on the city’s existing motorway network will have flow-on effects that will encourage business growth, tourism and jobs. For the first time there will be a direct motorway link between Auckland International Airport and the CBD. The network will become more resilient – two motorway links through Auckland reduce the risk of any disruption to traffic bringing the city to a standstill,” says Mr Parker.

“Tunnelling obviously allows us to do this, and a strong focus on urban design and landscaping – like the rehabilitation work we’ve already carried out around Oakley Creek – ensures that the effects of all above ground work are carefully mitigated,” says Mr Parker.

SouthMACH 2013 shows off innovation and excellence

It’s the machine that takes science fiction and turns it into science fact – 3D printers are causing a phenomenal ground shift across the manufacturing sectors.  

SouthMACH, the largest manufacturing and engineering technology event for 2013, will be a national showcase for innovation and excellence when the show returns for its fifth season from 29-30 May at Christchurch’s CBS Canterbury Arena.

SouthMACH is back and is bigger and better than ever.

“Buyers who are looking to source new products, equipment, services and renew existing supplier relationships should attend the event,” says exhibition director Rachel Hobbs.

In addition to being a working trade show, exhibitors and other industry professionals will deliver a high quality seminar and workshop programme with over 20 wide-ranging topics, that will provide invaluable and quality information to all those involved in manufacturing, engineering and related sectors.

Seminars and workshops range from 'What’s hot in flow simulation' to 'Setting up a compliant positive pressure airline system' to 'designing for direct digital manufacturing' and many more industry applicable topics.

“I am thrilled with the quality of exhibitors and the seminars at SouthMACH 2013. The industry as a whole recognises the value of SouthMACH and the excellent buying and selling opportunities that this professional event generates,” says Ms Hobbs.

Boeing has a room filled with 50 of them quietly turning out specialised parts - Fletcher Aluminium uses them to make aluminium window prototypes whose workability they can test with glass and putty – while an innovative metal craft teacher at Hamilton Boy’s High school has his students utilising the technology to design mag wheels for their class-built electric go-carts.

“Subtractive manufacturing such as milling or turning is being replaced with additive manufacturing,” explains Tasman Machinery national sales manager Oliver Wolf.  

Where things were once manufactured by taking items away from a block of metal or wood, now 3D printers add layers and layers of fine but tough thermoplastic material to build items straight from the designer’s brain, via their computer. It’s a revolution. 

Tasman Machinery is one of many who will be demonstrating the latest engineering technology at SouthMACH 2013 on stand 78.

Visit the SouthMACH 2013 website to read many more exhibitor profiles and to see what fascinating and innovative products and services the exhibitors are bringing to SouthMACH 2013. 

See the seminar timetable on page 30 of the digital edition at the top of this page. 

Entry to SouthMACH and associated onsite events including the seminars and workshops is free to those working in the manufacturing, engineering, industrial design and associated sectors.

Registration is online at www.southmach.co.nz or you can register to visit at the show on the day. Show parking is $3.

Collar assembly lubricates wire ropes

The Wire Rope Lubrication Solution from Lubrication Engineers NZ offers numerous features and benefits and is suitable for a variety of applications from wharf cranes to deck winches.

The manual lubrication of wire ropes via the drip, brush, spatula or rubber glove method has always been a difficult maintenance task.

Typically messy asphaltic or ‘blackjack’ type products are employed which have coating abilities but very little lubrication or penetration properties.

The Viper wire rope lubricator provides fast and effective lubrication of wire rope from 5/16 inch (8mm) to 2-5/8 inch (67mm) in diameter, at speeds up to 2000 metres per hour. It eliminates the slow and labour intensive task of manual lubrication, at the same time achieving more thorough results by forcing quality lubricant under high pressure right through to the core of the wire rope.

The system consists of the lubricator collar assembly which houses the polyurethane seals to suit the specific size rope. The assembly is clamped around the rope and anchored to a fixed point. The rope is then pulled through the collar as the lubricant is applied with a high pressure grease pump, forcing lubricant between the strands to the centre of the rope.

The benefits over conventional drip and brush or spray systems are substantial. The Viper wire rope lubricator operates at a higher pressure than most other lubricator collars on the market, this combined with the robust construction guarantees fast, safe and effective wire rope lubrication.

www.lubeng.nz
09 415 9411

Foundry’s proud reputation rests on strong product range and latest CNC-controlled machinery

Masport Foundries Ltd is not only New Zealand’s largest metal casting production plant, but it has been a proud manufacturer for over a century.

Masport has always been committed to using proven, flexible, high technology based plant and processes to maintain the highest quality standards. This is shown by its recent investment in a Doosan NHP 6300 5-axis machining centre, the latest in a series of CNC-controlled equipment.

The new Doosan will join other CNC machines in machining V8 cylinder heads destined for US customers. Masport has two large customers which supply the aftermarket for replacing worn Ford, GM and Chrysler heads, including drag racers and vintage restorers.

“This new machine is larger than anything we have had before, and offers a number of advantages,” says Masport Foundries general manager Wolf Schmahl.

“The new Doosan machining centre will more than double our capacity to turn out fully machined cylinder heads, including valve seats/ inserts. With the capability to machine up to six heads mounted on a special design ‘tombstone’ fixture, we are targeting a reduction in time per head of 20-25 percent.

“This is a significant improvement at a time of challenging exchange rates. Furthermore, machining tolerances and repeatability will be significantly enhanced by the new machines’ rigidity and tooling upgrades,” Mr Schmahl says.

The Masport Foundries of 2013 has Telarc accredited ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 management systems. The company employs 80 people at its Auckland plant, manufacturing high integrity iron castings. Each of these castings requires close monitoring to ensure dimensional accuracy and adherence to the metal’s tight metallurgical properties.

There have been significant foundry closures in Australia which have meant additional export opportunities for Masport across the Tasman, and he cited a recent case where a large Queensland foundry closed and opened up significant additional export opportunities into Australia, with more expected.

The company supplies a wide range of castings into the agricultural, automotive, structural, transport, and mineral processing industries.

As well there are consumer durables (including the Masport branded solid fuel heaters). Some 60 percent of the company’s products manufactured are exported to customers in Australia, and USA.

The foundry has a high speed Disaforma green sand moulding system, high efficiency electric furnaces and both shell and cold-box core making. Inhouse tooling manufacture and heat-treatment furnaces, and the latest spectrographic alloy analyser, round out the foundry equipment.

www.masportfoundries.com

Blindspot to New Zealand’s hidden talents

It’s New Zealand’s hidden wealth – overlooked, forgotten, tucked away all over the country, but make no mistake, these are whipper-smart companies doing business on a global scale.

Farra Engineering in Dunedin sells products into Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, UK, Middle East and China. They’ve developed a global niche for building maintenance units that sit permanently on top of high rise buildings and are used to lower maintenance crews to clean and repair buildings. They’ve been making them for 30 years.

Or another speciality: their pit maintenance units that have been installed in most of the world’s recent aluminium smelters including across the Middle East. Not bad for a 150 year old company that emerged from the 1860 Otago gold rush days, survived through two World Wars (during the First World War the company had three ships plying the Pacific sourcing iron ore scrap), the 1930s depression, the 1970s `think big’ projects and 1980s economic changes.

Today the quiet southern achiever is one of the biggest engineering firms in the country with such in-house expertise they do around 20 per cent of their work for other engineering firms.

Or take the more glamorous Jetblack project funded by Wellington entrepreneur Richard Nowland who has drawn a world-class manufacturing, engineering and technological team around him with a big picture dream: smash the world land speed record in the Nevada desert in 2016.

Or what about RR Fisher? For 60 years the company has been driving New Zealand conveyor automation. When it comes to moving a product through a warehouse or sorting in the fish, meat, dairy or agricultural sectors, they have long been the go-to people.

Today the company is the only manufacturer of motorised conveyor drivers in the Southern Hemisphere. They’ve built complete systems for Fonterra; carried out a huge amount of work in cheese factories and chocolate factories; put systems and equipment into Jamaica, Hong Kong, Fiji and across Australia. Now they’ve got built-in camera technology on conveyor systems that can view and sort things visually.

Wherever you look across New Zealand, hundreds of manufacturing and engineering businesses are thriving – from two, three or four-man bands, up to companies that employ hundreds. And they are doing world-class work.

So why the lack of widespread recognition for this powerful sector?

“We’ve got a Minister of Horseracing – but not a Minister of Manufacturing,” exhorts Andy Hobbs, owner of HAYLEYMEDIA, an information, events and media company based in Auckland that specialises in the engineering, manufacturing and safety sectors.

“Maybe it’s just a bit of a blind spot the government has … dairying, agriculture, wine, food … that seems to be what is thought important, but talk with any engineering firm across New Zealand and you start to hear of incredible things going on. People are just quietly getting on with it.

“There is a lot of general discussion from government level that manufacturing is dying in New Zealand, but that clearly is not the case. Manufacturers all over New Zealand are doing really well with exports – and a lot of that is coming out of Christchurch.”

Right now, Kiwi manufacturing and engineering firms are exporting all over the world, driving automation, driving industry, revolution and change.

Andy Hobbs is a bit of an industry veteran himself. He started New Zealand’s first exhibition company in 1972; put on his first engineering expo in 1980 called Emex, pioneered the successful Southern Machine Show in 1987 and now runs the well respected SouthMACH show every two years in Christchurch.

This year over 100 exhibitors and around 3000 visitors are expected during the two day event on May 29 & 30 at the CBS Canterbury Arena (www.southmach.co.nz). In essence the show is a succinct look at current & emerging technology for the engineering and manufacturing sector.

Over 50 per cent of the show visitors are owners, directors and general managers keen to see new technologies, industry trends and new equipment.

“It brings millions of dollars’ worth of latest technology from all over the world into Christchurch,” says Andy who runs the business with his daughter, Rachel Hobbs-Price, another industry veteran.

It’s a pivotal opportunity where the manufacturing and engineering people from across Australasia to meet, talk, learn … and keep getting collectively better.

Andy – who has a unique industry birds-eye view with his publishing of the Engineering News trade magazine which goes to 10,000 businesses as well as running the SouthMACH show – would love to see more government backing and awareness of this powerful New Zealand sector.

“It has a lack of status and acknowledgement of how powerful and valuable a sector this is,” says Andy.

SouthMACH 13 runs May 29 & 30 at the CBS Canterbury Arena www.southmach.co.nz

Register to visit (free) online at: www.southmach.co.nz

New leak locating technology boosts asset management

A newly minted licensing agreement between City Care and California technology company, Electro Scan, has brought new leak finding technology to New Zealand for the first time. Initially deployed in Christchurch as part of the infrastructure repair work following the earthquakes, the leak-finding technology works by passing an electric current through full pipes to discover leaks with pinpoint accuracy.

A pipe which leaks water, will also leak electricity, so when an Electro Scan user sends a current through a full non-metal pipe – for example brick, cement, reinforced concrete, plastic or pipe-lining resins – they are able to measure the variation of electricity passing through the defects.

This allows the automatic location and quantification of cracks, fractures, defective joints or faulty service connections. This is used to measure the water infiltration and outflow exfiltration in wastewater and stormwater networks and pipes of various sizes.

Electro Scan measures potential leaks (litres/ second) for any section of existing, newly installed or renovated pipes – including cracks, joint defects, poorly connected service laterals and manholes.

As one of the five contractors comprising Stronger Christchurch Infrastructure Rebuild Team City Care is heavily involved in reconstructing the region’s catastrophically- damaged underground services.

In addition to confirming the location of leaks, the technology also indicates the rate of leak. The bigger the electrical flow from the defect, the bigger the defect, and the bigger the leak potential.

Using saline water to surround its probe to transmit electricity to the pipe wall, Electro Scan provides a 360 degree assessment of most sewer mains and stormwater and service drains.

Due to its accuracy and sensitivity in locating defects, without relying on visual observations, Electro Scan is capable of establishing a condition assessment of each pipe joint, at an operating rate of up to 10 metres per minute.

Data is electronically captured by the probe, which is pulled manually or via a motorised CCTV tractor unit through the pipe. Immediate in-field analysis is available and the information is stored for more detailed analysis later off-site.

Data is automatically sent to the Electro Scan Smartphone application and transmitted to a hosted cloud computing application, known as CriticalSewers.com. City Care is a major provider of construction, maintenance and management services across New Zealand’s infrastructure assets, maintaining more than 19,000 km of piping networks to 24 percent of properties throughout the country. The company believes this technology will deliver significant benefits for asset owners and managers.

“Infiltration is a major concern for asset owners. The increased flow immediately costs more to pump, reduces their storage time during high flow periods, and reduces the effectiveness of treatment plant. The potential for pump station overflowing into natural watercourses is also increased. Infiltration is normally an issue with high ground water levels and during winter wet weather events,” says underground contract manager, Hugh Blake-Manson.

“Electro Scan will provide valuable pre- and post-rehabilitation diagnostics to local authorities, and therefore to ratepayers,” he says.

According to Mr Blake-Manson, Electro Scan will prove a valuable complement to CCTV analysis, and in particular situations will provide the only solution, especially where pipes are permanently submerged – for example siphons.

“CCTV takes much longer, due to the necessity to send the tractor down empty pipes. Operators need to stop and camera the defect, thereby reducing the inspection rate and the job productivity.

“Based on City Care’s recent trials, Electro Scan is averaging over 10:1 leak identification compared to CCTV. That’s an impressive result, and we’re very enthusiastic about the technology. We’ll still use CCTV where visual identification is required, for instance in assessing pipe wall condition, but Electro Scan will provide additional powerful information to the asset owners. They can then use this information to deliver very effective, targeted repairs and renewal – a key part of their long-term planning.”