Has Picton been left out of dry dock talks?

Sunday, 26 January 2020

The shipping industry is lobbying for a new dry dock.

Despite meeting all the criteria needed for a national dry dock, Picton continues to be left out of the national discussion on where to send large ships for repair.

The largest New Zealand dry dock, built at the Devonport Naval Base in 1888, is now too small to service larger vessels. It was estimated a new dry dock in Picton's Shakespeare Bay could create more than 100 jobs.

However, recent discussions on the dry dock have pointed to Northport as the favoured option, despite it taking one-and-a-half days for ships to get from Wellington to the dock in Whangarei and the lack of a rail connection.

Shakespeare Bay ticks all the boxes for a dry dock relocation, but it's seemingly being left out of the discussion.

Port Marlborough chief executive Rhys Welbourn said the location for a new dry dock was discussed in Cabinet late last year with a report on the dry dock submitted. Port Marlborough was not consulted about Shakespeare Bay's suitability in relation to the paper that went to Cabinet, Welbourn said.

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Port Marlborough chief executive Rhys Welbourne said the project warrants a review of all potential locations on an objective and measurable basis.

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Both National MP Stuart Smith and Welbourn said this week they understood Northport had been granted about $1.5 million from the Provincial Growth Fund to complete a feasibility report into building a dry dock.

'As far as I'm aware, there has been no independent report looking at the best location for a dry dock in New Zealand,' Welbourn said.

'This is a piece of nationally significant infrastructure and warrants a review of all potential locations on an objective and measurable basis.'

A KiwiRail report prepared for an 'external party' outlined current and future vessel requirements for Interislander ferries.

Key dry-docking requirements for Interislander ferries, released under the Official Information Act.

The report, released under the Official Information Act, omitted Picton as an option and instead compared travel times from Wellington to Sydney (3.5 days), Wellington to Singapore (14 days) and Wellington to Northport (1.5 days).

Interislander vessels were dry-docked at the Royal Australian Navy Naval Base in Sydney as they were too large for Devonport.

In explanation to the travel times compared in the report, KiwiRail said the 'external party' was based in Northland, and therefore focused on Northport.

Stuff requested 'all correspondence, briefings and all other documents' held by the New Zealand Defence Force, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones and KiwiRail, under the Official Information Act.

But the minister and Defence Force withheld all information, on the grounds of commercial sensitivity. The KiwiRail vessel requirement was the only information released.

The MP for Kaikōura, National's Stuart Smith continues to lobby for a dry dock in Picton.

Welbourn said Port Marlborough believed Shakespeare Bay was the most suitable place for a new dry dock.

'It is already set up as a 24/7 industrial port with rail links, has marine engineering expertise in the region and is strategically positioned in the centre of the country and at the terminus of the ferry run,' he said.

'It is interesting to note that the [KiwiRail] document shows a sailing time to Northport of 1.5 days as a positive – it is literally zero days steaming to Shakespeare Bay.'

Smith continued to support building a dry dock in Picton.

'The reality is at the moment, the ferries and other ships have little choice but to go to Singapore to be dry docked, which is a huge cost,' the Kaikōura MP said.

'To get a dry dock up there [Northland] around the cost of $280 million is double what the cost would be to build one at Shakespeare Bay.'

A potential terminal upgrade was also in discussion for Picton as KiwiRail looked to upgrade to larger ships for their three older Interislander ferries.

KiwiRail and Port Marlborough were working closely with NZTA and Marlborough District Council on the project.

Interislander operations executive general manager Walter Rushbrook said KiwiRail had no preference as to the location of the proposed dry dock.

They did, however, support the establishment of a dry dock within New Zealand waters to reduce the time ferries were out of service and the cost of travelling to overseas docks, Rushbrook said.

The NZDF said they had no current plans to move from the Devonport base.

Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones was approached for comment.