Ports of Auckland close to completing 300m Fergusson wharf extension

Thursday, 17 March 2016

Communication Manager, Matt Ball, talks about the nearly completed reclamation project at the Ports of Auckland which will help cope with larger ships coming to NZ.

So you thought Ports of Auckland wasn't extending its wharves?

The port company is close to completing a 10 hectare expansion of its Fergusson container wharf, giving the terminal a much-needed third berth.

Ports of Auckland ran into trouble last year when legal action brought by a lobby group forced it to down tools on planned 100 metre extensions to the Bledisloe cargo wharf.

While public attention was focused on the controversial Bledisloe add-ons, the port has been quietly going about the business of reclaiming land at Fergusson.

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The port company has been in the process of reclaiming land on the eastern side of Fergusson wharf (foreground).

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The project will have stretched over 20 years by the time it's done, with the port company using soil collected during its regular maintenance dredging of the harbour for the required fill.

It has already built a 50 metre extension northwards from the main Fergusson Terminal.

Construction has now begun on a new wharf that will extend 296 metres east from Fergusson, across the main face of the reclamation.

Port communications manager Matt Ball said that around three-quarters of the required land had already been reclaimed, and the new wharf was due to be finished early next year.

Cranes would be placed on it towards the end of 2017, with the project fully completed by 2019.

The third Fergusson berth would be a deep-water one capable of taking the bigger ships expected in New Zealand waters in the next few years.

The already reclaimed land on the eastern side of Fergusson had allowed the port to reconfigure its truck grid - the area where containers were loaded and unloaded from trucks - allowing for more efficient operations.

The truck grid would be extended further once the Fergusson expansion was complete, Ball said.

Meanwhile Ports of Auckland is preparing to welcome the Holcim cement ships, which are moving from the Port of Onehunga because the entrance to the Manukau Harbour is too shallow for the larger ships which will be used to import cement from this year.

In preparation Holcim has built a domed cement silo on at the port, which will be used to supply cement to the Auckland and upper North Island construction sector.

Once Holcim stops calling there will no longer be any commercial freight shipping at Onehunga.