Heartland steel pipe supplier lends hand to help out harbour bridge repair

Thursday, 24 September 2020

Pipes NZ general manager Nicola Warner, right, with Connor Turner, left, and Jeremy D'Ath beside a pipe similar in size to the one supplied to replace the damaged strut on the Auckland Harbour Bridge.

A Taranaki firm has helped to get Auckland on the move by providing an important piece of the city's harbour bridge repair.

On Saturday morning, Taranaki-based steel pipe supply specialists Pipes NZ answered a mayday call from Waka Kotahi New Zealand Transport Agency and engineering fabricators, Industrial Services South Auckland (ISSA).

Timelapse video shows temporary repairs on Auckland Harbour Bridge.

The bottom half of a bridge strut had been damaged when a truck tipped over in high winds on Friday September 18 and they needed Pipes NZ to deliver an 11.95-metre-long steel pipe to temporarily replace it.

Within 24 hours the carbon steel pipe had been loaded and trucked from Pipes NZ’s yard in Bell Block, north of New Plymouth, to the ISSA workshop where fabricators worked long hours to midnight Monday and through Tuesday to meet a 9pm repair deadline.

The temporary steel pipe, trucked from New Plymouth within 24 hours on Sunday, was put in place on the damaged Auckland Harbour Bridge late on Tuesday night.

**READ MORE:

The bottom half of an Auckland Harbour Bridge strut was damaged a week ago.

* Auckland Harbour Bridge: Permanent fix expected in four to five weeks, NZTA says

* Auckland Harbour Bridge: Motorists told to work from home or avoid damaged bridge as urgent repair works continue

* Auckland Harbour Bridge middle lanes 'not safe' after crash but no risk of collapse

Late that night, in perfect weather conditions, the 1.7 tonne, 457mm-diameter pipe was finally put in place, with two plates welded to one end, on the damaged bridge.

ISSA general manager Rod Quick said Pipes NZ was alerted after the fabricating company was unable to secure a pipe from Auckland suppliers.

“We know Pipes NZ and so we called them on the after-hours service, and all went from there,” he said.

The pipe is temporary until a permanent strut is designed and fitted, he said.

Pipes NZ general manager Nicola Warner said the job was not too out of the ordinary for the company, which supplies specialised steel pipe to the construction market in New Zealand.

“We had calls from NZTA, and the fabricators ISSA, on Saturday morning, followed by text messages through the day and late evening.

“By 10am it was on the truck and on its way to Auckland.”

The company is known for its technical expertise, and large stocks of steel pipe and associated fittings are on site in Bell Block to quickly meet demand, Warner said.

“We pride ourselves on going the extra mile,” she said.

Meanwhile, a picture shared on social media that showed the new pipe decorated in the Taranaki Bulls’ colours and signed by the Barretts as a taunt to Auckland has, sadly, proved to be a fake.

Pipes NZ had nothing to do with the doctored picture, which is doing the rounds ahead of Auckland challenging Taranaki for the Shield at Inglewood on October 10, should the Bulls beat Otago on Sunday.

“We’re always happy to help Auckland,' Warner said. 'We can let you have the pipe, but we aren’t going to let you have the Ranfurly Shield.”