A bridge between storm hit regions: HB helps with Coromandel recovery

Monday, 4 September 2023

Crafting the steel pieces that will make the new SH25A bridge is personal for the Hawke’s Bay workers on the job.

That’s because the people in Eastbridge Ltd’s Napier factory also felt the devastation of Cyclone Gabrielle.

“We’ve had staff that have lost their houses right through to staff that lost electricity for three or four days,” general manager Jayden Mellsop said.

“It’s pretty hard in the Hawke’s Bay to talk to someone who doesn’t know someone who has been seriously affected.”

Cyclone Hale and Cyclone Gabrielle led to a 130m wide and 30m deep hole that wiped out the arterial SH25A route.

So cutting, drilling and assembling the “lego pieces” for the 124m Coromandel bridge had hit home, he said.

And it’s going at a rapid pace - about twice as fast as the usual for a project of this scale.

In the wake of Cyclone Hale and Cyclone Gabrielle, the arterial SH25A route was wiped out by a 130m wide and 30m deep hole.

The bridge to reconnect it is due to be complete by March 2024.

Eastbridge staff were fortunate to be able to give some relief to the Coromandel Peninsula, Mellsop said.

A diagram of equipment at the bridge work site at SH25A Taparahi on the Coromandel Peninsula.

Since April, Eastbridge was brought in on the bridge repair process, which is being spearheaded by a joint venture of McConell Dowell and Fulton Hogan, supported by Beca and Tonkin + Taylor.

While some of the staff had faced the wrath of the Coromandel weather, others had connections to the Hawke’s Bay as well.

Eastbridge had a reputable track record, McConnell Dowell project director Hugh Milliken said, and there was a short list of people they were looking to work with.

“I’ve taken a drive all the way around the Coromandel, to understand the impacts,” McConnell Dowell project director - major projects Hugh Milliken said.

“I’ve taken a drive all the way around the Coromandel, to understand the impacts on the community to try and get that strong sense of why the project matters… I’ve seen all the damage for myself.”

It was rare to be building a bridge at such an accelerated pace with [SH25A] being built twice as fast would as it normally would be, Mellsop said.

It was quite a “rapid program”, with the aim that the bridge be ready for installation in October.

The project is being done in half the time usually allowed for a project of this nature.

The final product would see the three-span bridge stand 15.6m tall with a width of between 38-48m.

“Because we had the materials available and on hand, we were just able to start fabrication which is highly unusual for a large steel bridge fabrication,” Mellsop said.

“The whole thing behind the project is time which is the most important thing… We’re able to do it with our current staff, we just have to be smart.”

Waka Kotahi has previously said the bridge would have a “high level of resilience”, with large cylinder piles to form the base being drilled around 35m deep into the slip’s foundations.

And 75 tonnes of cement had been injected into the slip material to retain and stabilise it.

The bridge is a vital connection for the peninsula, Thames-Coromandel Mayor Len Salt has said.

“There’s this sense of light at the end of the tunnel - or light at the end of the bridge if you like.”

“There’s no doubt that this has had a massive impact on our community, but the fact that we’ve got the mobilisation of Waka Kotahi and the Government in behind this, and things are moving, is really good.”