Tauranga City Council has bought the largest travel lift in the country, a 350 tonne Cimolia lift that is to become the key infrastructure for the Tauranga Marine Precinct.

The lift is capable of carry vessels of up to 350 tonnes and 12 meters wide. Italian company Cimolai Technology won the tender process to supply the travel-lift.

The Italian travel lift bought for the marine precinct.

The machine's parts will be built at Carmignano di Brenta, north-west of Venice. The lift will then be shipped to New Zealand in containers for final assembly at the Marine Precinct.

'We are very excited about the opportunities that this opens us up to,” says Mayor Stuart Crosby.

'We were already proud to be leading the development of a leading-edge facility able to revitalise the regional marine industry. This makes it even better. It opens the door to even larger commercial vessels, inner-harbour fast ferries and the likes – and will provide unique business opportunities to the companies that decide to set up shop at the precinct.

'We are thrilled and excited about this new challenge. The Tauranga Harbour Marine Precinct project will have a critical role in boosting the area's marine activities, and it will give us the opportunity to spread our company's name in New Zealand. We look forward to working with Tauranga City Council in the year ahead and to seeing our vessel hoist up and working in Tauranga.”

The 350 tonne travel-lift was procured within the initial total project budget of $10 million. Project director Phil Wardale says four international companies participated in the tender and provided a variety of machine configurations and sizes.

'Cimolai Technology was selected as the preferred supplier due to their willingness to propose intuitive alternatives to Council, along with very competitive pricing for the preferred machine,” says Phil.

The purchase announcement follows the signing on Wednesday this week of the agreement for $5 million of regional council money.

'Signing of the funding agreement with the Bay of Plenty Regional Council gives us the assurance we needed to enter into a contract with a supplier for the travel-lift, and consequently to open the tender for the sale of Stage 1 lots within the Marine Precinct,” says Phil.

'We are also progressing the civil works part of the project and have issued a request for tender to the six shortlisted contractors. It's all go!”