More concrete for $45M project

The second concrete pour is planned for Tuesday. The first pour was last week. Photo: Supplied

Another 200 cubic metres of concrete is planned to be poured into the Kaitemako culvert beginning about 4am Tuesday, February 14.

The culvert is a key part of the $45 million Welcome Bay underpass project and will replace the Kaitemako Stream Bridge currently in use.

The pour is weather dependent and has already been set back once by recent rain, says NZTA project manager John McCarthy.

'The last thing we want to do is pour concrete and have an environmental mishap where we get that sort of stuff into the Kaitemako stream.”

The pour is expected to begin about 4am and continue until about 7.30-8.30am.

About 200 cubic metres of cement is planned to be pumped into the formwork that has been under construction.

'What they are doing is basically pouring the culvert walls. Once that's poured we pour a final roof on top of it and then we can divert the stream back through the culvert and remove the temporary diversion.”

The final part of the culvert's construction is to make it fish friendly

'The culvert's been designed for fish passage that allows for the fish to be able to still get upstream for spawning. That environmental consideration is built into the design. The final face of the culvert will reflect a natural riverbed environment.

'It gets retrofitted afterwards. That's just part and parcel of providing the sort of eddies and things the fish need to be able to move back up through culverts.

'That will be before we put the water back through it three or four months' time.”

The angled walls will be the sides of the two side channels that will carry floodwaters.

'The idea of that is there are three channels with the flow going through the main channel on a normal day, but in the event of flood there has to be enough capacity to allow the stream flood to go through.

'So those channels on each side that are angled upwards are for flood capacity in a major event so that the flood doesn't wash the road bed away.”

To sign up for regular updates on the project email: hairinilink@nzta.govt.nz or for more information go to.

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1 comment

golly gosh

Posted on 10-02-2017 21:21 | By old trucker

This is going to be a NIGHTMARE,if this was in China it would be built now,so many Bosses in their Flouro jackets and clip boards walking around,there would not be many permanent workers there,on this project,mostly from recruitment agentcies,gosh they have spun it out,was there any fish there before they dug it out,immm, Sunlive Thanks 10-4 out.


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