Infrastructure - Northern Busway
$300 million invested in Northern Busway
Since late 2005, Firth has poured more than 80,000m3 of concrete into the vast array of structures that make up Transit’s new Northern Busway in Auckland.
One of the largest projects ever undertaken in the region, the busway is a dedicated two-way road for buses to travel alongside State Highway 1 on the North Shore.
Fletcher Construction is the lead contractor for this $300 million project - which involves building new tunnels, bridges, on-ramps and off-ramps, services trenches and roading.
Firth’s central city Hamer Street and Albany plants have provided most of the concrete, which involves thousands of pours and several challenges always expected on a job of such a massive scale.
Fletcher Construction’s project manager, Matthew Tucker, says the Firth team have coped very well under enormous pressure. He commented on their flexibility and willingness to respond instantly to ensure the project flowed without interruption.
“For example, one day I phoned Marc Hainen on the Friday afternoon needing something significant on the Saturday morning. Somehow, they always managed to swing it!”
Another interesting aspect of the project has been providing ducting for new power cables along State Highway 1, by burying them underground in trenches. To achieve thermal conductivity for the cables, Firth devised a special low-strength concrete which was poured into the trenches.
The special concrete not only dissipates heat from the cables; it also provides the ability to dig it out if necessary to check faults.
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