Work on Auckland's new Victoria Park Tunnel (VPT) project is progressing well ahead of plan with the alliance team selected by the New Zealand Transport Agency - Fletcher Construction, Beca, Parsons Brinkerhoff and Higgins - looking to deliver the project well inside the 48 month scheduled timeframe. Firth was awarded the contract to supply approx 38,000m3 of concrete for the main tunnel structure.

The 450m, three-lane, one-way northbound tunnel is being constructed using a 'cut and cover' method utilised by Fletcher Construction previously on the New Lynn Rail Trench. To ensure completion well before the mid-2012 deadline, work is being carried out in several places simultaneously.

"The secant piling process is well underway from one end of the tunnel and the diaphragm walls are being poured from the other end," explains Rob McKinnon, Materials Manager, Northern for Firth. They are also pouring from both sides of the trench. It's a very narrow site with a lot happening at once."

Firth's Hamer Street plant, the only Certified concrete plant in Auckland's CBD, is strategically located within walking distance of the site. Mel Abraham, Plant Manager for Hamer Street explains, "we are still supplying concrete for all the piling at present and can have up to 7 or 8 pours happening at once at various parts of the site. We are delivering from 7am up to 7 or 8pm at night at the moment but this may all change when the big pours start for the floor slabs."

"Firth are doing really well - they are keeping up with our programme and their quality has been really good as they have a very good technical team," says Toby Davies, Project Engineer for the Alliance.

"They are bending over backwards to assist and helped us out a few weeks back when they opened the plant and supplied staff and product till late on a Saturday to get a problem sorted. They are doing a really good job for us."

"The close proximity of our plant to the project site means we have been able to meet the demands of the job at any time of the day and night without having to worry about traveling delays or adding to traffic congestion, which is a huge plus," says Gavin Allden, Sales Manager, Northern Region for Firth.