Auckland is a city on the move, with upward population growth forecasts amplifying urgency for infrastructure building, a big collection of major developments underway and plans in place for hosting two prestige international events in 2021.
More than 50 major downtown projects will proceed over the next decade, according to the council. And at the harbour, preparations are underway to build the infrastructure for the 36th America’s Cup. As winners of the event in Bermuda last year, Team New Zealand have chosen Auckland to host the next contest.
An alliance model has been chosen to deliver this, for reasons including tight deadlines (see sidebar), the intense public interest in the project, and “the ability to adopt best practice from parent organisations”.
“The council had to look for a delivery mechanism that would actually enable everything to happen right from design, right through construction and commissioning within a very short time, and that's a big part of the reason they chose an alliance model for this project,” Ian Campbell, the Wynyard Edge Alliance Project Director, tells
intouch. “The major teams want to be in place and practicing one and a half years out from the actual event. Considering it takes half a year to even just sort out what are the structures required and get a contractor on board means you've got a very compressed time to actually build the infrastructure. We effectively have to have places ready for those first major teams to occupy in less than 15 months.”
Campbell is a civil engineer with vast international experience in project management. He has been at McConnell Dowell (an alliance partner along with Downer, Beca and others) since 1999. Between 2011 and 2017 he was seconded as Delivery Manager and then Executive General Manager for SCIRT, the Stronger Christchurch Infrastructure Rebuild Team.
The “very compressed time frame” is one of the major challenges of the America’s Cup project, Campbell says.
“That's what attracted me to the job, partly: the challenge of delivering to such an ambitious timeline,” he adds.
“But looking at the broader picture, of course, it is a very significant event for New Zealand, as a whole, for us hosting it. It's good for the whole country.”
On the waterfront
The $NZ 212 million project, as well as being a stage for the race and associated events, is aimed at “leaving a waterfront destination that Kiwis and visitors can love.”
It must design and provide seven bases for syndicates, four of which are double bases. Are 80 superyachts are expected to be moored at the Cup village. Exact final numbers are not known, with late entries open the rest of the year.
“We think it won't be more than seven, but you never know; if that’s the case we’ll have to scramble to finish the facilities,” Campbell says.
The home team will be using the Viaduct Events Centre on Halsey Wharf and converting this themselves.
“They just need to shift a few doors, a few ramps, so that they can get access to the right side of the pier. It's not a big ask,” Campbell says.
The main work done for ETNZ will be dredging the outer viaduct basin into which their boats will be launched and providing moorings.
East of the Halsey Wharf, Hobson Wharf is being extended slightly to accommodate a base.
On the other side of Halsey are tank farms at Wynyard Point, formerly operated by Shoalhaven Terminals, are being removed. The platforms will be used for five team bases. The point is also on reclaimed contaminated land, “held together with 1+m rock bunds.”
Infill is needed between the wharf and shore, and stabilisation needed to make it resistant to earthquakes.
“It's got quite an old sea wall that was built almost 100 years ago with rubble mounds and concrete upstands,” adds Campbell.
Interdependence and legacy
Computer modelling will be followed by physical modelling to determine what wave panels are needed and where. As well as geotechnical issues, achieving a wave environment of .1 is another engineering challenge with ferries and other harbour traffic coming and going and wharf structures to consider. A fixed wave break structure rather than floating structures is being used.
“Solid wave structures, while not new, within the confined space and configurations, present another line of problems,” explains Campbell.
“Usability, ferry and commercial fleet navigation, deflection and absorption of wave energy need to be engineered and designed around.”
And besides physical challenges, managing the interdependent nature of each project component – such as juggling the different wave breaks and wave panels of each wharf as each other part is built – is another challenge in itself. Then there are issues of tight labour and material availability while numerous other major city projects are underway.
The challenges, though, are what drew Campbell to the project, one that will have a lasting impact on Auckland well into the future. He cites other World and America’s Cup events.
“For each of those previous events, the infrastructure put in place for those events, it actually left a legacy beyond the events in terms of developing the waterfront,” he says.
"Which is a major asset for the city. And so you leave a lasting legacy for people to enjoy after the action, when everything's finished.”