CentrePort

11/05/2022

Overview

Located in Wellington, CentrePort is an intermodal hub linking road, rail, and domestic and international shipping services. Since 2010, Downer has undertaken both planned and reactive maintenance work, as well as individual capital works projects and pavement renewals in both the log yard and the container terminal. In doing so we have built an ongoing relationship resulting in works covering reactive maintenance, earthworks and pavement construction, rail installation and maintenance, lighting services installation and drainage work.

CentrePort engaged the team at Downer to carry out repair works shortly after the Kaikoura Earthquake in November 2016. Repair works include water and utility repairs, ground resilience work, bulk earthworks, asphalt surfacing and repairs to rail and removal of assets, such as foundations and demolition. 

We continue to maintain a highly successful and healthy relationship with Centreport, with work continuing on drainage upgrades and pavement reconstruction.

Challenge

Due to the nature of operations, CentrePort is inherently a very challenging environment and can present many risks, which is why Health and Safety is particularly crucial on this project. In conjunction with Downer's own Health and Safety induction, all of our staff who engage on projects at the port must complete a CentrePort Be Safe induction before they can work. 

There are many other Health and Safety risks at CentrePort including working around heavy vehicles, machinery movements involved in port operations, restricted access areas, working around shipping and rail timetables, contaminated aggregates, due to reclaimed land, pedestrian safety, dust and noise, weather, falls from height and the chance of being hit by falling or moving objects. Downer has also worked hard to overcome many challenges throughout our tenure with Centreport, including the challenges faced with COVID-19, which impacted our delivery of the Centreport Entrance Upgrade in 2020. 

Solution / Outcome

The team ensure that there are comprehensive inspection tests, Health, Safety and Environment tests and Contract Quality Plans in place for each project. Our team have worked with Centreport to offer project-specific methodologies, including alternative innovative heavy-duty asphalt pavements to meet the significant design loadings and provide a quality, long-lasting product. We also design our work programmes to address challenges such as shipping timetables. These measures include resourcing multiple work crews and working around the clock to get critical works completed within CentrePort's time frames, allowing access for ship arrivals. 

Through our work with Centreport, we leveraged our existing relationship to obtain additional work outside of civil construction, such as utilities work including CCTV, communications and rail isolation.

Downer have successfully delivered the bulk of all pavement reconstruction for Centreport over the last 12 years, we are highly regarded for our design and engineering capability. 

 We also maintain positive in-house stakeholder relationships, including working with other companies that lease Centreport's land. We liaise closely with all stakeholders to form highly collaborative and positive interactions that result in additional work. Our success can also be measured through our excellent relationship spanning over 12 years and the ongoing management of Centreport’s planned and reactive maintenance work.

Downer has used paving and design expertise to provide alternative, innovative methodologies and solutions that are sustainable and provide cost efficiencies. We use our knowledge of port operations to offer programmes that are efficient and work well to meet on-site challenges.