Bypassing Central Wellington
The trench is stabilised using soft nails
Complications
This is the first major inner city roading project since the 1970s to be built in the middle of a residential and commercial area with significant heritage interest. Such concerns got short shrift when the Wellington motorway was built in the 1970s; this time the difference is remarkable.
First, to avoid disturbing residents, there are restrictions on noise, silt run-off, and the times of day the contractors can operate. Added to this is the traffic – 35,000 vehicle movements per day – which must continue to flow. Wellington City Council is also taking advantage of the project to piggy-back a mini-project of its own, laying a large stormwater drain along much of the route. Then there is the ever-present security threat posed by protest action. The icing on the cake is that the project site is also home to one of the biggest archaeological digs and one of the largest historic building conservation projects ever carried out by the Historic Places Trust.
Cooperating with the bypass has been a divisive choice for the Trust, as many in the heritage community sided with the project's opponents. Ultimately the Trust's lack of compulsory powers, Transit's accommodating plans for restoring many of the historic houses in a heritage park alongside the route, and an unprecedented opportunity to carry out an archaeological dig in the middle of the city meant there was more to be gained from cooperation than resistance. And the work is turning up valuable finds for the archeologists and historians.
Evidence of slum tenement housing has been uncovered on Arthur Street, Trust spokesperson Emma Brooks says; archaeologists have found bottles, crockery, chamber pots, shoes, meat bones, and brushes of various types. They have also found six wells, one of which still holds water. The material will be analysed to increase our knowledge of the day-to-day life of people in a nineteenth-century working-class district.
The Historic Places Trust has identified 23 buildings along the route as having heritage value. Seven of them will remain where they are. A further 17 will be refurbished and relocated to a nearby heritage precinct. Many of these buildings are in poor condition and will have to be repaired. A further 11 buildings that are not considered to have heritage value are being relocated, and 12 more are being demolished.
Ms Adams says the archaeologists have posed no real problem for the construction of the project. The major digs have concluded and the project is now running slightly ahead of schedule.
Protest action has proved to be more of a nuisance than the promised die-in-the-ditch obstruction, with break-ins, petty arson and occasional confrontations resulting in arrests. Some protesters unfamiliar with heavy machinery have annoyed workers by putting themselves in danger. But some protests have inspired a degree of admiration. "I think the best yet was when two young ladies stripped butt-naked and walked past the site. As you might expect all work stopped!" says Ms Adams.
Other issues that confront the project include working around parades, sports events and street carnivals. Ms Adams says Transit maintains close contact with Wellington City Council, with a view to risk-mitigation and forward planning. The project, including the stormwater mini-project, is worth around $53m, and is being managed by Transit New Zealand. Design has been largely carried out by Opus and the main contractor is Fulton Hogan. Sub-contractors include Fulton Hogan Civil for the structure; EN Ramsbottom for the drainage and stormwater project; and Britton House Movers for the historic building relocations. The contract is fairly standard for a Transit project.
An indication of the scale of the project is the 11 management plans developed by Fulton Hogan in the three months after the tender was let. They cover matters from quality assurance to site security, sediment to archaeology. Together the plans form a stack about 45cm high. And these are not plans that can be written and ignored; they have to be understood by everyone involved in managing the project. "Making sure everyone knows what is important, when, is essential to keeping the project within its consent obligations," says Fulton Hogan project manager Richard Fulton.
