McConnell Dowell has been awarded the contract for Te Mato Vai Stage 2 which includes the design and construction of 10 water intake upgrades.

Awarding of the contract marks a milestone in the progress of the Te Mato Vai project and comes after consent was granted from landowners of all 10 intakes to undertake surveys to provide information for detailed designs.

The scope of Te Mato Vai Stage 2 involves the upgrade of water inlets, construction of treatment facilities, additional storage capacity as well as the replacement of trunk mains and some improvements to access roads.

As part of their design-build contract, the McConnell Dowell team will undertake preliminary surveys, geotechnical investigation, develop detailed designs and do construction.

They will also operate the system with the Cook Islands Government for 12 months at completion of construction as part of a training and capacity building exercise, as well as ensuring the supply meets performance requirements.

McConnell Dowell worked on the Avatiu Port development project for the Cook Islands government and Ports Authority, completed in 2013.

A spokesman for the project said the company’s existing relationships with local resources and the people of Rarotonga would be valuable in the successful implementation of the Te Mato Vai Stage 2 works.

They are relationships that Finance minister Mark Brown says will see the government’s capital investment flow back into the local community and workforce.

A core team from McConnell Dowell will be based in Rarotonga to oversee the Stage 2 works, which will be carried out mostly by local contractors and workers.

GHD New Zealand is the engineer to the contract, and will have a full time presence in Rarotonga for the full duration of construction.

The company is responsible for managing and monitoring the works with regards to performance and compliance to all relevant regulations and quality standards, on behalf of the Cook Islands Government.

Brown acknowledges the lengthy and complex tender process undertaken between GHD New Zealand, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Management, the Crown Law Office and the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, before McConnell Dowell was identified as preferred tenderer on May 23.

Since that time, a final scope has been negotiated for a contract price acceptable to the Cook Islands government.

The contract is worth $34.6 million, and is the outcome of a well prepared construction plan with a scope of work that maximises value for money and will deliver a safe and reliable water supply to the people of Rarotonga.

During discussions, much consideration was given to ensuring that guarantees and warranties for the treatment facilities are in place and that the system can be managed and operated with minimal maintenance.

This negotiation phase also reduced the contract price by $4.6 million without any detrimental effect on the project outcomes.

The spokesman said the tender process had established a productive relationship between the Cook Islands Government, GHD New Zealand, and McConnell Dowell.

The contract is expected to be signed in the next few weeks with preliminary surveys starting shortly afterwards.

A new phase of landowner meetings will be undertaken over coming months, to discuss survey findings, develop the detailed designs and obtain landowners’ consent to proceed with construction.

“Government will continue to work very closely with landowners not only throughout the project but also far into the future as part of the upkeep of this national investment,” says Brown.

According to the project programme the detailed designs will be complete before the end of 2017, with the physical works scheduled to start in 2018. The work will take around two and a half years to complete.

The 10 intakes are to be upgraded are Avana, Avatiu, Matavera, Ngatoe, Papua, Taipara, Takuvaine, Totokoitu, Tupapa and Turangi.

|  A Cook Islands News release  ||  August 14,  2017   |||

Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Paul Goldsmith has today released the Future Demand for Construction Workers Report 2017, the updated forecast of New Zealand’s need for workers in building and construction through to 2022.

“Demand for skills across the board is at fever pitch, but nowhere more so than in construction, which in the year to June employed over 18,200 more people across New Zealand, the second largest contributor to annual employment growth,” Mr Goldsmith says.

The number of people expected to be employed in construction occupations is projected to increase by 10 per cent by 2022, adding around 56,000 employees, increasing the total construction workforce to 571,300.

“The total value of building and construction work forecast over the next six years is expected to top $244 billion, and all of that investment needs skilled construction workers to bring it to reality,” Mr Goldsmith says.

“Our intention is not just to provide accurate forecasts of the value of this work. We want to support planning for this important part of our national workforce.”

The new report and its web application allows anyone to check forecasts for 62 construction occupations across New Zealand. That information will enable construction firms to better plan their workforces, and encourage expanded training by education providers.

“The Government is actively supporting the training of more skilled workers to meet the demand for new housing and construction. Through initiatives such as Trades Academies, Vocational Pathways, the Dual Pathways Pilot, Maori and Pasifika Trades Training, and industry training through the ITOs, we have a significant pipeline for delivering skilled workers,” Mr Goldsmith says.

“We have the funding to take on anyone willing to take up an apprenticeship, and have funded 7,500 new apprentices over the past year. The Government is willing to put the resources in, but we also need the support of parents, teachers, careers advisors, and businesses if we are to get more young Kiwis into the trades.”

“In 2016 the number of new starts for apprenticeships like carpentry, plumbing and electrical engineering were at the highest levels in nearly a decade. We now have over 43,000 apprentices in training, and are on the way to our goal of 50,000 by 2020,” Mr Goldsmith says.

The Future Demand for Construction Workers Report 2017 and web application are located at constructionprojections.mbie.govt.nz.

|  A beehive release  ||  August 7,  2017   |||

Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, known for making cathedrals and concert halls out of paper, is designing 20,000 new homes for refugees in northwest Kenya. Ban, who won the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2014, will be working with the UN Habitat to build homes in the Kalobeyei refugee settlement in Kenya’s Turkana region.

After the 2011 earthquake in Christchurch, Ban designed a temporary replacement for the church made out of cardboard. 

Ban, a minimalist who uses materials ranging from cardboard and paper to beer crates, is known for his work on emergency housing. He’s built DIY refugee shelters in Rwanda after the 1994 genocide and in Nepal after its 2015 earthquake2015. His paper log houses have been used in Japan, Turkey, and India. In Kenya, Ban says his goal is to design housing simple enough for residents to replicate and maintain by themselves—Kenya’s refugee population, at about 400,000, is expected to continue growing.

“The key thing will be to design and construct shelter where no or little technical supervision is required, and use materials that are locally available and eco-friendly. It’s important that the houses can be easily maintained by inhabitants,” Ban said after visiting the Kalobeyei settlement last week.

Continue to full article here

This pair of enormous mirrored-steel boxes connected by a glazed bridge were designed by Antonini + Darmon and RMDM, to complement and extend an aluminium-clad archive facility outside Paris.

The CTLES (Technical Centre for Books of Higher Education) is a national public administrative institution located in the Parisian suburb of Bussy-Saint-Georges, around 25 kilometres east of the city centre.

The facility is operated by the Ministry for National Education, Higher Education and Research, and is responsible for the preservation and communication of documents for universities and research centres in Paris.

Continue to the full article here on de Zeen

Property Council New Zealand welcomes the Government's announcement of a Crown company to invest in housing infrastructure.

“The Property Council has long called for adequate funding tools, and at last the Crown gives us a useful solution to address New Zealand’s housing crisis,” says Connal Townsend, chief executive, Property Council New Zealand.

“We have a severe lack of housing. If we continue along this path, you will see more homelessness.

“The development community is ready to respond to the urgent need for more housing. The handbrake has been a lack of infrastructure such as roading, water and sewerage that supports development. Building cities costs a lot of money and infrastructure is a large proportion of that cost.”

"The $1 billion Housing Infrastructure Fund whilst a great initiative does not address how some councils, who are ruled by strict debt ratios, would be able to carry that debt on their balance sheet."

Mr Townsend believes this move by the Government to co-invest $600 million alongside local councils and private investors in network infrastructure for housing development, will finally start to remove the handbrake.

“The traditional way we have funded growth in our cities is way out of date and cannot deliver the infrastructure and housing we need.

“By setting up a Crown company, the Crown retains the legal ownership of the debt, thus allowing councils to access the fund and get much needed infrastructure built. This has enormous potential, provided councils also partner with the development community.”

| A Property Council NZ release  ||  July 24,  2017   |||

The number of women working in construction in Canterbury has more than doubled since the quakes, Minister supporting Greater Christchurch Regeneration Nicky Wagner says.

This week’s Greater Christchurch Dashboard — Women in Construction shows the number of women working in both residential and non-residential construction in Canterbury has increased from 3400 in March 2010 to 7600 in March 2017 — a 124 per cent increase.

“That’s 4200 more women employed in skilled trades such as carpentry, plumbing and gas fitting,” Ms Wagner says.

“More and more women are embracing rebuild opportunities by entering and succeeding in this traditionally male-dominated industry. Women can bring a fresh perspective, strengthen customer relations and improve business performance.

“The Stronger Christchurch Infrastructure Rebuild Team (SCIRT), which was responsible for repairing Christchurch’s quake-damaged infrastructure, proactively encouraged women into its workforce through the SCIRT Women in Construction working group.

“Between 2014 and 2015, the number of women in crew roles at SCIRT doubled from 6 to 12 per cent.

“Women are also increasingly represented in trades training at organisations such as the Ara Institute in Christchurch, where the number of women in trade courses rose from 118 in 2011 to more than 300 in 2016.

“With a skills shortage around the country, it’s great to see more women in construction — it makes good business sense and benefits Christchurch and New Zealand economically.”

Related Documents

Greater Christchurch Dashboard - Women in Construction.pdf (pdf 102.55 KB

| A Beehive release  ||  July 23, 2017   |||

The Government will co-invest up to $600 million alongside local councils and private investors in network infrastructure for big new housing developments through a re-purposed ultra-fast broadband company, Finance Minister Steven Joyce and Local Government Minister Anne Tolley say.

“Crown Fibre Holdings will be re-named Crown Infrastructure Partners, and bring the investment skills and experience gained through the Government’s world-leading ultra-fast broadband rollout to the job of attracting private investment in roading and water infrastructure that open up big new tracts of land for more housing development,” Mr Joyce says.

"Crown Infrastructure Partners will set up special purpose companies to build and own new trunk infrastructure for housing developments in return for dedicated long term revenue streams from councils through targeted rates and volumetric charging for use of the infrastructure by new residents.”

“This innovative new funding method will be made available to cash-strapped councils who are struggling to fund new long-term infrastructure from their own balance sheets,” Mrs Tolley says.

“Councils will have the option of buying back the infrastructure at some point in the future, but won’t have to commit to doing so. This is all about introducing outside capital to build this infrastructure, so current ratepayers don’t get burdened with all the costs of growth.”

Two of the earliest projects to be assessed by Crown Infrastructure Partners for investment will be the Auckland North and Auckland South projects previously submitted by Auckland Council as requiring investment outside the Council’s own balance sheet.

“These two large projects can provide an additional 5,500 homes in Wainui to the north of Auckland, and 17,800 homes across Pukekohe, Paerata and Drury to the south of the city,” Mrs Tolley says.

Mr Joyce says the Government is prepared to be an investor alongside the private sector and take up some of the early uptake risk.

“We learnt from the ultra-fast broadband programme that if we de-risk some of the early stages of the investment, we can bring in private sector investors to take on much of the heavy lifting as the investments mature,” Mr Joyce says. “We would expect the Crown’s investment in each project to be matched with at least one to one with private sector investment over time.”

“This new model is another way in which we are helping Councils in our fastest growing cities to open up more land supply so more Kiwis can achieve the goal of home ownership,”

Mr Joyce says it forms part of our comprehensive programme for lifting housing supply to meet the needs of a confident growing country.

“Crown Infrastructure Partners is the logical next step in infrastructure funding following the Government’s Housing Infrastructure Fund which will deliver 60,000 houses across our fastest growing population centres over the next ten years.

Crown Infrastructure Partners (CIP)Questions and Answers

What is Crown Infrastructure Partners?

CIP is a Crown company (formerly Crown Fibre Holdings) that is being tasked with designing and implementing new commercial models to attract co-investment from the private or other sectors and achieve the Government’s objectives for the efficient deployment of water and roading infrastructure to support the timely increase of housing supply.

The aim is to increase the total investment in local arterial roading and network water projects needed to make more housing development possible by tapping private sources of capital.

Why repurpose CFH as CIP?

A number of corporate structures were identified during the review phase. Establishing a . . .  

Continue to read full article here . . . A Beehive release  || July 23, 2017   |||

Hawaiki Cable has chosen 81year old Northland based electrotechnology company McKay Ltd to build its cable landing station at Mangawhai Heads in Northland, signing a multimillion dollar contract with the company.

Hawaiki said McKay would be responsible for the complete civil, building, electrical, standby generation, AC and DC UPS systems, and HVAC systems.

McKay’s managing director, Lindsay Faithfull, said Hawaiki had very particular requirements and the company had come up with “a unique Northland based solution that included our local partners and met Hawaiki’s needs.”

Construction of the 14,000 kilometre cable that will link New Zealand to Australia, Hawaii and mainland United States started with a ground breaking ceremony at Bream Trail Farm in Mangawhai Heads last November. The system is scheduled to be in service by June 2018.

Hawaiki announced in May that 90 percent of the 14,000km of cable required for the system had been completed, along with 150 repeaters.

When it announced the contract with McKay, Hawaiki said the cable would have options to expand to several South Pacific islands. It has been promoting these since launch of the project and early route maps showed dotted links to Samoa and American Samoa, Wallis, Fiji, Vanuatu, New Caledonia and Norfolk Island. However the current map on its web site shows a link to American Samoa only.

Norfolk Island is very close Hawaiki’s route and the island’s community, backed by One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson, has urged the Federal Government to fund a link to the island, but to no avail. The government, it seems is unwilling to stump up the $A1m to provide a branching unit that would enable connection at a later date.

TriWorlds Pty Ltd, a Norfolk Island company lobbying for the extension, said in November “Australia has recently provided $US1.5m to Samoa for a similar cable connection. A cable branching unit to Norfolk Island could be secured for less than $A1m as insurance to ‘future proof’ the island by allowing it the chance to connect later.”

It added that Hawaiki Cable had given a final deadline of 15th December 2016 for Australia to commit to a Norfolk Island connection

| A Computerworld release  ||  July 20,  2017   |||

 SANY Group, China's top construction machinery manufacturer, has made remarkable progress in Asia-Pacific region since entering the local markets in 2007. After establishing its branch office in Sydney, SANY continues to make substantial efforts to develop business in Australia.

SANY's vast range of products have participated in major projects in the Australian market. In Aug 2015, three 300 ton SANY crawler cranes were delivered to the Wheatstone LNG project in Ashburton North, Western Australia. As one of Australia's largest resource developments, it is expected to produce 8.9 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of LNG that will power 1.8 million local homes with electricity.

In addition to super projects, SANY compact and medium excavators have been widely used in urban construction, agricultural and landscaping applications across Australia. After proving its unrivaled performance and reliability, SANY excavators have won the favor of Australian mainstream market of construction machinery.

Following the booming e-commerce business, SANY launched the mini excavator online sales in Australia and New Zealand in mid-May, which has attracted considerable attention of the local customers. When they visited SANY's manufacturing facilities in China, they were all impressed by the exceptional efficiency and value-adding features of the excavators.

"I have heard of SANY in Australia before. This time I examined its products in detail and found that they are very good quality machines," said Mr. Buckley.

In recent years, sticking to the "going out" strategy, SANY has made proactive efforts to expand in the global markets. Its overseas performance is growing by 20% each year, registering about 43% of the company's total revenue. Furthermore, SANY has entered new business sectors, such as wind energy, prefabrication and internet of things, boosting SANY's growth around the world.

About SANYSANY Group (SANY) is a leading global heavy machinery manufacturer with plants in the US, Germany, Brazil and India, and business covering over 100 countries and regions worldwide. The company has been recognized as one of the most innovative and successful companies in the world, and its concrete machinery is ranked No. 1 globally.

For more information, please visit: www.sanyglobal.com, or follow SANY Group on Facebook and YouTube.

| A SANY release  ||  July 18, 2017   |||

The allocation of the $1 billion Housing Infrastructure Fund today is another milestone in the Government’s plan to increase housing supply for a growing New Zealand, Prime Minister Bill English says.

“The infrastructure projects announced today will speed up the delivery of 60,000 houses across our fastest growing population centres over the next ten years,” Mr English says.

“This is another major step forward in our plan to permanently lift the capacity of the construction sector to support a more confident, expanding New Zealand.”

The funding will be allocated across nine projects in five different council areas, Auckland, Hamilton, Waikato, Tauranga and Queenstown.

“I want to congratulate the Councils in these areas for their positive engagement with the fund and the quality of the infrastructure projects they have proposed,” Mr English says.

“These projects will make their contribution to lifting housing supply alongside the Government’s own Crown Building Project, the Special Housing Areas, our planning changes, and the already record levels of new home construction taking place across New Zealand.”

| A Beehive release  ||  July 11,  2017   |||