The last pre-cast concrete piece in the giant Waterview tunnel puzzle has been made.
An East Tamaki factory has cast the last of 24,000 segments which are being used to line the motorway tunnels for the NZ Transport Agency’s Waterview Connection project.
The segments are delivered to the project site in Owairaka where the tunnel boring machine ‘Alice’ has been installing the segments at a rate of six linings every 24 hours that the TBM is operating.
The East Tamaki facility was built by a partnership between the tunnel project’s Well Connected Alliance and Wilson Tunnelling, using some of the most up to date concrete batching and moulding equipment.
“The linings for these tunnels have needed to be extremely precise with to-the-millimetre precision so they fit perfectly together inside the tunnels. They’re also strong, and durable enough to withstand more than 100 years of traffic use,” says NZTA Auckland state highways manager Brent Gliddon.
The remaining 65 workers at the factory celebrated their achievement in completing the final segment with a special lunch. The facility will now progress to a deconstruction phase.
With the skills developed at East Tamaki, many of those working there have been able to find new jobs in a booming construction industry, says the Alliance project manager John Burden.
“The team at the precast factory can be very proud of the job they have completed,” says Burden.
“The team has also worked hard with the local community to hire, train and develop a workforce that is now able to move on to higher skilled jobs,” he says.
Key facts about the East Tamaki Pre-Cast Factory
Components produced:
- 24,000 tunnel lining segments
- 2,406 culvert units
- 279 bridge beams
Materials used:
- 95,000 cubic metres of concrete
- 3,500 tonnes of conventional reinforcing
- 4,500 tonnes of steel fibre reinforcing
Each segment, weighing up to 10.5 tonne is one of 10 which make up 2,414 rings of concrete lining. Each ring is 2 metres wide and 14 metres in diameter.
Footage of the pre-cast factory and the casting process can be found on the following YouTube link
