Floating dry dock could bring close to $40m a year into Marlborough

A dry dock has been proposed for Shakespeare Bay near Picton.

A dry dock has been proposed for Shakespeare Bay near Picton.
STUART SMITH

OPINION: The many benefits that establishing a floating dry dock at Picton’s Shakespeare Bay would bring to our region cannot be overstated.

This is a valuable opportunity for Marlborough to significantly increase its economic resilience, future growth and provide high-quality, well-paid and reliable career options for our people.

Shakespeare Bay is undeniably a highly strategic place for a dry dock to be located. It’s right in the centre of the country, is handy to Cook Strait shipping lanes and has excellent rail, road and air connections.

The former navy frigate HMNZS Canterbury in an Auckland dry dock.

The former navy frigate HMNZS Canterbury in an Auckland dry dock.

The bay already operates around the clock as part of Port Marlborough’s operations and it is sheltered from Picton and its residents. As the deepest natural berth in New Zealand, minimal or no dredging would be required to operate a dry dock.

According to a research paper prepared by the Shipping Federation in 2015, a new floating dry dock could bring in an estimated $38 million in regional income per year.

This would present a truly significant string to our economic bow.

Kaikōura MP Stuart Smith says a dry dock would bring young workers to Picton.

Kaikōura MP Stuart Smith says a dry dock would bring young workers to Picton.

Concerns have been raised about biosecurity and the environment. The fact is that the water which comes out of the proposed dry dock is as clean, if not cleaner, as when it went in.

The potential for a biosecurity breach is an issue that the Marlborough Sounds is open to on a daily basis. Currently there are no restrictions on pleasure boats and commercial ships coming in and out of the Marlborough Sounds, which means that whatever is on the hulls of those vessels comes in with them.

It is my view that this poses a far greater biosecurity risk than a controlled, self-contained dry dock with water treatment systems in place to capture, treat and dispose of contaminants.

Many of New Zealand’s largest ships that would use the dry dock enter the Marlborough Sounds regularly anyway, including of course the interisland ferries and the Royal New Zealand Navy.

Building dry dock facilities in Picton to service these vessels, rather than sending them to another less suitable port in New Zealand or overseas actually brings better environmental outcomes as well as saving costs which would have been passed on to the consumer.

As I said, the opportunities this dry dock would bring to our region are huge. Picton itself has struggled to retain young people since the loss of the freezing works many years ago. Bringing a major employer to town would draw in, and retain, young people and naturally create positive flow-on effects for surrounding businesses.

Our region really does tick all the boxes as the obvious location for a new dry dock in New Zealand, and it is an opportunity Marlborough should absolutely embrace.

Huge dredge arrives at Lyttelton to work on shipping channel

One of the world’s largest dredges has arrived in Lyttelton to start deepening, widening and lengthening the port’s shipping channel as it prepares to welcome ever-larger ships.

The 230m long dredge, Fairway, travelled from Mumbai, India, with a stop in Singapore for cleaning and anti-fouling.

Lyttelton Port Company was granted resource consent in March to dredge the channel. The project was opposed by Ngāi Tahu and surfers group Surfbreak.

The company’s chief executive, Peter Davie said the work would enable bigger container ships to call at Lyttelton. Container vessels had “virtually doubled in size” in the last decade, and the work would trim freight costs for Lyttelton customers by more than 10 per cent, Davie said.

A container crane at work at Lyttelton's container port.

A container crane at work at Lyttelton’s container port.

 

Dredging will be done in stages, starting on Wednesday, and will take about 12 weeks to complete.

Fairway‘s owners, Netherlands-based contractor Royal Boskalis Westminster NV, will do the work.

In the meantime the dredge will be in dock for customs procedures and crew inductions.

The port company said the environmental monitoring programme for the project would be the largest ever in New Zealand. The biosecurity plan to allow the dredge to visit New Zealand was developed with input from science organisation the Cawthron Institute.

Lyttelton Port environmental advisor Jared Pettersson​ said a plume of silt will be visible coming from the dredge while it was working, but that it would not be environmentally harmful.

The Fairway will spend 12 weeks working in Lyttelton Harbour.

The Fairway will spend 12 weeks working in Lyttelton Harbour.

During the consenting process, Ngāi Tahu lodged environmental and cultural objections as to the local effects of dumping the silt. As part of a mediated settlement, the port company will provide real time data on the project on its Harbour Watch website, and is setting up video monitoring of the surf break at Taylors Mistake as a result its settlement with Surfbreak.

The company will also pay Ngāi Tahu $650,000 over 25 years to go towards mahinga kai (food gathering).

The first stage of the dredging will deepen the shipping channel for vessels with a 13.3m draught, while future stages will allow 14.5m draught vessels to enter and depart across all tides

The dredging plan for Lyttelton Harbour

The dredging plan for Lyttelton Harbour

How it works

The trailing suction hopper dredgers collect sand and silt from the seabed.

In stage one, the existing shipping channel will be lengthened by 2.5km, widened by 20m and deepened by up to 2m. Dredged sediment will be dumped at a designated spot 5km off Godley Head.

The dredgers are equipped with suction pipes ending in drag heads. When a vessel reaches the dredging location it reduces speed and lowers the suction pipes onto the seabed.

The drag head moves slowly over the bed collecting the sand like a giant vacuum cleaner. The mixture of sand and water is pumped into the hopper of the dredging vessel. Excess water flows out through overflows and dredging stops when the hopper is full.

The sand can be deposited through doors in the bottom of the vessel.

The Fairway, 230m long, has come to New Zealand from India.

The Fairway, 230m long, has come to New Zealand from India.

Wellington highways snubbed as Government announces transport spend

Fixing roading blackspots, passing lanes and dangerous corners are priorities in the Government’s newly announced $16.9b land transport investment.

Transport Minister Phil Twyford said Labour would deliver a “safer and better connected system” that would reduce the number of “friends and family” killed on New Zealand roads.

“This record investment in our transport system will help grow our regions, make it easier to get around our cities, and save lives on our roads,” he said.

“It will deliver the best results for our transport dollar.”

A total of $4.3b will be spent on programmes and projects “that will save lives by preventing accidents or reducing their severity”.

Blackspots, high risk intersections, safe level crossings, passing lanes and anti-skid surfaces would be a focus.

“This will include revamping intersections to stop collisions, installing median barriers in high-risk areas, and increasing road policing,” he said.

Roads receiving safety upgrades will include Dome Valley, Drury to Paerata, Waihi to Tauranga, and the Hawke’s Bay Expressway.

The planned investments are detailed in the 2018-21 National Land Transport Programme (NLTP), published today by the NZ Transport Agency.

How the money will be spent.
How the money will be spent.

Twyford said the regions would also receive a much needed boost.

“Most roading investment will go to the regions, rather than the big cities. This reverses the situation in the last three years.”

Regional roads would receive $5.8b of funding – a $600m increase.

Nearly $4b would be spent on public transport, rapid transit, and rail services to ease congestion and make the cities healthier places to live.

There would be renewal work to Wellington’s rail tracks and more options such as Auckland’s SkyPath and Seapath walk/cycleways, and a new commuter ferry service in Queenstown.

State highways receive the largest share of funding, with a total of $5.7b.

Work would include $3.5b in new state highway projects such as Puhoi to Warkworth, the Waikato Expressway, the Mt Messenger bypass, the Manawatu Gorge replacement, Wellington’s Transmission Gully, and the Christchurch Southern Motorway.