Cranes, concrete, and construction at Moa Point

The facility will reduce the volume of sewerage sludge produced by our city by up to 80 percent per year and allow us to dramatically reduce waste to landfill. 

Construction started on the site in June 2023, and in August that year we removed a hillock to create space for the construction project and then for the airport to use as a ground support facility once we’ve finished construction.  

The hillock was approximately 70,000m3 of material that went around town for beneficial reuse. For those of us with a garden that’s about 875, 000 wheelbarrows full. If you filled one wheelbarrow every two minutes moving the hillock would take you more than 1000 days (about two and a half years). Fortunately, our equipment was much bigger, and we did the job in a couple of months. 

In the last 12 months our construction team (Joint Venture partners HEB Construction and McConnell Dowell) have been working hard and making great progress to build Te Whare Wai Para Nuku.  

We’ve stabilised the slope that sits behind the facility with just over a 1000 rock anchors covered with mesh. We have been busy installing over 80 micropiles to support the new building that will soon start to take shape. 

So far, we’ve used 63 tonnes of reinforcing steel with over 500m3 of concrete for the foundations of the new building. That’s almost 100 concrete trucks, with a few more to go. 

Speaking of concrete, we’ve poured a lot into making sure our digesters have a solid base. 

The digesters are the heart (or in this case stomach) of Te Whare Wai Para Nuku, they’re where the anaerobic digestion process happens. It mimics the natural decomposition process of waste, breaking down biodegradable matter in the sludge. As the sludge breaks down, it produces biogas which will be captured and used to produce heat and electricity, which helps run the process. 

We’ve poured 1140m3 concrete (about half the volume of an Olympic-size swimming pool) into making sure they have a stable base and are three quarters of the way up the height of their walls. Once finished these two tanks will be the height of a six-storey building and home to lots of microorganisms processing the sludge.  

June was a special time for the facility and the team building it. During Matariki celebrations we were formally gifted the name Te Whare Wai Para Nuku.  

WATCH: Te Whare Wai Para Nuku 

In August we closed the road temporarily so we could quickly and safely erect a second crane on site. This second crane will be vital as we move into erecting steel for the four-storey main process building that will house much of the mechanical equipment treating Wellington’s sludge in the future. 

This new crane is the bigger sibling of the two with its smaller partner helping us put up our digestors at the site. 

In October we’ll start putting steel up for the main building and pour the last concrete for our digesters in November.  

Next time you’re flying in or out of Pōneke look down, you might catch a glimpse of the construction site!