Economics check on barging

By PAM GRAHAM

A Thames Valley quarrying company has bypassed Auckland's clogged highways by shipping aggregate. It is still deciding if it is economical.

Privately owned HG Leach & Co has shipped two loads of aggregate from Kopu to Wynyard Wharf, in central Auckland, using SubritzkyLine's BK Subritzky, which has also carried vehicles and delivered luxury yachts.

The second trial involved 750 tonnes, equivalent to 25 truckloads, though the aggregate was still trucked from the company's Matatoki quarry to Kopu and from the wharf to a depot in Henderson. A trial shipment next week will go straight to a wharf at Henderson near the depot.

HG Leach's chief executive, Eric Souchon, said the company was taking a cautious approach to the project. It got resource consents seven years ago and originally planned a conveyor system to deeper water at Kopu.

Instead it used a shallow-draft vessel that a front-end loader could load from a ramp.

"It has taken us seven years to run the first barge and now that we have run them we know the logistics are fine," Souchon said. "The trials have gone very, very smoothly and we need to satisfy ourselves that the economics are sustainable."