KEY POINTS:
Progress on the Manukau Harbour Crossing project is now visible from the existing Mangere Bridge.
John Burden, the Fletcher Construction alliance project manager in charge of the $230 million Manukau Harbour Crossing project, said the steel on the new bridge had risen to a height so that it was clear to those using State Highway 20 to Auckland Airport.
"The main structure will be poured in place and the framework that supports it is being put in place right now so people driving along the motorway will see big red bits of steel sticking up and those bits hold the formwork we pour the concrete into," Burden said.
The job, New Zealand's second largest after the $365 million Albany-to-Puhoi motorway, has some quirky aspects such as the decoration of a plywood shed built to house infrastructure. That was painted by local Girl Guides in an attempt to thwart graffiti.
Crime threats on the Mangere site where the alliance has its offices have demanded 24-hour-a-day security, barbed wire over fences caging the portable offices and bars on windows.
Parts of the job to widen State Highway 20 on the airport side of the Mangere Bridge look almost complete. Garden mulch is being sprayed on the batter near Walmsley Rd even though that area will not be planted until next winter.
Burden said a new 1.6m-wide metal pipe would be installed under the Mangere Bridge as part of Watercare Services' upgrade via its Hunua No 4 pipeline project.
The alliance is not just building one new bridge over the Manukau but two: a $4 million temporary, low-lying, two-lane, 6m wide bridge of steel and concrete was built this year to enable workers to get to the site and bridge piles. This structure will be dismantled once work is finished.
