KEY POINTS:
Construction of a giant cement store almost as long as a rugby field will start next month on Auckland's Bledisloe Wharf.
The project is to allow the decks to be cleared further west for the first stage of the $2 billion-plus redevelopment of Wynyard Pt to be completed in time for the Rugby World Cup in 2011.
Fletcher Building has agreed to spend about $46 million moving its Golden Bay Cement subsidiary's storage and load-out facilities eastward, to a new depot on Bledisloe Wharf, at the corner of Plumer and Tooley Sts.
The largest of its seven tall storage silos at the western end of Jellicoe St is to be demolished, although the others will be retained as part of the Wynyard Pt redevelopment, possibly as exhibition galleries.
Sea+City Projects, which is managing the redevelopment for Auckland Regional Holdings in conjunction with Auckland City and Auckland Regional Council, says the "six-pack" group of 30m-plus silos will be remain as a feature of Wynyard Quarter to help to showcase the marine industry's links with Auckland.
Jellicoe St is to be developed into a central promenade extending from the proposed new Te Wero footbridge across Viaduct Harbour as part of the project's first stage.
Fletcher agreed to surrender its lease on the Wynyard site six years ahead of time, in return for a 35-year lease from Ports of Auckland on Bledisloe Wharf.
That is where it expects to spend 18 months building a new Golden Bay distribution centre and bulk store capable of holding 25,000 tonnes of cement, more than double the capacity of its existing seven silos.
But the company and its landlord say the new "architecturally designed" cement store - which will be the largest in New Zealand - will have a low-profile, horizontal design to minimise disruption of views for a growing number of waterfront apartment-dwellers.
It will be 84m long and 28m wide, but a relatively low 18m, or six storeys, high. An associated load-out facility to serve 60 bulk truck tankers a day off Plumer St will be eight storeys high, but not nearly as long.
The developers say that ensuring cement dust would not escape from the buildings was "of utmost concern" to their designers, because of the proximity to the city and other port operations.
They say each building will operate as a fully sealed unit, and they would have 17 dust filters between them.
Noise suppression techniques to be used during construction would include placing a nylon cushion between a hydraulic hammer.
