Port of Tauranga Sulphur Point Wharf Construction

Project: Port of Tauranga Sulphur Point Wharf Construction
Location: Tauranga, New Zealand
Client: Port of Tauranga

In 1988 Westham Dredging (Aust) Pty Ltd contracted Heron Construction to create a temporary reclamation using the cutter suction dredge (CSD) Kotuku for the construction of the Port of Tauranga’s new Sulphur Point Wharf development.

The 150,000m3 temporary reclamation was used as a staging platform from for the construction of the new 600 metre long Sulphur Point Wharf.

Two years later the Port of Tauranga contracted Heron to dredge the sand from under the newly constructed wharf.  The scope included dredging the batter slope and key trench under the wharf to -19m CD to enable armour rock to be placed and the dredging of the turning basin and berth pockets to a depth of -13m CD.

To dredge the key trench and batter slope for the wharf structure, Kotuku was extensively modified in Heron’s Papakura workshop, the ladder and cutter assembly from the smaller CSD Beaver was joined onto Kotuku’s ladder giving it an overall length of 30m which enable Kotuku to achieve the dredge depth of -19m CD in the key trench.

In total approximately 800,000m3 of sand was pumped ashore by Kotuku to complete the Sulphur Point Reclamation.