Heron Construction commenced cutter suction dredging operation in 1971. The current cutter suction dredges are
Kotuku and
Beaver, they have been used to complete port dredging, river crossings, marina construction and maintenance, river and channel desedimentation, sand winning projects throughout New Zealand and the South Pacific. Both cutter suction dredges are demountable and as such are easily transported for project to project whether that be by road of sea.
Kotuku is a cutter suction dredge that has evolved over a period of approximately 35 years, each and every modification has been completed in Heron Constructions Papakura or Tauranga workshops. Today Kotuku is fitted with a 12/10 Warman underwater dredge pump and is able to dredge to a depth of -16m.
The dredge Beaver started life as an IHC Beaver Cub. It have been extensively upgraded and modified and currently can dredge to 8.0m with a 550hp 12/10 Warman inboard dredge pump.
Both dredges are ably supported by the workboats
Buka and
Rua which are used to tow and manoeuvre the dredges, move anchors, transfer fuel and crew transfer.
Heron has available over 280m of 350mm diameter floating dredge hose, 120m of floating pipeline, over 2000m of flanged steel pipeline and an extensive range of rubber flexible landline hoses.
Heron owns a range of standard reach and longreach excavators, bulldozers and front end loaders for pipeline handling and to construct and manage disposal and reclamation areas