Quantum leap for JLG Industries ... Raising the dough to build New Zealand ... Full steam ahead ... Magic abroad in the air ... Seal of approval ... Reservations about NEC3 ... Handling the risk of bitumen price fluctuation ... Defining a healthy and productive industry ... Build them right first time ... The small PayHaulers - International's 65, 95 and 100
Recycling waste is the way ahead ... Fire on the mountain ... Ocean imagery ... Digestive problems ... Enriching Poorman Stream ... Making water work ... Court considers extreme payment schedules ... ARCG review of NZS3910 could have dire consequences ... The code of practice for cranes ... Myths and realities of liquidated damages ... The Terex S-11E
ICB drills a hole in one with Hitachi ... Trains, cars and whitebait ... Saving lives ... Concrete paves the way at sea ... Keeping training underground ... Heavyweights push for partnerships ... Nursing the industry through the recession ... Roading competition still strong and healthy ... Associates beware ... Complicated contracts stymie projects ... The Hewco LD3 Scoopmobile
Trading up ... Final farewell ... Easing a pig of a corner ... Multi million dollar dream ... Award winning approach to contracting ... Site investigation and services location ... Recession, government spending and the year ahead ... Is an adjudicator required to provide reasoned reasons? ... The Caterpillar 641
Attack of the Cat ... A truly golden jubilee ... A man for all seasons ... Auckland Motorway Alliance celebrates first birthday ... High density challenges ... Tendering a competitive edge ... Strength in unity ... The lost art of mediation ... The Caterpillar D8
Cutting out the recession ... Taylor-made ... Huge grid upgrade opportunity ... Ruby Bay: A gem of a project ... The investment dilemma ... Say it with concrete ... Solid foundations: The concrete awards ... Managing contract risk ... Towards a more informed market ... Getting your hands on the money ... Guide to incident investigation ... The Wabco 222
Dynamic duo ... MacDow's Tahuna triumph ... Slip sliding away ... Straighten up and drive right ... Excellent roading ... Getting the tender right ... Construction Contracts Act update at Paihia ... Recognising the link between training and productivity ... The Terex 72-51
Celebrating 40 years of success ... Strength, grace and economy ... Taking the traffic out of Taupo ... Cliff top challenge ... Thar she blows ... Shell People Awards ... Winning style ... Weighing up the procurement process ... Health and safety certification chaos ... The International Harvester 412
Taking safety seriously ... The saga of a southern man ... They do it with mirrors ... Getting down to the nitty gritty ... Tight fit ... Getting the contract right ... Judicial review and the Construction Contracts Act ... The Allis-Chalmers HD-19
Having a blast ... Engineering excellence ... Austroads winners ... Sustainable bridges - engineering a 300-year life ... The construction of Vietnam's Phu My Bridge ... Calamity on the coast ... NZS 3910 serves the industry well ... Contractors' guide to intellectual property enforcement ... Change to Auckland's governance has consequences for contractors ... The history of the towed scraper
Cat upgrade for Sicon fleet ... A distinguished career ... Diversity key to beating recession ... Job Lott ... Building our roads of national significance ... A contractor's guide to protecting new ideas and inventions ... The value of training ... Reliable and forgiving: The Caterpillar No.922
Covering your risk ... Last of a dynasty ... Women on the march ... Flying over Newmarket ... RMA prosecution risks ... In Government hands ... A contractor's guide to trademarks ... Contracts - lessons learnt ... The Clark-Michigan 110HT
New leader for federation ... Supacrete's supaplant ... Heavy negotiation ... Hard graft on Grafton Bridge ... Damming for dairying ... Concrete: A carbon sink ... How to write a winning tender - a 10 step plan ... Avoiding disputes and mitigating their effects ... Mount CCA erupts again ... The International Harvester TD-24
Back in black ... Nation builder ... Aspects of concrete mix design ... $2 delight ... Tracking device ... Site unseen ... Suspending work for non-payment ... Infrastructure investment comes through ... Road rage and bond frustrations ... The John Deere 5010
Dashing digger ... Solving a tight problem ... Damming the flood ... Tunnelling to the sea ... Eastlink's rail bridge slide ... The future of concrete bridges ... Literacy in infrastructure: How great is the need? ... Streamlining the RMA ... Recession survival ... Strength and reliability - The Euclid C-6/82-30
One of the big projects on in Auckland at the moment is the duplication of the Mangere Bridge. Multi-Trans is on site to take care of the heavy haulage aspects of the job.
An exciting new walkway bridge on Wellington’s water front, presented lots of challenges for the design and construction team.
Along with his passion for earthmoving machines in general, Richard Campbell also collects scale models, a popular hobby amongst contractors.
As spiders go, it’s an arachnophobic’s nightmare. Hugh de Lacy looks at a unique recent arrival on the contracting scene.
The use of recycled concrete aggregates here is in the early stages, but the practice of producing aggregates from demolished and reprocessed concrete is expected to grow.
Switzerland’s famous alpine mountains present a formidable obstacle to Europe’s increasingly fast and complicated transport network, but not for much longer. The world’s longest tunnel project and Europe’s biggest construction site can be found under the Swiss Alps.
The installation of ramp signals on the Southern Motorway has proven to be a very effective part of a number of initiatives to improve congestion, safety and travel times on Auckland’s motorway system.
NZ Transport Agency acting regional manager Tommy Parker welcomed the first motorist onto the Hayr Road Bridge after an official ribbon cutting ceremony. The new bridge is the last of six to be built crossing the motorway on the Mt Roskill Extension project in Auckland.
Whangarei company United Civil Construction has taken its skills nearly 300 kilometres north and, with some local help, is adding a final touch of respectability to State Highway 1.
From Spitfires to metal-crushers, Les Ellis has seen it all. Contractor meets the Christchurch industry veteran.
It’s 75 years since Goughs acquired the New Zealand franchise for Caterpillar. Contractor looks in on the celebrations.
It took 20 years to hack a railway track through the tortuous Manawatu Gorge in the late 1800s, and more than a century later a major upgrade is allowing the same line to carry the modern hi-cube containers that are boosting rail transport’s competitiveness with road.
There’s a race already going down at the Hampton Downs Motorsport Park development that has nothing to do with racing cars. Ross Reid Contractors has been going as fast as weather will permit to move one million cubic metres of earth and turn 160 hectares of farmland into the country’s premier racing venue.
Several new technologies have been developed that allow a reduction in energy usage for hot mix asphalt manufacture with a consequent lowering of production and placement temperatures. The lowered temperatures have given rise to a new class of asphalt materials called “warm asphalt mix”.
The first stage of the Northern Busway on Auckland’s North Shore was awarded top honours for a new road project at the 2008 Roading Excellence Awards.
It was a sustained lobbying effort unlike any other for its sheer persistence and persuasive power. And when the Contractors’ Federation finally succeeded in convincing the Government to put the contract for building the Clyde Dam out to tender, the result was the industry organisation’s finest hour.
A work of art in an arty city – that’s Nelson’s new downtown bridge.
Founded in 1948 by a toolmaker, Robt Stone has retained its identity and continues to play a key role in providing complex infrastructure.
The NZ Transport Agency, which replaced Transit NZ and Land Transport NZ on August 1, 2008, has been set up to provide an integrated approach to transport planning, funding and delivery. Chief executive Geoff Dangerfield talks about the new agency and says a key priority will be to streamline the road-funding process.
“Have you heard the one about the branch secretary who was made a life member of the Contractors’ Federation? Well, there was this very funny guy called Derek Wigzell…”
Don Tilbrook, along with his wife Joyce and six friends, recently cycled the Central Rail Trail – the decommissioned Otago Central Railway which has been converted into a 150 kilometre long cycleway. The trip, along with its scenic beauty, is a wonderful reminder of our construction heritage.
From a demolition project to a secant wall to a wharf project to a tunnelling job, we look at the winners of this year's construction awards.
Felicity Glenie and Donald Wellis have been named as the winners of the Contractors’ Federation Shell People Awards 2008.
Daniel Smith Industries has grown from scratch to the multi-million-dollar crane and civil engineering enterprise it is today – but it hasn’t all been plain sailing.
Smith Crane and Construction won this year's crane project of the year with its lift of a new canopy for BP Rolleston in Christchurch.
“Something spectacular” was the design brief, and Manukau got it in the form of the country’s first cable-stayed road bridge.
In what situations can alliancing produce a better project outcome than conventional contract methods, and what are the challenges? Here is how three collaborative schemes are faring.
Alistair Dryden won a world rowing championship gold medal, then a decade later became the first winner of a Contractors’ Federation construction award.
An investment in new technology by Beeby Construction is changing the design and performance of roadside barriers both here and in Australia.
How a partnering approach got the best value for money in repairing a rural road badly damaged by winter flooding.
Wedged between two halves of Hutt City’s suburbs, State Highway 2 north of Wellington is a natural bottleneck, which is being uncorked.
Cambridge-based Smythe Contractors has acquired a new American Augers DD440T directional drilling machine with five times the capacity of its biggest existing drill.
Hiway Stabilizers' launched soil nails save time and money in certain slip remedial work.
Two nearly identical footbridges straddling State Highway 20 have brought cable-stay bridging technology to Auckland for the first time.
A long-term road-maintenance contract that is the first of its kind in New Zealand came into effect on July 1, 2008.
Is it a boat? Is it a plane? Hastings house-mover Noel Baker hauls a strange-looking craft from packing shed to port in one easy move.
The answer to soaring diesel costs could be as simple as turning off the engine rather than letting it idle.
You wouldn’t think it could happen these days: a major community upgrade that didn’t have to fight its way through the Environment Court.
Where else but Wellington as a site for the world’s most efficient wind farm?
As if working outdoors in the Deep South, in the middle of winter, wasn’t enough of a challenge, Beeby Construction also had rigorous environmental restraints to contend with in the course of building and installing DOC’s new Curio Bay viewing platform.
Led by husband and father Chris, the Russell family are pulling together to prove there’s a future for companies like theirs. It’s a mighty challenge.
They don’t come much better than multi-award-winning Jim Juno. But his one low point in a career of achievement did contractors everywhere a tremendous service.
One of the most complex and challenging stages of the $600 metre upgrade of Auckland’s rail services is under way.
Global Transport manages a trans-Tasman haul the pessimists said couldn’t be done.
Norm Durham pushed heavy-haulage boundaries in the good old days with some impressive equipment and hauls.
The national finals of the National Excavator Operator Competition took place at the Central Districts Field Days in March. Competition was very tough between the highly skilled operators, and their execution of the tricky tasks most impressive.
Despite bikers’ strong objections to them, wire-rope barriers are continuing to save lives on the open road.
Richard Hyde and his company Global Transport spend a month moving a giant load from China to Peru.
Female contractor Roxanne "Rocky" Satherley a winner in regional excavator operator competition.
The earth rumbled as Harker Underground Construction’s tunnel boring machine came crushing through the wall at Tauranga's Pillans Road.
Brian Perry Civil is playing a key part in providing innovative solutions in constructing the Tauranga Harbour Link – Stage 2
Housemover and salesman Chris Ellis’ star is riding high right now in both New Zealand and the United States.
As earthmoving contractors go, he’s fairly small in a way but Greg Inch has got a mighty big heart, and to the special-needs kids of Otago he’s greater than Santa Claus.
A Te Kuiti contractor, in a classic case of Kiwi DIY, decided to manufacture his own biofuel to save on fuel costs, and he’s delighted with the performance of his machinery now they’re running ‘green’.
Former contractor Hugh Green has made a huge success of his life in New Zealand, a country he loves. But that’s not enough to stop him being homesick for his native Ireland.
The recently retired head of Titan Cranes has been in demand for many years as a high-level administrator. And it’s not over yet.
Norfolk Island is a holiday destination situated about 1400 kilometres northwest of Auckland and about 1100 kilometres from Australia’s Gold Coast. It was MALCOLM ABERNETHY’S destination for the Christmas break – a remote location, with the opportunity to lie in the sun and relax ... or not.
The last residents of Kelso have long since quit the flood-ravaged Otago town but the name lives on in its only remaining business.
Multiplex Engineering (NZ) and HEB Smithbridge are removing an accident black spot from busy State Highway 2 with the construction of the Mangatawhiri Deviation.
Dora the Bora, the colourful tunnel boring machine, leads the way as McConnell Dowell achieves an Australasian best during a challenging and complex ocean outfall project on Christchurch’s coast.
McCallum Brothers has a history beginning at the start of the 20th Century, when it began supplying red jasper to Auckland’s construction market. As demand for the now iconic product grew, so did the company.
An award-winning company has been quietly converting solid waste from iron and steel-making into aggregates used in road building, soil drainage and water treatment.
From fast lane to slower lane, Maurie Short keeps travelling.
The big forestry developments of the 1970s in the Nelson region were what gave Taylors Contracting its start in commercial life, but now the Brightwater-based family firm is extending its reach across the whole of the upper South Island.
They were a couple of young tearaways who escaped the education system at the earliest opportunity, but went on to found the highly respected Rangiora civil construction firm of B-G Contracting.
For the first time in 90 years, large-scale construction is back on the Panama Canal system as it undergoes a massive expansion to accommodate a new generation of larger ships. This time, the project is not expected to take 34 years or cost 25,000 workers’ lives.
Fletcher Construction’s six-year project to build three berths at Marsden Point features pile driving of a kind not seen before in Australasia.
A-Ward Attachments excels at providing innovative solutions for particular, and even peculiar, applications but nothing has proved so challenging, or innovative, as designing a grapple for SteelServ.
When history repeats itself, sister companies discover just how much their heavy-haulage capability has expanded in the past 12 years.
If you followed the international A1GP racing in Taupo, you'll appreciate the advantage of the venue - one of the best motor racing facilities in Australasia.
After 33 years generating energy the Meremere power station was mothballed and has recently been dismantled. The sheer amount of asbestos in the boiler house made demolition of the building a complex project.
Heard and felt rather than seen, rumble strips are being used increasingly to deter drivers from running off the road or crossing the centre line.
It’s a quaint old curiosity that will continue to serve the South Island rail network, but the Awatere road-rail bridge is relinquishing its role as an annoying bottleneck to road traffic on State Highway 1, 25 kilometres south of Blenheim.
Kiwi housemovers doing hurricane-relief work in the US show their American counterparts faster and better ways to shift and elevate homes. They also help win an award for a move some said couldn’t be done.
Council and contractor go to unusual lengths to try to keep the public and retailers onside during a tricky makeover of New Zealand's busiest thoroughfare and pre-eminent street.
Removing the killer curves from State Highway 1 at Hihitahi has been a very complex project. Nevertheless, thanks to the skill of those involved, it was a remarkably smooth-running operation, and the finished work as left the locals delighted.
Graeme Harker had been working for Green and McCahill for 23 years when he thought it was time to do something for himself.
Joke if you like about the West Coast's occasional bouts of dampness, but the weather was Gib Beynon's chief ally as he successfully fought to ensure a local contractor scored a decent share of the region's roading dollars.
After nearly half a century in contracting, former Contractors’ Federation leader Graeme Blackley sees the exit sign up ahead.
The latest project to be completed by Transit New Zealand on the Auckland motorway network is the $48 million Esmonde Road interchange. The interchange is complementary to the $210 million, 7.3 kilometre northern-motorway busway and its five stations, funded at cost of $84 million by North Shore City Council and Auckland Regional Transport Authority.
The South Island network of stock-truck effluent disposal sites will take a major step closer to completion when Transit New Zealand commissions a facility near Kaikoura.
Jesmond Construction helps create a civic amenity by installing tram tracks between Auckland’s transport museum and its zoo.
When Emirates Team New Zealand needed a crane for its base on the Valencia waterfront, Titan Crane’s general manager John Carter was happy to oblige, sourcing a new crane in Europe for the team to use for the duration of the America’s Cup.
Cambridge Construction’s $2 million four-laning of a kilometre of State Highway 1 eases the city’s traffic congestion.
TPP Contracting operates a digger high above the snowline on a Mt Ruapehu chairlift construction project.
Tauranga is expanding at astonishing speed, producing such mega-developments as The Lakes, a town-sized residential project that will become home to 7000 people.
An international alliance undertakes dam-engineering work that is “pushing the envelope of existing technologies”.
Clayton Reid is delighted Ross Reid Contractors is carrying out the earthworks for the exciting Hampton Downs motorsport complex.
Building a road through a rocky, mountainous Alaskan forest was never going to be easy on the construction equipment, but when the operators are novices it creates extreme demands.
Founded in 1947, Hawkins Construction is at the top of its game as it powers past its diamond jubilee.
A willing approach to project has taken one man from a concreting job, undertaken as a favour, to heading up his own contracting company.
May 2010
April 2010
February 2010
November 2009
October 2009
August 2009
June 2009
Diamond jubilee
