Putting pedal to the metal

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.

Some years ago, the Department of Conservation, in an inspired move, decommissioned the Otago Central Railway and converted it into a cycling trail, which has become very popular, especially with Kiwis – only 10 percent of cyclists are from overseas. Tilbrook says the scenery is spectacular, the history very interesting and the cycling very manageable – “even for the slightly decrepit such as myself”.

However, Tilbrook did admit to doing some preparation for the trip: “We tourists from Auckland trained assiduously. Cell phone reception is not good in Central Otago and cafes are few and far between, so before we started, we practised surviving without coffee or our cellphones, sometimes for hours at a time. We

bought all the smart Icebreaker gear, rode our bikes and drank plenty of Otago Pinot and arrived in Clyde as marginally fitter, well turned out drunks,” he says.

“We were a group of eight friends and unfortunately for the other six, two of us are civil engineers. Every cutting, fill, bridge, tunnel and culvert had to be inspected and the construction difficulties explained.

“The non-engineers in the party were of course fascinated by our explanations and frequently asked questions, such as, ‘why are we stopping yet again?’.”

Built in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, the Otago Central Railway was a terrific example of civil engineering construction in New Zealand at the time, featuring large bridges, tunnels, deep cuts, high fills, quarrying and stonework. All the structures are stone faced in the local schist or basalt.

Over 30 years, all this work was carried out by man and horse, wheelbarrow, pick and shovel in an inhospitable environment with tremendous logistical challenges. No cranes, earthmoving or quarrying machinery, GPS surveying, computers or vehicles and, not to mention, no lattes or Pinot Noir, says Tilbrook

“The railway passes through some of the hottest and coldest places in the country, and always at a maximum gradient of 1 in 50. This would be a terrific project to construct today and at the time it must have employed a large number of men.”

Many years later, in 1937 in fact, the late Bob Semple, Minister of Works at the time, dramatically drove a tractor and scraper over a wheelbarrow and shovel, symbolising the end of the old methods used to construct, amongst other things, the Otago Central Railway, and the beginning of a new era of earthmoving.

Apparently it was Semple’s later suggestion that lead to the formation, in 1944, of what is now called the Contractors’ Federation, says Tilbrook.

Fast forward to 1965 and the federation turned 21. Major infrastructure construction work at this time was carried out by the Ministry of Works (MOW). Concerns at the time for contractors were generally related to working with the MOW over such issues as equipment hire rates, bonding and prequalification.

Perhaps of more importance, the federation had made a decision a year earlier, to obtain clear government departmental policy about the principle of construction by contract. This lead to a formal declaration of Cabinet policy to put an increasing amount of work out to private contract.

At about the same time, the federation received a request from Australian contractors to assist them in setting up a similar organisation and Australian representatives attended the 21st conference in 1965.

“The Australians also wanted some assistance in how to play rugby and who they should get as their national rugby coach,” jokes Tilbrook. “We have had reciprocal conference visits ever since.”

Fast forward again to the construction of the Clyde Dam between 1980 and 1989.

“I believe that this was the first major infrastructure project in the country that was constructed by private contract, and the Contractors’ Federation, over a three-year period, lobbied strongly for this at the time.

“This was a great effort by the federation to encourage the government to change, and, in fact, some contractors believed that more money could be made by simply hiring equipment to the Ministry of Works.

“Not everything went to plan and the project resulted in the longest-running arbitration in New Zealand history. Perhaps not a great advertisement for private contracting. However it did mark a significant milestone for the federation and after three years of lobbying, the first of the major infrastructure projects had been contracted out.”

So what was happening to our old friend, the Otago Central Railway at that time? The railway had gradually fallen into decline through under-use, but was deliberately kept open for transportation of materials used to construct, you’ve guessed it, the Clyde Dam, says Tilbrook.

After that project ended, it was decommissioned and converted into the increasingly popular cycleway that it is today.

• This article has been taken from Don Tilbrook’s presidential address to the recent Contractors’ Federation conference.