CONSTRUCTION OF THE NEW RANGITOTO ISLAND WHARF

BRENDON PICKERILL

Downer NZ Ltd

SUMMARY

This paper covers the design and construction methodology of the new Rangitoto Island
Wharf project which was completed in August 2014. The Department of Conservation (DoC)
was the Client with Spiire employed as the Engineer for the project. Downer NZ was the
main contractor with Hauraki Piling Ltd (HPL) subcontracted to carry out the physical works.

The existing timber wharf at Rangitoto Island had become unsuitable for continued use and
so with future visitor numbers and safety as their key drivers, DoC made a decision to
construct a new concrete wharf to service both DoC vessels and the daily ferry services.

INTRODUCTION

Construction of the new Rangitoto Island Wharf began with subcontractors HPL occupying
the site in September 2012. The job entailed a new approach walkway (85m x 2.4m, 16
piles), wharf head (39m x 11m, 23 piles), fendering works and the removal of the existing
timber wharf.

Figure 1. The new Rangitoto Wharf upon completion of construction.

The new wharf is founded on 600mm and 760mm diameter steel cased reinforced concrete
piles. The steel casings are bottom-driven to the underlying basalt rock or to a “set” within the
firm sands with precast beams subsequently placed to span between the piles. The wharf
decking consists of prestressed concrete double tee and flat slab units. All precast elements
are designed for stitch cast connections to minimise both the on-site formwork and
environmental spill risk.

The design of the wharf allowed for a 55 tonne Kobelco crane to utilise the structure during
construction in order to install the piles, precast items and carry out concrete pours. All of the
wharf materials including the ready-mix concrete for the piles and stitch joints were delivered
from the mainland via HPL’s barge. Once the wharf structure was completed a fender system
consisting of timber piles and rubber cone fenders was installed around the wharf head for
protection during the berthing of vessels. The wharf was completed upon installation of the
stainless steel handrails and officially opened on 14th August 2014.

The construction of the new wharf was not only a challenging task logistically but also with
the underlying geological features (lava flows and estuarine silts) proving to be very
unpredictable. Careful consideration of the environment also had to be taken in order to
ensure that Rangitoto Island remained a pest free conservation reserve and no harm was
done to the coastal marine area in which construction was taking place.

PILING

The wharf is founded on a total of 39 steel cased, concrete reinforced piles, bottom driven
into the underlying basalt rock to an approved “set”. The location of the piles was set out and
specially made temporary works were installed in preparation for placing the piles. A feature
of these temporary works was that they incorporated pile guides, platforms and handrails
which enabled a safe working area around the pile location to assist in pile placement. Once
the pile guide platforms were installed a Vibro-Hammer driven 250 UC was used to probe the
pile location to determine the profile of the underlying material. The length of the probe and
the rate at which it travelled into the underlying material was used to determine the type,
thickness and depth of the various material layers beneath the seabed. This information was
forwarded to Spiire who then confirmed the target length of the pile to be installed at that
particular location.

The location of the wharf, on the volcanic Rangitoto Island, meant that there were challenges
associated with the local geology. The wharf is constructed right on the edge of a historic
lava flow which meant at some of the pile locations there was hard basalt rock to penetrate.
Wherever this basalt was present within the pile length, HPL had to commission its Drill Rig
over from the mainland to core drill through the rock. Once the rock had been cored through,
broken up and removed, the pile position was probed again to determine the founding level
of the pile.

Once the pile length had been confirmed, the steel pile casings were cut and welded
together to the correct length. The casings were imported from China and were coated with
an anti-corrosion paint, (Interzone 485 applied 3mm thick) in order to provide protection
within the marine environment for at least 15 years (Spiire, 2012). The painted pile length
was determined based on achieving a minimum coating of 2m below the seabed level. The
piles were delivered from the mainland to Rangitoto Island upon the “Zane Grey” barge
owned by HPL and lifted directly into their intended location. Barge deliveries from up the
Tamaki Estuary and across the harbour usually took between 1-1.5 hours depending on sea
conditions and wind direction.
As an early contractor involvement (ECI) project, the wharf was designed with
constructability as a forefront issue. The approach jetty was designed with the piles spaced
at 3800mm in order to facilitate the support of the 55 tonne Kobelco crawler crane during
construction. This meant that the critical load case for many of the piles was the construction
loading case (Spiire, 2012). In order to get the piles to the correct depth and capacity, a
bottom driven piling procedure was undertaken using a 6 tonne drop hammer inside the pile
casing. The final set of the pile was calculated over 10 blows using the Hiley formula to
ascertain the bearing capacity of the pile. When founding the piles onto basalt rock, the
specified set requirements were easily achieved but when founding into the firm sand layers,
the pile had to be left for 1-3 days for the pore pressure to dissipate. This allowed the pile to
lock in position and a proof redrive was then done to ensure that the set requirements had
been met. Once the pile capacity had been approved by the Engineer, the excess length was
cut off the top of the pile.

Figure 2. Installation of steel piles. Figure 3. The HPL Drill Rig coring through basalt rock.

INSITU CONCRETE

The concrete for the project was provided by Bridgeman Concrete with the mix specially
designed for use in the marine environment with exposure class C as per NZS 3103 (Spiire,
2012). Fly ash was incorporated to increase the durability, a retarder used to ensure the
concrete would last the barge journey to the island and other admixtures were included to
provide additional corrosion protection. Bridgeman delivered the concrete to HPL’s yard
where it was then transferred onto the Zane Grey barge, custom fitted with a concrete bowl,
for transportation to Rangitoto Island.

Once the pile casings were driven and cut to length, sand was placed into the base of the
pile to allow a reinforcing cage, comprising of 10 HD25 vertical bars with a HR10 at 150mm
spiral, to be placed to the correct level. When the concrete arrived on the barge it was
transported its location on the wharf via a skip suspended from beneath the crane. The main
types of concrete pours that were carried out on site were the piles, the beam stitch joints
and the deck infills. A tremmie tube was used to direct the concrete down to the bottom of the
piles and ensure that it did not segregate during placement. Once the concrete was poured
into the pile to the correct height, Sika Rugasol was applied to the top surface in order to
retard the exposed surface and ensure a good connection to the beam stitch joint that would
be poured above. After curing for a minimum of 3 days, the precast beams could be placed
between the piles. With a very healthy amount of reinforcement specified for the pile to beam
connections, installing flange nuts onto the pile starters and placing additional reinforcing
bars into these connections was a challenge. The pile to beam connections were shuttered
and poured in a similar way to the piles (barge then skip) which then completed the wharf
substructure. Precast deck slabs could then be landed to span between the beams and were
tied to the beams with a final deck infill concrete pour. These deck infill pours were broom
finished to match the slip resistant surface of the precast deck slabs.

Figure 4. Concrete delivery to Rangitoto. Figure 5. Pile concrete pour completed.

Concrete test cylinders were initially taken on site at Rangitoto until the results proved that
the 50 MPa required strength was consistently being achieved. At this time, and for the
remainder of the project, the cylinders were taken at the batching plant by Bridgeman
Concrete. To assist the curing of the concrete, Sika Antisol-E was the selected curing
compound for this project and was applied to the exposed faces of our insitu concrete pours.
With some of the concrete pours within the inter-tidal region, the work had to be carefully
planned to ensure that it was carried out on the outgoing tide. This ensured that the working
and curing times were maximised before the tide restrictions came into effect.

PRECAST CONCRETE

The new Rangitoto Wharf comprises of two main parts, the 39m by 11m wharf head for the
berthing of vessels and the 88m long approach jetty for access out to the wharf head. The
precast elements that make up the wharf comprise of:

- Beams
- Stairs
- Prestressed deck slabs
- Prestressed double tee beams

Figure 6. Precast beams and deck slabs. Figure 7. Precast stair units.
The precaster chosen for use in this contract was Concrete Structures Ltd. Shop drawings
were first submitted to the Engineer and once approved, inspections were carried out on the
precast items to ensure casting and pre-stressing was undertaken correctly. Once cast, the
precast items for the wharf were transported from the Concrete Structures precast yard to
the HPL storage yard in East Tamaki. When an item was required on site it would be loaded
onto the barge, transported across the harbour and lifted into position with the 55 tonne
Kobelco crane. This process allowed for minimal storage of the precast items on site which
was necessary due to the limited space available when working out over the water.

Approach Jetty

The approach jetty is designed as a series of 8 piers spaced 11m apart. Each pier position
(labelled D-K) had two piles with a precast cross head beam placed above and a prestressed
double tee beam spanning between the cross head beams. The approach jetty is primarily
intended as a pedestrian access however, the double tee beams have been designed so that
they are able to carry vehicle loads, should DoC need to use it as such in order to load or
unload supplies from the wharf. These 11m long by 2.4m wide by 0.55m deep double tee
beams were the largest precast units for this project weighing approximately 13 tonnes.
Lifting and placing these beams into position had to be carefully planned in order to ensure
that neither the piles nor the crane were overloaded.

Wharf Head

The wharf head is a 7 by 3 pile grid structure with precast beams spanning between piles to
create the substructure and prestressed flat slabs placed between the beams to form the
wharf deck. There are also 4 sets of precast stairs incorporated into the wharf head that allow
access to the wharf at different tides. The wharf deck slabs were broom finished in order to
provide a slip resistant surface for the public to walk on. For the same reason the inter-tidal
stairs on the wharf head were finished by sand blasting after they were stripped from the
precast moulds.

Figure 6. Contract drawing with crane positioning on the Wharf Head (Spiire, 2012) (Salter, R.J., 2013).
ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROLS

Environmental considerations were more complex than usual for this project due to the
location of the site and the fact that Rangitoto Island is a DoC protected reserve. After a time
of initial adjustment, a standard of excellence was set by implementing additional
environmental protective measures. The project team were awarded the New Zealand
Contractors Federation Environmental Award for the $2-10 million category. This was a
fantastic achievement and reflected the hard work put in by all parties involved with this
project.

Bio-security

Specific bio-security conditions were included within the contract to minimise the risk of any
pests getting to the island during the construction period. All equipment was inspected for
pests before being sent to the island and all storage yards on the mainland were regularly
inspected by the DoC Bio-security Team. Rodent traps and ant boards were provided by DoC
for this project and these were internally monitored throughout the project.

Marine Environment

The other major environmental concern for this project was working within the coastal marine
area (CMA). The team worked closely with the Auckland Council to ensure that the
appropriate controls were in place to prevent any harm to the marine environment.
Environmental measures used to help protect the CMA included using vegetable based oils
for mechanical plant, drip trays for all of the equipment and no storage of fuels on the island.
The crane on site also had the additional measure of an absorbent protective nappy installed
underneath which was used as a precautionary measure in case there were any oils leaks
from the crane. All material pulled up from beneath the seabed was loaded onto the barge
and disposed of in an approved manner back on the mainland.

Additional environmental controls were put in place when pouring concrete to ensure that no
concrete was lost into the marine environment. This included having a protective spill cloth
underneath the small concrete skip when transporting concrete from the barge to the wharf
and also ensuring that a low sider skip was available to carry out slump tests, pour test
cylinders and dispose of excess concrete. Environmental audits were carried out frequently
by the Auckland Council to ensure that the controls were appropriate and any additional
measures identified were implemented immediately.

Figure 9. HPL crane fitted with protective nappy. Figure 10. Site team with the NZCF award.
Recycled Materials

A feature of the new wharf is the “backstop barrier system” which has been constructed out
of timber materials recycled from the old wharf. The backstop barrier is a group of fender and
raker piles that acts as a barrier between the inner berth on the wharf and the wharf
approach jetty. This is designed to protect the approach jetty from being struck vessels
during berthing.

Originally, this barrier system was designed to be constructed from new hardwood however,
during the project, it was proposed to the Engineer that materials recovered from the old
wharf during demolition could be reused to construct this barrier. As the piles were pulled
from the old wharf, the best piles were selected and set aside for inspection from the
Engineer. Once the Engineer had taken core samples from the piles and confirmed that they
would be suitable, they were driven into their new position. The completed backstop barrier
comprises of 17 piles and 1 beam reclaimed from the old wharf.

Figure 11. Deconstruction of the existing wharf. Figure 12. Timber recycled for the barrier system.

CHALLENGES

The biggest challenge for this project was the unpredictability of the underlying strata. Test
bore logs had been taken to map the ground conditions however, given the variable nature of
the volcanic lava flows, often the ground conditions at a given pile location were different
from that inferred from the bore hole data.

At the piers closest to the land, there was a thick layer of hard basalt rock that had to be
cored through in order to get the required pile embedment. This was a slow, tedious process
with the teeth on the core barrel needing to be replaced multiple times as they became worn
from the hard basalt. Further out from the land there were random instances of basalt rock
encountered. This was a positive for construction if it was a lower basalt layer enabling the
pile to be founded on this rock, however, if it was at a shallower level then the drill rig needed
to be brought to the island to penetrate the rock at the pile location. In some locations, where
no rock was encountered, it was difficult to find a layer to found the pile within and as such,
some of the piles in the wharf head reached lengths of up to 28m. This provided enough side
friction to enable the piles to be founded in a lower firm sand layer rather than directly on
basalt rock.
When carrying out probing on the piles to be located at grid positions 4A and 4B, it was found
that the probe was striking rock but slipping out to one side. Additional probing around these
locations confirmed that these two pile positions were right on the edge of a subterranean
rock cliff face. This information was provided to the Engineer and the risk of founding in these
positions was deemed too high as the permanent piles would not have a stable base to rest
on. A meeting was held between the parties to the project to discuss possible solutions and it
was agreed that the preferred solution would be to replace each of these individual piles with
dual piles, one each side of the basalt cliff face. The eastern pile at each position would be
founded deep into the firm sands and the western pile would be founded up on top of the
basalt shelf.

As part of this solution, 2 additional precast transfer beams were required to be fabricated to
span between the new pairs of piles. As shown below in Figure 13, these precast beams
were designed so that they had starter bars protruding from the centre, to emulate the
position of the original piles that were intended for these locations. This meant that the wharf
beam structure and wharf deck was not affected by the new pile positions.

Figure 13. Grid 4B precast transfer beam spanning over the subterranean rock cliff face.

CONCLUSION

The variable underlying ground conditions and the logistics of working on Rangitoto Island
meant that there were challenges to be overcome during the piling, insitu and precast
concrete work for the new Rangitoto Wharf. The temporary works and construction
techniques utilised allowed these challenges to be overcome and the wharf was officially
opened on 14th of August 2014. The new wharf now services daily ferries allowing locals and
tourists to enjoy better access to one of Auckland’s natural treasures, Rangitoto Island.
REFERENCES

Salter, R.J., (2013), Rangitoto Crane False work – Wharf Head Plan.

Spiire, (2012), New Rangitoto Wharf Scheme 2. Construction Drawings.

Spiire, (2012), New Rangitoto Wharf Scheme 2. Contract Specification.