Harvesting pines to make way for Transmission Gull
This was a highly complex operation harvesting short steep slopes and building infrastructure in amongst a very busy civil engineering construction site directly above the SH1 motorway leading to Wellington city.
This forest (and worksite) was also dissected by 2 x 33 kVA powerlines that fed the Keneparu hospital/Porirua city that were unable to be turned off. In addition, all plant/equipment had to be modified to meet the lead contractor's health and safety requirements.
A three month contract extension was sought to complete the works due to slow start as a result of earthquake damage to Wellington port infrastructure (this is where merchantable logs were sold) and unseasonably wet weather slowing infrastructure development due to resource consent conditions (no earthworks in wet weather).
In addition, 2/3 of the days booked to fell trees around the power lines were abandoned due to adverse wind or ground conditions. As a result, PF Olsen brought in extra plant and manpower to speed up the harvesting program.
Production and engineering costs (fixed price) came in on budget. Log price increases were passed on to the client who made $150k over the breakeven estimate initially provided.
Despite the challenges this worksite presented, PF Olsen was able to complete the harvest of this forest and build infrastructure on a busy civil engineering worksite to the required standard to enable sign off by the lead contractor without incident.