February 2023
February 10, 2023
Last week, Brian Perry Civil’s (BPC’s) new Combifloat barge was constructed and towed to Seaview. Dominic Taffs from CentrePort spoke with Lee Griffiths from BPC to find out how it’s all come about.
Back in 2020, BPC were looking at increasing the size of their marine fleet. A bigger barge means a bigger crane, and opportunities to expand the range and depth of projects BPC could take on, including immediate benefits for work at Seaview Wharf. The usual supplier for BPC split up in 1998, meaning that Lee and his team had to look further afield.
Enter Combifloat – a bigger, better and more compatible option. During initial discussions, Covid struck, causing serious delays, and fluctuations in steel prices were only worsened by the ongoing Ukraine war. Finally, a deposit was placed on a C7 Class, 400T Barge.
Lee and his colleagues set off for Dubai in June last year to see the barge in person. It was second hand, with two projects to its name, but had since seen some major refurbishment to make it good as new. A deal was struck, and Lee and his team returned home confident the barge would soon be on its way to Wellington.
Loaded in pieces onto a ship in November 2022, trouble came again when the ship stranded in Melbourne. With Christmas on the way, and local staff needing a well-earned break, the shipping line’s crew were set to unload at Centreport on Boxing Day. However – the ship’s cranes failed an inspection on arrival, meaning it wasn’t until early January that the barge finally made landfall. From there, it was a juggle between poor weather and working in partnership with CentrePort to find a time between Cruise ships to assemble it at Aotea Quay. Crews worked through Waitangi day to put it together, and finally, last week the Barge was towed over to Seaview.
It’s taken a lot of planning to get here, but the barge’s arrival will mean safer, faster, and larger lifts for the Seaview operation. “It’s really changed the way we’re looking at the project” says Lee. “With concrete elements, we can now lift precast forms in one go, which has massive implications for what we can achieve with the two-week shipping windows we work within.”
CentrePort General Manager for Ferries and Bulk, Andrew Steele, says “This is a great example of the partnerships CentrePort is building with its contractors to improve safety and speed up projects like Seaview, to the benefit of local residents, our customers, and the wider Wellington Region.”
The new barge is now awaiting a blessing and naming ceremony on March 6th, with involvement from mana whenua and the local community. Decisions are yet to be made on what will happen with Seaview’s former main barge, Tuapapa.