Fletcher subsidiary opening $45m cement storage centre

Andrew Moss says the new cement distribution centre has been designed to minimise noise. Photo / Richard Robinson

A Fletcher Building business will next week open a huge new cement bulk storage and distribution centre.

Auckland City Mayor John Banks is due to open Golden Bay Cement's $45 million Auckland plant at Eastport on Wednesday.

The centre is on the corner of Tooley St and Plumer St on the waterfront and includes a 2700sq m cement silo.

An 816sq m service centre for loading and dispatching trucks has also been developed, enabling cement to be distributed directly to the region and where it will arrive either by barge or boat from Golden Bay's plant at Whangarei.

The 6000sq m leasehold site, owned by the Ports of Auckland, is at the eastern end of the port handling facilities off Quay St and allows the cement distributor and manufacturer deep-water port access to Auckland, its single biggest market.

For more than 50 years, Golden Bay has leased land at the Tank Farm on Wynyard Point.

Andrew Moss, Golden Bay's general manager, said the move east on the waterfront was significant for his business.

But Heart of the City chief executive Alex Swney is angry about the new centre, which he described as "urban vandalism".

He said two civic-controlled organisations - Sea+City and Ports of Auckland - were allowing Golden Bay to create a great blot on the waterfront.

"To all of those Aucklanders who complain about not being able to get through the fabled red fence here is the proof they are wrong. See, we can easily get through the fence to build a bloody concrete works," he said.

Moss said Fletcher Construction took 18 months to build the new centre near the Jellicoe Wharf and handed it over to Golden Bay on December 24.

The fully automated handling facilities have been designed to minimise noise and dust nuisance and a truck can be fully loaded every 10 minutes. Cement will be transferred using contemporary valving and sealing equipment, Moss said.

"We tried to build a structure that fits within the environment which is near a supermarket and apartments so are going to keep most signage away and be as incognito as possible. This is state-of-the-art in terms of handling and we have five times the amount of dust control we had at the Tank Farm. We have 20 separate dust collectors which don't allow any escape of fugitive dust," Moss said.

The plant will operate at a level quieter than Quay St traffic noise, he predicted.

At the Tank Farm, Golden Bay could store only 12,000 tonnes of cement but it now had the capacity to hold 25,000 tonnes, equivalent to about 1000 truck-loads of cement and almost the same amount used to build both the SkyTower and SkyCity.

On the Tank Farm, Golden Bay stored cement in a distinctive "six-pack", a series of tall tanks standing near each other, with a seventh larger tank.

The lease there does not expire until 2015, but the early move suited wharf developer Sea+City Projects and Golden Bay. The move was forced by the Tank Farm's transformation into a retail, housing and tourism hub with commercial marine and fishing activities.

At the new site, the silo has six compartments and Golden Bay has a 35-year lease on the property. It took possession in June 2008.

John Dalzell, Sea+City project director, said the "six-pack" tanks would stay and be transformed.

"In future the Golden Bay Cement site could have a civic focus and anchor one end of the entertainment and retail precinct. The "six-pack" group of silos will remain as a feature of Wynyard Quarter," he said.

Moss said the new plant would be fully operational next month when the MV Golden Bay and CCB Marsden Barge would berth regularly at Bledisloe wharf and discharge cement through an underground tunnel to the new centre.

NEW CENTRE
* 766 piles driven 12m to 20m.
* 6000 cubic metres of concrete.
* 1500 tonnes of reinforcing steel.
* 15km of cables.
* 20 dust collectors installed.
* 2.5km of piping.