Breathtaking: how our new home on the ice could look. Photo / supplied
"They're going to be 100 per cent complete, like for like. We're going to do all the construction in Timaru, then we're going to pull them all apart. The three buildings will be split into eight separate modules."
Anthony Leighs, founder of Leighs Construction, is talking about the $344 million replacement of New Zealand's aged structures at Scott Base, for which his business is the preferred contractor.
As our only outpost on the continent, the base is the hub for scientific research with a focus on climate change. Last year the Government voted money to replace the base's outdated buildings, which have lasted well past their expected lifespan.
Old electrical systems and leaky buildings blot the Pram Point site at Hut Point Peninsula on Ross Island, McMurdo Sound. The toilet-green buildings are huddled in one of the world's harshest climates. This decade they will be replaced with new accommodation for about 100 people.
Leighs, a Porsche-racing motorsport enthusiast with homes at Riccarton and the Viaduct Basin, is sitting in the College Hill boardroom of the national firm he founded nearly 30 years ago. He has just flown up from Christchurch, is regularly winning new contracts in Auckland, and is establishing a new apartment development arm.
He is somewhat reluctantly describing what is going on in terms of planning for the new scientific base. The authorised entity that speaks for the project is Antarctica New Zealand, he stresses. That government agency runs all our activities on the ice.
But he can talk broadly about planning for the project.
"The idea is to build it completely in New Zealand and then take it down there. It's a lower-risk, more efficient way than having a significant number of people operating in a tough environment."
Leighs has a single-page electronic image headlined SBR method cartoon which shows artwork in a series of boxes shaded orange for Timaru, pale blue for the nautical leg of the journey and white for Scott Base.
The first box shows where the new buildings will rise at PrimePort Timaru. The colour codes clearly identify what's happening where, but Leighs can't share the image other than talking about its purpose and the shading codes.
Last year was a watershed one when, with an order book that already stood at $800m, he was named preferred contractor for this unusual project.
The redevelopment will see dated infrastructure replaced with a safe, modern, sustainable research hub to last for the next 50 years.
The base has been continuously occupied since it was established in 1957, and has had numerous upgrades and additions. The last major changes were in the 1980s and mid-1990s.
Leighs has been to the ice four times when his firm did previous upgrades. It has now built or altered more than half the existing base.
Leighs' staff, local subcontractors and tradespeople will build a steel frame in a distinctive hooped-roof design, then fit it with heavily insulated panels, which Leighs says will be 10cm-20cm thick. Leighs Construction chief executive Gary Walker, formerly of Hawkins, thinks only a maximum of 15cm is required.
"In New Zealand you would build a coolstore with a lot of insulation but down there's its the reverse," Leighs says. The two agree it will be the opposite of a chiller: instead of keeping the inside cold, the buildings will be warm inside to keep the cold out.
Why build in Timaru? It's flat, with enough land by the sea, and a good working port.
"Trying to build at that scale and complexity in that environment is really, really difficult. You can't just pop down to the local hardware store," Leighs quips about the continent, dark for half a year and where the temperature is often far below zero.
"The seasons are also very short, from October to March," he says of the limited timeframes when construction work is technically possible.
And then there's an understatement: "there are also limitations in terms of the people, too."
Walker says "well in excess of 100 people" will work on the buildings in Timaru, as well as plumbers and airconditioning specialists. "We'll be recruiting in Timaru for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It's not every day you get to build an Antarctic research station on your back doorstep."
Already, staff are on the ice this summer examining existing buildings and planning demolition.
"The two biggest buildings will be split into three modules each and the smaller one into two," Leighs explains of the knock-down phase, when the newly-built structures will be prepared for loading onto a ship.
"There's only about one [ship] capable of doing this," Walker says, "a ship with a deck the size of a couple of rugby fields."
Loading will involve a specially-built runway onto the stern of the ship, which will be docked rear-on to the wharf. No cranes can be used. Instead, the eight new modules will be shunted onto the construction sites where they will be reassembled into three.
This will be done by what Walker calls hydraulic Caterpillars, or what Leighs describes as "manual self-propelled trailer units".
A temporary wharf will be built to accommodate the drop between the ice and the sea.
Despite the profile from winning this contract, Leighs remains humble and says feedback from a profile about him two years ago, published in the Herald, has helped embed his presence in Auckland.
But it's more likely his buildings speak louder, such as the new Fisher & Paykel Healthcare headquarters, Smales Farm's stylish B:Hive with its distinctive orange curvy 70s-style stairs, and the Les Mills Gym carpark, clad in eye-catching white punctured metal.
The Scott Base project has generated considerable excitement in Timaru. No construction work has started yet and won't until later this year or early next year. The initial stage is preliminary works at the base and finalising designs.
The only action being planned is a pōwhiri with tangata whenua whose marae is at Arowhenua, near Temuka, in the next month or so.
Although the main contractor is seen as being from Christchurch, Timaru locals will welcome the opportunities. Accommodation providers will also benefit.
After the initial construction work is over, the existing base will have to be deconstructed and returned with all its waste, equipment and materials.
With final construction completed by 2027, the new base may be up and running by 2028.
Only then will Leighs be able to say his business saved Scott Base.
OUR NEW SCOTT BASE:
• Existing buildings will be replaced by 3 interconnected ones
• Accommodation/dining /welfare building planned
• Also science/management building and engineering/storage building
• New structures will accommodate up to 100 people
• Ross Island wind farm will also be upgraded
• That ensures new base powered 97% by renewable energy
• Budget 2021 voted $344m to fund the project
• Rebuild for our Ross Sea presence for next 50 years
• Buildings to go in the same location as the existing ones
• Christchurch-HQ Leighs Construction preferred contractor
• Quantity surveying and cost planning by AECOM
• Hugh Broughton Architects providing architectural services
• Steensen Varming providing building services
• Design lead by The Building Intelligence Group
• Civil and structural engineering by WSP
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