Early this morning a massive barge weighing 145 tonnes should have trundled its way from the South Pacific Industrial yard on Marsden Pt Rd to the nearby Northport ready to be launched for the Royal New Zealand Navy.
SPIIND made the barge as phase two of its contract with the Navy to provide training equipment, managing director Paul Hebberd said.
Mr Hebberd said the barge was to leave the SPIIND yard at 2am this morning to head for the port. It's a whopping 34 metres long, 9 metres wide and weighs 145 tonnes.
He said the first phase of the Navy contract was constructing a large shed at the Devonport Naval Base fitted with replica bridges from the Navy's offshore and inshore patrol vessels.
The Navy uses the facility to train naval personnel how to run the vessels. The barge will be a sea-based training facility.
Mr Hebberd said the company is getting involved with constructing quite a range of such training facilities.
''We've also built a Boeing aircraft for the SAS to use for anti-terrorism training. We are also doing other similar projects from overseas too,'' he said.