We’ve removed vegetation so it’s time for our Piling Team to roll in! Their gig is to place piles deep into the Whau estuary to carry the weight of the boardwalk. The Piling Team will jam a grand total of 310 piles into the ground – some up to 15 metres deep! – over the next couple of years.
The foundation of the pathway is made of three types of piles:
- 246 Composite-Driven Steel Piles (Zone 7 only)
These piles are made of steel and concrete and driven into ground using a hammer. - 10 Bored-Reinforced Concrete Piles
Drilled into the ground using an auger, then reinforcement and concrete are placed in the hole. - 54 Bored-Potted Precast Piles (Zone 8 only)
The Piling Team will drill a hole, place a precast pile inside and pour grout around the pile to secure it. It’s a bit like building a fence!
These things are heavy!
The precast and steel piles are unloaded from trucks as they arrive onto site by our 30-ton crane.
The Piling Team is using two 30-ton diggers to install the piles, one for each Zone. Each digger has been upgraded with some serious attachments. There’s a vibrator hammer for the steel piles, a drop hammer for the concrete piles, a moto cut tool that cuts the concrete piles to the correct height, and an auger for drilling holes.
Once these piles are good to go, we’ll start building the boardwalk right on top of them. But it makes you think, all that hidden engineering going on beneath the surface to make Te Whau Pathway a sure thing.
About the current construction section
The first part of the pathway to be built (Zone 7) will start from Bridge Avenue in Te Atatū South and connect to Roberts Road. The estimated completion date is mid-2026, although obviously the earlier the better and everyone is working hard to make sure this is a possibility.
The section from Bridge Avenue northwards to SH16 (Zone 8) will be worked on concurrently, nesting within the Bridge Avenue to Roberts Road (Zone 7) timeline, as there are construction efficiencies to be gained in building the two sections in parallel.
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