Members of the public are being invited to bid for the kit that is no longer needed and “buy their own piece of roading history”, though purchases are likely to be made by specialist companies rather than people wanting Dennis in their back garden.
The NZ Transport Agency project is building twin road tunnels and interchanges as part of Auckland’s Western Ring Route and some specialist equipment has now served its purpose. The items range from water blasters to the huge 140t yellow gantry named Dennis, which had become a familiar site to motorists on the Northwestern Motorway.
A TradeMe auction site operated by Turners Auctions will sell general goods, trucks and mobile machinery from the project each month.
Other industrial and specialised items are being sold via graysonline.co.nz, including the 98m-long long gantry that was designed and built in Italy to place concrete beams for the project’s four-ramp interchange.
“The items we’re selling to the public over the course of the year are suitable for use on smaller or similar large-scale New Zealand or overseas projects,” says the Well-Connected Alliance project manager, John Burden. “While we expect the items will mostly be bought by specialist operators this is a chance for the public to keep a part of New Zealand’s largest and most ambitious roading project.”
Burden added that the tunnels and interchange that are due to open in 2017 will have the biggest impact on the way people travel around and through Auckland since the opening of the Auckland Harbour Bridge in 1959.
Several items of machinery and equipment from the project have already been purchased by private and public buyers after being put to tender last year. They include prefab buildings and a warehouse, which collected more than 790,000 metres of spoil excavated from the tunnels.
The Waterview Connection project opens in early 2017 and consists of two 2.4km tunnels and four interchange ramps at the northern entrance of the tunnels to connect the Southwestern and Northwestern Motorways.
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