South Pacific Industrial Limited who’s head office and manufacturing site is based in Ruakaka, Northland, have in the past managed a range of high profile projects including the Point Forward Project at Refining NZ’s Marsden Point site, the manufacture of off-shore patrol vessel modules for Tenix (BAe) and the Laminated Veneer Lumber Project for CHH.
Their most recent achievement however, is without doubt the largest, this being the dismantling of the Marsden B Power Plant. The oil fired Marsden B Power Plant, originally built in the 1970’s was mothballed, prior to commissioning, in 1979 and was never operational. The plant was sold to an Indian company in 2008 and SPI were successful in securing the contract to project manage, dismantle and pack the plant for shipment to India, where it will be rebuilt and operated.
Ross Mackenzie, SPI’s Managing Director believes that the dismantling of the power plant is the largest project of its type managed in New Zealand, involving in excess of 4000 tonnes of steel, with a structure height of over 54m. Large specialist cranes of up to 250 tonnes capacity with an 80m reach were employed on site along with a range of other SPI equipment. As opposed to a demolition, the structure had to be dismantled with all due care and attention toward rebuild and supporting documentation with identification of components was prepared to support re-assembly in India. SPI had some 120 staff involved in the project over a period of ten months and the project was completed with virtually no health and safety incidents. The complete structure is now ready for shipment to India and a dedicated ship will be used to collect the power plant from the deep water Northport at Whangarei.
While SPI sees a bright future within the Northland area, which has been very recently enhanced with the announced Refinery NZ upgrade plans, which SPI is hopeful of being involved heavily in, it now plans to extend its focus beyond the Northland area, across New Zealand and overseas and is committed to building its capability for future large scale shutdown, infrastructure and plant shutdowns and has recently appointed a new General Manager, Paul Hebberd to drive this development.
