With a handful of months to go until the Transmission Gully motorway opens to traffic, it’s full steam ahead onsite. Construction work on Transmission Gully is 92% complete and earthworks is now 99.6% complete.
For the next three to four months, drivers along SH58 at Pāuatahanui may spot a new addition to the Transmission Gully site compound at Lanes Flat – a mobile asphalt plant.
Its purpose is to supply ‘deep lift’ asphalt to pave the steep incline near SH58 and other interchanges further south.
Located within an existing stores and stockpile yard opposite the Transmission Gully office, the temporary plant will operate from 7.30am till 5.30pm, six days a week. (There may be some variation in these hours, with operation from 7am till 10pm on a weekday and 6pm on weekends permitted within a 10 hours per day limit.)
Having an asphalt plant right on-site means the hot asphalt can be delivered quickly to where it’s needed on the new road with minimum disruption to the traveling public.
At just 33 metres long, the plant is compact enough to fit on the back of two truck trailers. In fact, it will remain on the trailers for the duration of its time at Lanes Flat. While small, this plant is capable of mixing asphalt up to 200 tonnes per hour which makes it one of the highest output plants in New Zealand.