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Students from Snells Beach school check out Piper before she starts her slow trek to Martins Bay. From left, Laticia Level, Zoey Blackie, Autumn Howson, Max Mendez Baines and Milly Chase.
A massive 1.2 metre boring machine named Piper got to work in Algies Bay this week and may well break the world record for the longest section of tunnel created from a single forward drive.
Piper will tunnel a hole from private farmland on Miller Way through to Martins Bay, a distance of 2.2km, as part of a Snells Algies wastewater pipe upgrade.
Piper tunnels at the rate of about 35mm a minute and is expected to reach Martins Bay in about three and a half months.
McConnell Dowell stakeholder manager Celeste Rauner says Piper is operated via remote control, meaning there are few health and safety risks to human operators.
Piper’s cutter face chews up everything in its path. As it moves forward, steel pipes are inserted into the freshly-cut tunnel to create the pipeline.
Dirt and water travels back through the pipes. The water is then recycled and the dirt separated into different grades.
McConnell Dowell already holds the record for constructing the longest tunnel from a single drive at Army Bay on the Whangaparaoa peninsula. The 1.9km tunnel there beat the previous record held by a tunnel in Texas.
McConnell Dowell has set up an operating base next to Snells Beach school and thought it would be a nice idea to let students name the tunnel boring machine.
Children ran a competition to come up with suitable names, then voted on their favourite. “Piper” proved the most popular choice.
Children also provided handprints on paper, which were transposed on to stickers then placed on the machine. The idea was to lend Piper a hand on ‘her’ journey.
Ms Rauner says tunnel boring machines are traditionally given female names “because they do all the work.”.
In addition to tunnelling, McConnell Dowell is also employing open trenching to construct the new wastewater pipe. The entire length of the pipe will be about 6.5km and run from Dawson Road in Snells Beach to Martins Bay.
The new pipe is designed to cope with population growth and replace an existing wastewater pipe along Mahurangi East Road and an ageing outfall pipe at the end of the Mahurangi Peninsula.
Construction is due to be completed in July.
