America’s Cup Viaduct Village

Project: America’s Cup Viaduct Village
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Client: Subcontractor to Fletcher Construction

In 1995, the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron syndicate Team New Zealand, defeated Dennis Connor's Stars & Stripes 5–0, to win the America’s Cup for New Zealand. In order to defend the America’s Cup Auckland’s Viaduct Harbour would have to undergo a major upgrade, including the capital dredging of approximately 250,000m3 of hard sandstone material from within the Viaduct Basin. This material was disposed of at the Auckland Offshore Disposal Area, located 80 nautical miles (150 kilometres) from the Viaduct.

Heron Construction purchased two 750m3 split hopper barges WH 761 and WH762 from Australia and the tug Pacific Way from Tauranga to undertake the project together with the backhoe dredge Kimahia. The Pacific Way made over 350 voyages to the offshore disposal grounds with a round trip taking an average of 28 hours.

The project was completed in time for the successful defence of the America’s cup by Peter Blake’s Team New Zealand in 2000.