DCN October Edition 2019

PORT DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION & DREDGING
FACT BOX
LYTTELTON PORT RECOVERY PLAN
•
Recovery Plan was developed.
•
Between June 2014 and November 2015 the Lyttelton Port
In June 2014, the Minister for Canterbury Earthquake
Recovery directed Environment Canterbury and (ECan)
and Lyttelton Port Company to prepare Lyttelton Port
Recovery Plan.
• The plan had to ensure safe, efficient and effective
operations, while taking account of the impact on the
coastal marine area and the community.
• LPC produced the Port Lyttelton Plan, a 30-year vision
for the recovery and enhancement of the port, a starting
point for extensive community communication and
engagement.
• ECan released its preliminary draft Port Lyttelton
Recovery Plan and invited submissions, with more than
270 submissions received.
• In August 2015 ECan presented the draft Lyttelton Port
Recovery Plan to the Minister for Canterbury Earthquake
Recovery.
• On 19 November 2015 the Minister for Canterbury
Earthquake Recovery, Gerry Brownlee, announced the
Lyttelton Port Recovery Plan.
Source: Lyttelton Port Corporation
Christchurch is low-lying and with a relatively high water
table leading to cases of liquefaction. Moreover the epicentre of
the quake was just four kilometres from the port, increasing the
damage sustained.
But as Jared Pettersson, director of Enviser Ltd explains to DCN
during a seminar in Hobart, some good came from the disaster by
way of new infrastructure and allowing for a rebuild for the future.
At a recent International Association for Waterborne Transport
Infrastructure (PIANC) conference in Hobart, Jared Pettersson told
DCN the recovery contributed to new infrastructure and a rebuild
for the future.
The director of Enviser Ltd describes how the city CBD had to
Containers at Lyttelton Port
be cordoned off for 59 days, with homes damaged and demolished.
Providing some context, pre-quake there was much growth in dairy
and farming, with volumes putting pressure on the port.
In the immediate aftermath it was vital to keep the port at least
partially operational in order to facilitate recovery.
“A lot of resources and materials and machinery that were
needed for the recovery had to come through the port. Also the
Navy was based there, which was important for the response
effort,” Mr Pettersson says.
WHAT DOES RECOVERY LOOK LIKE?
Mr Pettersson describes recovery efforts as “a long and winding
road” and the need to answer the question “what does recovery
look like?”
He says the choice was between rebuilding the facilities “as
they were” prior to the earthquake “or should it deliver an
enhanced port”.
“The big question there was, if this is not going to be just a
rebuild, would the community see it as recovery or would they see
it as something else?” he says.
“And what about getting approval?”
Ultimately Port of Lyttelton decided “recovery should be more
than a rebuild” and to use insurance money to set the port up for
the future via the NZ$900m Port to the East project.
This decision was made easier because the port was already
over-capacity and if a decade was spent rebuilding what was already
there, then in a decade they could be well behind in terms of
capacity growth.
Mr Pettersson describes the thinking behind Port to the East.
“Port to the East was basically shifting port operations
eastwards, further away from town and relied on creation of a new
container terminal,” he says.
“What the port decided to do was: the recovery should be more
than a rebuild. We should take the insurance money and look
towards developing a port for the future.”
Lyttleton Port
34 October 2019
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