Muldoon’s corner has been a treacherous bend on an already tight, twisting road that climbs over the Rimutaka Hill connecting Wellington to the Wairarapa region.
The corner was named after Right wing Prime minister Sir Robert Muldoon, as the corner tightens to the right. The sharp corner was too tight for more than one truck to pass at a time, which meant trucks had to radio ahead to warn oncoming trucks when they would be passing, so they didn’t meet at the same time. Opus International Consultants and Hawkins Infrastructure were engaged by The New Zealand Transport Agency to realign the upper section of the Rimutaka Hill road on the south side of the summit.
The Rimutaka Hill was an extremely difficult site both in terms of access and atmosphere. Wind, rain and snow effected, even in the summer months, the weather at the top of the range was quite extreme to say the least!
Hawkins Infrastructure awarded Ancor Loc the ground anchoring side of the project. Anchors were used to stabilize the huge wedges of rock on the cut face and also in new and existing walls. A total of 130 ground anchors were installed, comprised from 1034mpa / 150KSI All-Thread-Rebar, ranging from 32mm – 65mm in diameter. A total of 1000m of Sub Horizontal Drains were installed to control underground water levels. Ancor Loc’s extensive fleet was used to carry out the drilling, including track drill rigs, excavator mounted drill rigs and abseiling drill rigs.
Ground Anchorages were installed up to 20m deep, cased through overburden material then drilled into solid rock. Trial anchors were tested to 2400kN.
This high profile job was a great project, testing every aspect at all levels of our company and we are proud to have been involved with such a landmark project.