Kia ora taatou,
Plenty of activity in and around the Ruakura Superhub development site last week.
Ministerial visit
On Thursday 22 April the team hosted the Minister of Transport, Hon. Michael Wood on site for a briefing and viewing of development works underway. Afterwards, the Minister spoke positively to the media of the joined-up planning and development frameworks in the Waikato, the synergies of private and public investment and the smart connections of Ruakura with key infrastructure such as the East Cast Main Trunk Line and new Waikato Expressway as well as Ruakura’s long-term contribution to a de-carbonised economy.
The Waikato Times reported on the visit here.
In other engagement on the site, roading contractor (Schick) has been on site running a virtual simulator for university students to try their hand at operating heavy equipment.
Community ‘drop in’ session
This coming Thursday 29 April, TGH will be hosting a community drop in information session from 3.00pm to 7.00pm at the Don Llewellyn Sports Pavilion, Gate 3B, Silverdale Road. Our scale model, maps and representatives from TGH and Hamilton City Council will be available to answer questions on Ruakura Superhub and key local transportation connections. The drop-in session has been promoted with radio spots on the local Newstalk ZB and Coast radio stations, print advertising in the Waikato Times and Hamilton Press, a letter drop to residents, social media posts and inclusion in the University of Waikato staff email.
On site works
This week we started removing the pre-load from the Port area on Wednesday (after three years of compression of the port site). This loading material is now being re-deployed to pre-load the second stage of the inland port. Our contractors C&R have made good progress on site, with the wetlands and drainage channels now operational, and we have completed excavations to the water table levels. Works are now focusing on final trimming.
Tenants
Over the past two weeks we have hosted several prospective tenants on site including some businesses which are not currently operating in the Waikato but are keen to get established here to take advantage of the supply chain benefits we offer. We have also successfully tendered the construction of our first tenant’s building (PBT) and anticipate we will be ready to let this contract in mid-May.
Rgds,
Project Team
Ruakura Superhub