TGH CEO Chris Joblin says Ruakura remains the number one commercial priority for TGH and the foundations are falling into place with solid progress on enabling works over the past year.
Work to date includes the pre-loading of the first 6ha of the inland port, which is complete, and construction of water and waste water infrastructure is now underway. A lot of work has gone into planning the rail siding and the local roads network.
“Our biggest priority in 2019 is to get underway on construction of the re-aligned local roads to connect the inland port to the Waikato Expressway,” says Chris.
TGH is now targeting for stage 1 of the inland port to open in the first half of 2021 to align with the completion of those local roads and the Waikato Expressway.
“With our JV partners LINX Cargo Care, we’re building a strong network of supply chain partners and customers. We’re deeply engaged with the likes of KiwiRail, the ports and freight owners to create a seamless long-term solution,” he says.
“All the deep market trends continue to support Ruakura; there is a greater push on than ever before to have same day/overnight delivery across the North Island, and this is much easier to achieve out of Hamilton than Auckland.”
TGH has brought in a new project director for Ruakura. He’s Alan McKinnon whose world class development expertise includes roles as Project Director for Sylvia Park and senior roles with two of the world’s largest companies: Tesco Property in China and Apple Inc Asia Pacific based in Hong Kong.
With pre-loading of the first 6ha of the inland port now finished, construction of water and waste water infrastructure is underway.