Lyttelton Port channel deepening: Two key strategies for successful project delivery in a complex social and environmental context

Lyttelton Port Company Limited (LPC) and Royal Boskalis have successfully completed Stage 1 of LPC's Channel Deepening Project (CDP), deepening, widening and lengthening the navigation channel in Lyttelton Harbour/Whakaraupo, to accommodate larger vessel access to the Port. To protect ecological and cultural values, tight environmental conditions were set and LPC implemented the largest environmental monitoring programme ever undertaken for a New Zealand dredging project. Despite a complex project context, the works were delivered successfully, to budget and without exceedance of environmental conditions or any public complaints. This paper examines two key aspects which led to this outcome; a collaborative approach and the turbidity management system. Collaboration between LPC, Boskalis and stakeholders was central to the project's success. From project commencement, LPC worked closely with key stakeholders, jointly developing the environmental impact assessments, the turbidity management system and other environmental management plans. This collaborative approach continued in the delivery phase. Through the tender and project start-up phase, LPC and Boskalis identified clear common goals and developed a strong co-operative team spirit. Combining LPC's local knowledge and stakeholder relationships with Boskalis's dredging expertise resulted in maximum environmental compliance, flexibility in dredging operations and high dredge productivity. Whilst the complex turbidity management system presented some risks, in the end it was pivotal to the project's success. Specifically, the nature of the monitoring network, structure of the turbidity triggers, data processing methods and the user friendly, publicly available, web-based dashboard. The web-based interface displayed large amounts of data on turbidity, environmental limits and meteorological conditions, all in real time. This allowed the project team, particularly bridge crew on the Boskalis Trailing Suction Hopper Dredge (TSHD) Fairway, to observe turbidity levels evolve in real-time, understand the system and enabling operations to be tuned to optimise dredge productivity whilst managing turbidity within acceptable levels.