Auckland
Kaiwera Downs Wind Farm
CLIENT
Mercury NZ Limited, Higgins Contractor Limited
LOCATION
Mataura, Southland
RILEY TEAM
THE BRIEF
The 198MW Kaiwera Downs Wind Farm is under development. Its two stages comprise 46 turbines; stage one (10 turbines) is operational, while stage two (36 turbines) is under construction and scheduled for completion in 2027.
Riley provided civil and geotechnical engineering services for the Civil Balance of Plant scope, from resource consent through to detailed design and construction verification. The work included the geometric design of nearly 1 million cubic meters of earthworks across a 90Ha site, and the construction of over 40km of new access roads.
THE OUTCOME
The detailed geotechnical site investigations and data logging enabled the development of a detailed and accurate 3D soil/rock layer model. This provided a high level of certainty to both the contractor and client regarding material quantities and facilitated the optimisation of the earthworks design.
