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from the Fletcher archives
Step change - Jellicoe Wharf for Auckland Harbour Board
In the year of 1950, Sir James Fletcher I received a note from Admiral Cotter, then president of US contractors Merritt-Chapman Scott, whom he had met in Wellington during the war.
Admiral Cotter was interested in joint ventures on New Zealand projects involving marine works, tunnels or submarine pipelines. Merritt-Chapman Scott was then one of the biggest contractors on the US East Coast and was known for brilliant and innovative marine works engineering.
The letter arrived a few months before the Auckland Harbour Board called tenders for a new wharf. Joe Craig (who had built the Wellington Railway Station as a young man) met Cotter in New York to discuss a JV. Another legendary American construction character was called in: George Ferris was president of Raymond Concrete Pile, a major US piling sub-contractor with particular expertise in the sort of foundation work required for the new wharf.
Ferris, urbane and well connected, became another important bridge to American expertise by introducing Jim Fletcher to ‘Mac’ Gilmore, a manufacturer and steelmaker who owned a mini-mill in Portland, Oregon. The firm price and delivery date for reinforcing steel that Fletcher won from Gilmore Steel was crucial in the tender for the wharf job with reinforcing steel being in short supply and extremely expensive.
Fletcher’s first joint venture with major overseas contractors – Fletcher Merritt Raymond – was significant for the company, allowing it to leverage international expertise to move into large-scale engineering projects. The project was profitable, on time and on budget. New construction methods and equipment were introduced – a fascinated public congregated on the waterfront to watch the wharf taking shape with the aid of one of Raymond’s advanced pieces of technology, a patented pile-driving rig.
Jim Fletcher gained confidence from the project because it showed that his company could work with the best, so he and his people felt they could take on much bigger projects. The wharf was seen by the public and by clients as a symbol of Auckland’s dominance of commercial life and of Fletcher’s role in that dominance.
• Completed 29 June 1953.
• 353.8 metres long and 94.5 metres wide.
• Jellicoe import wharf, Waitemata Harbour, Auckland.
• Joint venture with Merritt-Chapman Scott (Overseas) Corporation and Raymond Concrete Pile Co with Raymond Concrete Pile as sponsor, or managing partner.
“This was a complex and technically demanding job, which was delivered in a very competent manner, by a very professional contractor. Of particular note were the sheet and tubular piling operations undertaken from the jack-up barge ‘Tuapapa’. These were significant undertakings in New Zealand terms and were accomplished safely and efficiently by sound planning and construction methodology, a well-trained, capable and motivated workforce and by mobilisation of appropriate plant and equipment.�
Francis Patten
Project Engineer, Northport Limited