28 August 2014 | NZ Transport Agency - Auckland

Chance to bid for a visit to meet Alice at Waterview

Alice, the huge boring machine constructing Auckland’s Waterview motorway tunnels, is taking on a new role and using her mechanical muscle to help in the fight against cancer.

Four opportunities for people to go underground to visit Alice are being auctioned on TradeMe by workers on the Waterview Connection project. All proceeds from the on-line auction will be donated to the Cancer Society for research into a cure for the disease.

“It will be a great opportunity to be right at the very edge of the country’s largest-ever roading project, and at the same time support a cause that is very personal and close for many of our team,” says the Project Director of the Well-Connected Alliance, John Burden.

One of the Alliance workers, Dennis Wereta, died from cancer at the age of 33. The project’s big lifting gantry helping construct the motorway-to-motorway interchange at Waterview is named Dennis in his honour and is painted daffodil yellow, the Cancer Society’s official colour.

“As well as going underground for Alice, the successful bidders will also be able to see the work Dennis is doing above ground,” Mr Burden says.

The on-line auction is one part of the workers’ fundraising campaign this year to collect a total of $20,000 for cancer research.

The TradeMe auction starts tomorrow (Friday 29 August) and will close on Saturday 6 September. Alice is currently nearing the end of the first tunnel, and the successful bidders will visit her next year when she has set off on her return journey from Waterview to Owairaka. The address for the TradeMe auction is:http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=772850389

The Well-Connected Alliance is constructing the Waterview Connection to link the Northwestern and Southwestern Motorways (State Highways 16 and 20) for the NZ Transport Agency. The two 3-lane tunnels and adjoining motorway-to-motorway interchange are due to open to traffic in early 2017.

The link will complete the Western Ring Route – one of the Government’s seven national roads of significance – to create a 47 kilometre-long motorway alternative to SH1 and the Auckland Harbour Bridge.

The Well-Connected Alliance which includes the NZ Transport Agency, Fletcher Construction, McConnell Dowell, Parsons Brinckerhoff, Beca Infrastructure, Tonkin & Taylor and Japanese construction company Obayashi Corporation. Sub-alliance partners are Auckland-based Wilson Tunnelling and Spanish tunnel controls specialists SICE.

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