The slab is down, the frame is up… work has begun on the first and possibly the only permanent building to grace the Transmission Gully compound at Lanes Flat.
Concrete slab going down on the new Transmission Gully Operations and Management building.
The building will house Ventia, the company that Wellington Gateway Partnership has subcontracted to operate and maintain Transmission Gully for the next 25 years.
Ventia is one of the largest essential service providers in New Zealand and Australia. It provides long term management of critical public and private assets and infrastructure.
The frame going up on Ventia’s new building at Lanes Flat, Pāuatahanui.
Once Transmission Gully opens to traffic, it’s Ventia’s job to operate the motorway 24/7. This will involve handling emergencies, traffic management and responding to incidents.
While any serious accidents will involve emergency services, if you break down on the motorway, one of Ventia’s incident response vehicles will come and help. It’s all part of the service.
Cameras will keep an eye on intersections, while stopped vehicles anywhere on the rest of the motorway will be detected by an ITS radar system monitoring traffic movement.
But just a note on that – Transmission Gully is a motorway so no vehicle should be stopping, unless it’s an emergency.
Ventia is also responsible for maintaining the integrity of the road and carrying out any repairs that come up over the next 25 years. That could be anything from fixing any damage to the median barriers to carrying out rehabilitation works and reseals to maintain the road in a good operating condition.
Transmission Gully has been designed and built to be highly resilient and safety will continue to be paramount.
The Ventia team will be carrying out regular inspections of structures and retaining walls, ensuring drains and culverts are clear and all streetlighting is working.
There’s also the environment to care for. The hard work carried out by the Transmission Gully environment and landscaping teams during construction will be continued. This means ensuring fences and environmental barriers are intact, vegetation is mowed and weeded, and predators are controlled, especially for ecologically protected areas.
With so much water in the hills, making sure the stormwater system is performing as designed is critical. Ventia has already established a water quality monitoring process. It’s just one of the ways Ventia is preparing for road opening.
Just another day in the office – Ventia inspects the fences and boundary up on the Gas Ridge line.
The company needs to expand locally and will be recruiting for a number of roles, everything from an Operations and Maintenance Manager to project Senior Supervisors to Field Staff. So, if you like the idea of a vocation with variety—responding to a traffic incident one day, mending fences the next—keep an eye out. The jobs will be out in the market very soon.
After 25 years, Ventia’s contract with WGP (and WGP’s contract with Waka Kotahi) will end, and the road will be handed over to Waka Kotahi in tip top shape; still as reliable as the day it opens.
