Auckland International Airport

We've been working with the Auckland International Airport team since January 2019 to maintain and improve critical assets, including upgrading live jet fuel pipelines, renewing runway pavements, and much more.

We have also worked on vertical construction projects, including the new airport upgrade with subsidiary Built Environs.

We have installed fuel pipelines and utilities underground, relocated secure facilities, and built new roads and pavements - civil, mechanical, fabrication, pipelines, and vertical construction - we can do it all.

The projects listed below demonstrate how flexible and responsive we are to our clients’ needs. Just click on each project to find out more

The projects we have completed at the airport over the last six years include...

Click on the boxes below to expand (and hide) them for more information about the projects, including detailed scope and delivery.

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The scope of work for all three stages included:

Civil works:

• Re-routing a new 600m section of the existing DN 450 (18”) buried steel fuel supply pipeline main to enable the construction of a new domestic jet terminal baggage handling building
• Maintenance for 11 existing valve pits
• New pipe work connecting the valve pits
• Maintenance of three fuel hydrant expansion loops
• Replacing 10 fuel hydrant pits
• Removal of concrete and asphalt pavements
• Excavation and disposal of material
• Complex lift of the new fuel pipe
• Backfilling
• Lighting upgrades, line marking, and new concrete and asphalt surfaces
• Pit 5 construction with a new valve

Mechanical Works:

• Internal Pipe Coating
• External Pipe Wrapping
• Pipe Spool Fabrication & Welding – Pipe Butt Welds
• Commissioning of Pipeline (Flushing, CCTV, Pressure Test, Nitrogen Preservation)

Located on a live airfield, well-planned logistics and avoiding disruption to airport operations were critical.

We learned valuable lessons in this complex operational environment that we continue to apply and build on today, including:

• Efficient management of airside security processes for subcontractors
• Upskilling staff to self-perform the ‘clear and bright tests’, minimising resourcing risk from external parties during shutdowns
• Designing and fabricating an innovative magnetic vacuum tool to remove swarf after hot tapping with First Gas Ltd
• Planning and completing complex fuel line ‘shutdowns’ without disrupting fuel flows
• Working to ‘clean build’ standards and achieving a 100% pass rate first time in tests
• Safely excavating around hundreds of existing services without a single strike
• Working with Auckland Airport to become one of the first sites in NZ to trial RAT testing during Covid-19
• Achieving a 100% pass rate on the weld tests, completing a complex lift, and dealing with an unusually wet winter’s impacts on the open trenching

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The project scope includes the construction of:

• A new ‘walkway and canopy join the international and domestic terminals
• An airside security checkpoint and an access road
• A Transitional waste facility for processing aircraft solid wastes
• A new Effluent waste facility for processing aircraft liquid wastes
• Relocation of the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) livestock inspection facility and construction of a new single-span shed
• Diversion of existing utilities and construction of new underground services
• Pavement, barriers, fencing, gates, footpaths and road furniture

Project Awards:

The project made the finalists of the CCNZ Hirepool Construction Excellence Awards 2023, inr Category 4 - Projects between $20m and $100m.

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McConnell Dowell began the demolition of the existing parking areas and the construction of a new trucking route in February 2023.

The scope of work includes:

• Removal of 4200m2 existing pavement, kerbs and channel, street furniture
• Construction of new underground services, including 360m of stormwater, 114m of wastewater and 90m of watermain pipe works, including manholes, cesspits, sumps etc.
• Assessing and protecting the existing three waters services and decommissioning or diverting redundant service networks
• Installation of ducting and pits for utilities – lighting, security

Construction of 5300m2 flexible and rigid pavement, new traffic barriers, islands, fencing, gates, footpaths and road furniture.

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MCD was awarded the contract for Ring Main 4 – Phase 1 by AIAL in March 2023, and the work was completed in September 2023. This pipeline extension was part of the airport's fuel network growth and resilience programme. The new fuel main alignment crossed the airfield; excellent logistics and communications were instrumental in the project's success.

Civil works  

• Removal of concrete and asphalt pavements 
• Excavation and disposal of material 
• Backfilling
• Construction of concrete and asphalt pavement 
• Complex lift of the new fuel pipe 

Mechanical Works:  

• Internal Pipe Coating 
• External Pipe Wrapping 
• Pipe Spool Fabrication & Welding – Pipe Butt Welds 
• Commissioning of Pipeline (Flushing, CCTV, Pressure Test, Nitrogen Preservation) 

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The project was awarded in July 2023 and completed in June 2024. The scope involved installing drainage infrastructure in Areas 4 A and B at the western end of the runway.

The work scope involved removing the first 200mm of topsoil and installing collector pipes east to west. Megaflo 170 sub-soil drains will be installed in Areas A and B and connected to the central collector pipe.

Once the infrastructure is installed, a Polydrain Geocomposite Membrane will be placed, covered with GAP65, and finally covered with topsoil and the grass reinstated.

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We are completing some of the Taxiway Mike/Remote Stand Stage Two scope of the project for the main contractor, Brian Perry Civil, contracted by AIAL behind Pier B of the International Terminal.

The scope MCD is delivering is for the fuel line upgrades and includes, but is not limited to:

• Laying approx. 1500m of steel fuel line
• Construct 5 fuel pits
• Install 30 fuel hydrants
• Testing and Commissioning of the newly installed infrastructure

The project’s high-level objectives are to construct the airfield pavement for the Taxiway Mike and Lima Extension and Remote Stands Stage 2, including the installation of in-ground services, a new biofilter stormwater pond and a new Power Centre.

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Taxiway Lima included two construct-only contracts to strip wrapping and costings from a pipeline and lay 100 metres of new fuel line in preparation for future airfield expansion.

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The Pit 5 project is being completed on the Aviation Fuel Hydrant System (FHS) for Auckland International Airport Limited (AIAL). The project is the final scope of the Fuel Network Compliance programme, following the Terminal Development Project (TDP), the Fuel Diversion (FD), and the Fuel Network Compliance Stage 3 & 4 (FNCS 3 & 4) projects. The Pit 5 project scope includes replacing two adjacent Pits 5 & 14 at Aircraft Stand 7 and two hydrants (7A & 7B).

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Find out more about this project on our Built Environs website here.

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