Customer: Goro Nickel SAS  Contract type:  Construct only Location: Goro, New Caledonia

Fast Facts 6 ha of clear and grub works 140,000 m3 of cut/fill 70,000 m3 of rock core fill 102 vertical piles 24 raking piles 200 staff at peak 70,000 m3 sub-base and base-course 4,650 tonnes of precast concrete NZCF Contractor of the Year Award 2007

One of the world's largest industrial mining projects, the Goro Nickel Project involved the construction of a nickel processing facility, a power plant, a dam, wharves, and a conveyor system.  

McConnell Dowell's scope of work comprised the construction of a new 180 m long general cargo berth, a new 270 m long bulk berth, three new dolphins, general port area earthworks, and earthworks for the conveyor system.

Our main challenge during the course of the Goro Nickel Project  was undertaking piling operations under tight programme requirements in difficult ground conditions as the site was adjacent to a World Heritage UNESCO reef and lagoon.

To minimise the high level of risk associated with the piling operations, a jack-up barge was used to support the drilling operations. The jack-up barge provided considerable advantages over floating vessels which would have been susceptible to pitch / roll, heave and lateral movement in heavy wave conditions. The piles were driven through hydraulically adjustable piling gates, purpose-built to support both vertical and raking piles during the pitching, driving and drilling construction sequence.

McConnell Dowell selected drilling / piling methodology which worked extremely well for the ground conditions encountered and provided the opportunity for cost savings for the client and project partners.