Lyttelton Port has been a staple of the South Island for 170 years, and Lyttelton Port Company (LPC) has led the charge in the area since 1988. Now, with 600+ staff on board and shipping $6.2 billion worth of exports to the world each year, South Island’s largest international trade gateway is a busy place to work.

But it’s not just loading and unloading 438,000 twenty-foot container equivalent units (TEUs) per year that LPC manages. They also operate the only commercial dry dock in the country. (The NZ Navy runs the only other dry dock.) Add a historic site to the mix, and you’ve got some unique challenges to deal with.

HIABs and cranes don’t cut it in this busy, tight location. The access solution had to be “light touch” so that it could also be removed between dockings while being fully compliant. 

Removable handrails and the like for on-the-ground work were a must. And it had to be reasonable to work with; no one wanted to set up workers with a Meccano set that would take days to assemble each time. Even with all the above considered, when the access components were not in place, they couldn’t leave any tripping or catching hazards for workers.

Monkeytoe’s engineers, as Hannah Fyffe (Senior Project Manager at Lyttelton Port Company) says, “have been relentless in their innovation.”

Adjustable stairs, hidden grounding solutions, moving feet, and easy access. It’s a pretty unique suite, and naturally, everything has been  built from our marine-grade aluminium, meaning it’ll stand the test of time in this environment.