Monkeytoe along Transmission Gully

Some eight years in the making, the Transmission Gully Motorway project is one of the biggest roading projects in New Zealand. Te Ara Nui o Te Rangihaeata is 27 fresh kilometres of four-lane motorway, connecting Porirua to Paekākāriki and forming the newest stretch of State Highway 1.

Since the project launched in 2014, we’ve been eagerly watching the roading project develop – and at the end of March 2022, the billion-dollar highway finally opened to great fanfare.

While we were in our element here with our solutions, this project was definitely a new industry for us – and we were proud to play our small part here at Monkeytoe, contributing important access solutions at select points along the road.

When the project engineers came to us looking for ladders and stairs that would enable workers to get around safely, we took them through our design, engineering and manufacturing process and took care of the creation of a range of options.

Because this highway, like much of New Zealand’s roads, is exposed to coastal conditions, we knew that a lightweight, adjustable system made of marine-grade aluminium would easily satisfy the need for a 50-year design life.

Some ladders we created stretched into the range of 15 metres, and needed doors to lock up so that the general public couldn’t go wandering. That was easy for us.

The stairways that we created to go up dirt banks took some creative thinking. Once we looked at the cut-outs on the road fronts and into the banks, we saw that we needed to create access up a slope of around 50 degrees. Normally, this is a non-compliant slope – but we were able to show, through a suite of calculations and a custom solution, that we could anchor a set of stairs safely. We created a compliant, user-friendly stair that ran up at a greater incline, but also had breaks every six or so metres to provide comfort and safety.

Next time you’re on this stretch of highway, (safely!) look out for Monkeytoe’s handiwork.