Crane named in memory of Dennis
First there was Alice the giant tunnel-boring machine, now meet Dennis the huge yellow gantry crane.
The lifting mechanism, which will be a feature of the Waterview Connection Project for the next two years, has been painted yellow in recognition of a worker who died of cancer last year.
Dennis Werata, 33, started working on the project in December 2012 as a steel fixer and builder.
Well-Connected Alliance project manager John Burden says Mr Werata was a great guy who died too young.
‘‘By naming the gantry after him we can acknowledge his life for his workmates and also for his whanau.’’
Walter Nathan is a foreman on the project and knew Dennis well.
‘‘He was a hard-working person and very familyorientated. He’d help you out with anything, give you the shirt off his back if you needed it,’’ he says.
The colour of the gantry recognises the partnership between the Well-Connected Alliance and the Cancer Society Auckland.
Integration and relationships director for the WellConnected Alliance Andrew Rose says it’s all part of the alliance’s goal to create better working lives for its staff.
Cancer Society chief executive John Loof is pleased with the partnership. ‘‘It not only profiles our work in the com- munity but also helps to raise awareness for a very real issue faced by many, cancer.’’
Dennis the gantry is 98 metres long, weighs 140 tonnes and was designed and built in Italy for the project.
It is being used to construct the massive interchange to join the Northwestern and Southwestern motorways at the northern end of the project. It will act as a support by placing enormous concrete beams onto columns for the four-ramp interchange.
Motorists will use the ramps between the Northwestern motorway and the new Waterview tunnels when they are completed in 2017.
The first night closures to allow for the work are scheduled for mid-March, and will affect traffic leaving Great North Rd heading west.
More: nzta.govt.nz/projects/ waterviewconnection.