Dry dock misses out on cash
The lack of funding for a dry dock in the Government’s $8 billion infrastructure package is ‘‘deeply disappointing’’, the New Zealand Shipping Federation says. In a package roughly three times bigger than normal infrastructure spends, the Government announced $8b of a $12b package on Wednesday, with the majority going to roads, rail, and hospitals. The New Zealand Shipping Federation is the key representative body for New Zealand’s coastal shippers. Federation president Clive Glover said the Government needed to stop talking about coastal ships and actually do something substantive to show its support. The largest New Zealand dry dock, built at the Devonport Naval Base in 1888, is now too small to service larger vessels. It was estimated a new dry dock in Picton’s Shakespeare Bay could create more than 100 jobs. ‘‘It is deeply disappointing that today’s infrastructure package does not include a dry dock,’’ Glover said. A 250 metre dry dock is the missing piece of the transport infrastructure jigsaw, he said. ‘‘Having a dry dock in New Zealand would save fuel which is obviously good for the environment. It would also save time and money for ship operators,’’ he said. He said the federation would continue to work to make the dry dock a reality. Port Marlborough chief executive Rhys Welbourn maintained they wanted to see an objective study for the best place to see a dry dock. ‘‘Previous high level feasibility studies have shown that a dry dock between 200m and 250m could work in Shakespeare Bay from an engineering, resource consenting and service supply perspective,’’ Welbourn said. However, recent discussions on the dry dock have pointed to Northport in Whangarei as the favoured option. Both National and Kaiko¯ura MP Stuart Smith and Welbourn said last week they understood Northport had been granted about $1.5 million from the Provincial Growth Fund to complete a feasibility report into building a dry dock. Marlborough had been overlooked in the Government’s infrastructure spend, Smith said. ‘‘It’s hard to see how the Government’s transport plans won’t come at the expense of transport investment in Marlborough when billions of dollars are being ripped from the regions to pay for trams in Auckland.’’