Chris Mackenzie: Ferry Holdings Ltd Chair on the port infrastructure for the new Interislander ferries

The Government has set a deadline for the new Interisland ferries. 

Two new ferries are due to arrive in 2029, and the wharf currently home to the Aratere ferry is set to be demolished within a year to make room for infrastructure that can support the new ships. 

Ferry Holdings Ltd has initiated discussions with KiwiRail and the Port of Marlborough to understand the infrastructure required to meet the deadline.  

Chair Chris Mackenzie joined Kerre Woodham to delve into what is being planned for the ports. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Carrywood and Morning's podcast from News Talks.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
He'd be Ferry Holdings is responsible for shipyard procurement contracts
and port agreements on infrastructure, have initiated discussions with Kiri
Rail and the Port of Marlborough to understand the infrastructure
required to meet the Minister's deadline of twenty twenty nine
for the new cook Straight Fairies to enter operations, and
Chair Chris mackenzie joins me, now, very good morning to you.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
Yeah, good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
How can we be building a new port for fairies
that we don't know? We haven't got the specific details
for the met I thought the ports had to be
really specific to the fairies that they were servicing, all right.

Speaker 3 (00:52):
We do not want to be in the situation that
TASMANI got themselves exactly. And so what we have done
is we have the specifications for the Faery or the
determined and the miner the announced that at the thirty
first of March there're two hundred meters long, roughly twenty

(01:14):
eight meters in beam and twenty knots. Now, those ferries
have been designed and therefore we know the specifications that
the wolf will require, and so I'm confident that with
the vessel that's been already drawn up that we will

(01:38):
be able to have discussions with both Picton and Wellington
and have the wharfs in place for Q one twenty
twenty nine.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
Okay, so that means that nobody can change their mind,
really can they. Whatever happens to any government, you can't
suddenly say okay, we're going to have different ships.

Speaker 3 (01:58):
No, we can't. And again, as the Minister said on
the thirty first of March, we have to have a
contract sign and by the end of this year at
the latest for delivery of two vessels, one at the
beginning of twenty twenty nine and one two thirds of
the way through twenty twenty nine. And so the waves

(02:20):
need to be ready at the end of twenty twenty
eight to receive that first vessel in twenty twenty nine.
The ship has been designed, the specifications have been finalized,
there are discussions going on with shipyards, and when those

(02:40):
are finalized, they'll be signed off, a contract will be signed,
they'll go off and build the vessels and the ports
will work on their infrastructure.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
So in this case we've put that, we've absolutely put
the cart before the horse. The ports are coming first,
and the ferries have to fit the specs that the
ports have been given.

Speaker 3 (03:05):
No, no, the ferry has been designed right, Okay. The
discussions with the ports are now we need this type
of nesting for the vessel to come into. We need
the hole in the wharf here in Wellington so that
they can be refueled. There are discussions going on about

(03:25):
the mooring systems and so No, we've got the vessel
and we've now we've said to the port, we've got
a vessel here. Now we want you to have a
hole for it to come into.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
Excellent. So when we saw the blowout of the previous
Irex project as it was called, a lot of that
was to do with the port infrastructure, according to ministers
and according to Kiwi Rail, Yes, how did that blow out?
How did that project blow out so much? And why
did the port infrastructure blow out so much? If we

(04:02):
knew what the ships were going to be like.

Speaker 3 (04:06):
Look, I can't talk for IREX. I wasn't involved. My
understanding is that they were building and let's just slip
aside from it. The infrastructure that we are rebuilding in
Pecton went through the same discussions in nineteen sixty one

(04:26):
when the Arab miner first came out, So we are
actually replacing the infrastructure that was put in place in
nineteen sixty one for the nineteen sixty two arrival of.

Speaker 2 (04:36):
The aar and miner Luddy Hell you'd say that was
over drew.

Speaker 3 (04:40):
Yeah, yes, And in Wellington it's the same. If you
drive into Wellington you'll see two rusty sort of control
towers sitting there. That is the original Aaron Winer. Aaronuis birth.
So we are doing now with maximum reuse infrastructure for

(05:01):
the next sixty years impact in thirty years in Wellington.
And the reason for the difference is in Picton we
are basically rebuilding the foreshore infrastructure. In Wellington. We are
fortunate in that the alignment of the railway line coming
into the berth in Wellington lines up with the ship

(05:23):
that is designed, and so in Wellington it's a large refurbishment.
It's removal of a couple of old short arms that
were there for the original vessels. In Pcton, we can't
do that, and that's why in the announcements from q
ROW they have quoted Pacton as being the reason for

(05:45):
the oratory coming out because we have to get in
there to do Yeah, that replacement group.

Speaker 2 (05:51):
And that makes sense. How can we, as taxpayers and
ultimately the people who are paying for the infrastructure, have
any confidence that we aren't going to see the same
sort of horrendous blowouts that we saw under ires.

Speaker 3 (06:06):
Okay, As a board, we have already put some quite
stringent measures in place to ensure that the people who
are working for us. And again, just as a slighter side,
this is a small agency which despite the instructions to

(06:29):
the public service, and we're not the public service, but
most of the work that will be done will be
done by consultants or contractors. We don't employ major architects,
we don't employ ships, and so this small group has
some very tight measures put in place. We have had

(06:50):
discussions with Treasury. Treasury will be working with us to
monitor costs and we have been very specific on the costs.
We have already had discussions with the two parts about
what we will and won't be spending, what will and
won't be building or rebuilding, and so. And the other

(07:12):
advantage we do have is because we are maximum reuse.
There's no major rebuilder of the yard in Wellington for example,
which there was under IREX. There's no major rebuilding and
realignment of rail and Pickton because again we're using that
same alignment. Irex was a different type of project. Irex

(07:35):
was a project that was basically building a new set
of infrastructure for two new ships. The location of the
ships in Wellington was actually further north. You probably remember
the reclamation. We are not going there. We are sitting
where the current ferries come in. In Picton, we are

(07:59):
sitting where the current ferries fit in. So Irex was
a different type Irax in some respects was nineteen sixty
one all the way for again, thank you so much
for nineteen sixty one.

Speaker 2 (08:13):
You'd explained it all really clearly. And I really appreciate that,
because you know, it's such a big beast to be
able to wrestle it into something manageable. I really appreciate it.
Chris mackenzie that you're of Faery Holdings.

Speaker 1 (08:25):
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