Artificial reef supports marine life in Wellington harbour

BPC is proud to have contributed to the Te Ara Te Pua project, improving transport resilience between Wellington City and Lower Hutt and creating a new harbour-side walking and cycling link.

We constructed and installed 56 concrete pyramids to form an artificial reef to deliver improvements to the marine habitat and water quality to restore the diverse marine life in Te-Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington's harbour). The reef is the first of its kind and of this scale for biodiversity compensation purposes in New Zealand.

A satellite precast yard was established in Seaview to create the structures, which are four metres long, four metres wide, and five metres tall. They each weigh around 22 tonnes. They were transported to site on two of our jack-up barges, Manahau and Kaupapa.

The pyramids were precisely placed, at 7 – 10 metres down on the seabed, to attract fish and enhance the marine habitat. They are designed to encourage the growth of plant life, algae, shellfish, snails, and kina. Within a few years it is expected there will be an increase in common fish populations with algae, kelp, and invertebrates also occupying the surface of the units. Benefits will be seen up the food chain, with an increased abundance of fish increasing the availability of food for seabirds and other species in the area.