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New Zealand’s replacement modular built research station due in 2027.
New Zealand’s new Antarctica modular-built research station announced last week is scheduled to depart New Zealand exactly 70 years after the original base opened in 1957.
Situated in Christchurch, Leighs Construction will build the Scott research station as a series of prefabricated modules, and Dutch firm Mammoet is doing the heavy lifting in New Zealand and on arrival in Antarctica.
Logistics company BigLift Shipping will deliver it 3,720km to Pram Point, Ross Island, located in New Zealand’s segment of Antarctica.
The modular built research station will be carried on an MC-class vessel, strengthened to deal with ice and designed to operate in remote areas.
Mammoet’s self-propelled modular transporters (SPMTs) will move the base onto the ship at the port of Timaru and off again in Antarctica.
Watch BigLift Shipping’s virtual delivery of New Zealand’s new modular-built research station
The three modular-built interconnected research buildings will be separated into eight modules, each weighing about 800 tonnes, and will be sealed and welded onto the vessel for the journey.
Reinder de Haan, Mammoet’s transport and logistics head, said the installation method was as robust as possible.
“The versatile SPMTs have tremendous power, yet can be manoeuvred with millimetre precision so that each section of the new station will be perfectly aligned when we set it down,” he said.
Jon Ager, Antarctica New Zealand’s project director for the new base, said it would safeguard New Zealand’s research programme and presence in Antarctica for 50 years.
Construction of the modular research station will begin at PrimePort Timaru in 2024.
