The team at Waiotahi Contractors love a challenge and there is nothing like an unusual job to really get everyone thinking, which is where the Whakatane-based company really comes into its own.

“A recent example is when we were asked to lower a 360 metre long, eight metre high shelterbelt hedge surrounding a kiwifruit orchard in Edgecumbe to a height of three metres,” says Frank Watty of Waiotahi Contractors.

The 2.7ha orchard had just recently been fully enclosed with shelter fabric. However, the shelter hedge was restricting air flow around the site. And the project presented several problems in its own right.

It was 1.5 metres inside, but also level with an 11,000kV power line, requiring a permit and a power supply support person on-site during the whole operation.

“The hedge was too close to the enclosed orchard area to allow us to work from inside the property without the potential to damage the enclosure fabric and support poles.

“This meant we had to operate from the road side of the hedge, requiring a traffic management plan and traffic control people to be on site during the project’s duration,” says Frank.

Finally, due to this proximity, the digger operator had to be extremely accurate in his work when snapping the trees and loading them onto trucks for removal to avoid the powerlines.

“We used a 12tonne digger with a 300mm tree grab extension to target individual trees and snap each one off at three metres.

“The severed tree was then loaded onto a truck and carted away for stacking and burning at a later date.

“The total project was completed and cleaned up inside of three days and went without a single hitch or any one getting electrocuted,” says Frank.