Established in 2006 by Luke Lee, Jacqui Fairbrother, Wayne and Karen Buchanan, PCL Contracting has always put people and relationships at the heart of their business.
In 2015, Luke and Jacqui became sole owners, with Luke taking up a director position. As part of a longer-term succession plan, General Manager Callum Buchanan and his fiancé, Ash Mckenna, bought in as shareholders, followed a few years later by Keanu Bevan, the Surfacing Division Manager.
Now employing more than 90 people, with 23 being local to the Wairarapa, the company has both a Surfacing and Wellington Civils division. The company’s repertoire includes all forms of civil contracting, infrastructure, excavation, and 3-water drainage. They have a particular niche in asphalting with extensive experience in road construction, drainage and chip sealing.
The company stretches far, working on jobs across the lower North Island. The local team in the Wairarapa have worked on projects such as the Arvida Lansdowne Estate, a new retirement village subdivision, Cashmere Oaks and currently, a drive-thru for the local McDonalds.
It is no wonder, with their range of experience, as well as having worked on culturally and environmentally sensitive projects - that they are a preferred partner for many large clients. Their longstanding relationships with their clients such as local government is an example of how they really live their values – putting people and relationships first.
Attach2 are on the ground — or more specifically, the runway in Masterton — to catch up with Kevin, the project manager, as well as Danny, the Branch Manager of the Wairarapa region, to talk about their latest project – a major infrastructure upgrade at the Wairarapa’s Hood Aerodrome, as well as what makes PCL such a great place to work.
Being experts in asphalt - PCL were engaged last year by Masterton District Council to replace the treatment for the runway and taxiway widenings at the Aerodrome – laying over 43,000m2 of surface area to runway specification. Prior to the resurfacing, they completed profile milling and installed over 400 tonne of level correcting asphalt to ensure a compliant pavement platform.
Currently they are completing an upgrade installing drainage (sewer, water & stormwater), service roads, taxiways and entrance upgrade on Manaia Road.
To be on top of their game, PCL need a lot of resource. “We’ve got a range in our fleet from diggers, loaders, trucks - everything. We have about 15 trucks and trailers, around 20 excavators – as well as loaders and rollers. Along with our paving gear, we have pavers and sprayers. We do a bunch of chip sealing, and as we spray our own, we have got roller spreaders on our trucks. We also have a specialised 2-metre-wide mill that we run across the lower North Island region.” Kevin explains.
Although PCL is a ‘really big family of 90’, there are 23 local staff in the Wairarapa, with a lot of them on the job at hand. The company have a great relationship with the client already, Masterton District Council. The project is of importance to both parties, and not just due to the size. As it is going to improve regional airside service, it is of great public interest – especially being visible to passers-by.
“We have fortnightly meetings where they come out onto site or have the engineers out as well, which is pretty standard for larger projects. Keeping them abreast of our progress on site and any potential delays or problems that we have means they get sorted out straight away due to the great comms that we have with them.” says Kevin.
As you can imagine, working on a large infrastructure project based at an Aerodrome poses its own set of unique logistical challenges.
Of course, in the construction industry, traffic control is always a part of the plan, but for this job, the stakes are particularly high. Having to do runs to the stockpile across taxiways means the team are in constant communication with airside control – making sure they are clear to move and don’t encounter any planes.
Another challenge that poses a risk to health and safety is making sure there is no debris on the runway, which can be potentially catastrophic for a plane to come into contact with. Clean-up crew is equally important, as Kevin explains.
“We run a tractor broom daily when we are running across the taxiways, and the airside control also run their own FOD (Foreign Object Damage) sweeper, multiple times a day to make sure that the planes are safe coming in and out of the airport.”
Scheduling, again - a normal part of managing a large construction project, but what about when you need to close down a runway at certain times of the day? Kevin runs us through the logistics.
“We fit in with the planes coming on and off the runway. We’ve got a 15-metre boundary to the runway that we must keep perfectly level with just in case a plane comes off. We tie in at two points on site - one at the apron by the terminal and further East there is a taxiway extension that hooks on to the runway. We’ve got to make sure that we bring that back up to level any day that we’re working on it, making sure that the planes can land safely when they’re coming in.”
Typically, when laying asphalt you want a 2% grade – but taxiways are flatter – sitting at 0.9%. This means the team must be tight on tolerances, making sure all their checks are done, and QA checks are completed – and it also calls for versatile equipment. They are particular fans of the A2 Heli-Tilt Coupler for its versatility.
“We use the Heli-Tilt on all of our newer plant now and various attachments that go along with it. We find it really good for cutting the swales. There’s 1,800 metres of swales here so there’s quite a lot to go through. Digging in and around services is also good with the Heli-Tilt. It’s really good for us.” There is a real sense of camaraderie with the staff at PCL, and it is by design.
The founders even got in retired All-Black Norm Hewitt as a culture consultant to help develop the vision and culture for the company going forward – and developed the Norm Hewitt Legacy Award to honour his contribution and legacy. We wanted to learn more, so we talked with the Branch Manager, Danny about the importance of team culture and relationships at PCL.
“At PCL we’ve got a people first approach. We care about our people, and our cultures — really, really important to us. We’ve got a CRASH culture which is our five pillars of success - Communication, Respect, Attitude, Support and Honesty. Everything comes back to this. It’s led from the front and it’s evident within our business. We have a couple of events during the year which get us all together in one big group outside of work - it really helps with the camaraderie and our people first focus.”
The team at PCL credit their people and relationship-first approach as the reason for both their long-term clients and staff — and, as Danny points out — this also extends to who they partner with – something they will continue to focus on in the future.
“If you care about the people then obviously everything’s going to come with that. That comes with Attach2 as well, we’re local - supporting locals. Our supplier’s matter, our client’s matter”.
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