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Project Overview
KiwiRail’s Waltham Depot in Christchurch is a major maintenance facility supporting South Island rail operations. Purpose built for the maintenance of locomotives, passenger carriages and wagons, the site brings together specialist equipment, service areas and operational teams into one centralised mechanical hub at Walthan Yard, Christchurch.
Moddex was enagaged by Calder Stewart due to the suitability of our proprietary Tuffrail barrier range, which also aligned perfectly with the project’s sustainability specifications. We supported multiple phases of safety and access works across the Waltham Depot, supplying modular handrail, barrier and gate systems for different areas of the facility.
Moddex Solution
Across four phases so far, Moddex has supplied solutions for the Team Leaders’ office roof, drop table area, general safety barriers and removable handrail storage. The first phase included TR20 safety barriers for key areas of the depot. Further works included TR25 barriers and a self closing gate for the office roof, creating safer access around the rooftop area.
For the drop table area, Moddex supplied an increased height TR25 solution to suit the operational requirements of the specialist rail maintenance equipment. A custom storage trolley was also developed for removable handrails, allowing sections to be safely stored when not in use.
NOTE: Across the project, one of the challenges faced was the design and precast setup for the removable barriers on the pit lane platforms. Moddex addressed this by providing precast set-out jigs, enabling the installation of cast-in sockets to be coordinated with other trades. Thanks to the advanced modelling capabilities of our Tekla library, Moddex was able to manufacture large sections of the project scope even before the site’s final as-built details were available.
Products supplied
- TR20 safety barriers
- TR25 industrial handrails
- Self-closing gates
- Increased height TR25 handrails
- Custom drop table solution
- Storage trolley for removable handrails
Supporting KiwiRail’s maintenance network
The Waltham Depot works form part of Moddex’s broader relationship with KiwiRail across New Zealand’s rail network. From standard industrial barriers through to tailored safety systems for complex maintenance environments, Moddex continues to support KiwiRail with modular handrail, barrier and access solutions designed for durability, compliance and practical site use.
Benefits of the Moddex solution
Moddex’s modular systems provided a practical fit for the Waltham Depot, offering:
- Safety barriers suited to rail maintenance and service areas
- Flexible configurations across multiple parts of the facility
- Self-closing gates for controlled access points
- Removable handrail options where operational access was required
- Custom detailing for specialist equipment areas such as the drop table
- Offsite manufactured components to support efficient project delivery
Award-Winning Sustainability Initiatives
Sustainability was a core value throughout the project. The use of recycled materials is what won this project the HEB Circular Economy (Reduce/Reuse/Recycle) of Construction Materials award in 2023 and finalist in the WasteMINZ Conference, Expo + Workshop Awards for Excellence in the contaminated land management category.
Where possible, sending waste material to landfill was avoided by re-using and recycling construction materials. Examples of this were:
- After demolition, concrete and steel were separated on-site, with the steel sent to a local scrap merchant for recycling, while the concrete was crushed and repurposed as construction aggregates.
- A total of 6,000 tonnes of asphalt was sent to a construction company for recycling and reuse.
- Additionally, all 5km of rail track in the yard were second-hand, repurposed from other parts of KiwiRail’s network.
Solutions were sought for various parts of the project that minimised environmental impact during construction while helping beat the looming project completion deadline – and Moddex’s modular barriers, designed and manufactured offsite, were the perfect alternative to traditional onsite welded barriers that would have typically taken much longer to fabricate and install.
