What has been done?
Due to a tree having fallen onto a house, the safest option to avoid any further damage and to minimise the safety risk to residents, was to remove a total of 30 very large pine trees on behalf of Housing New Zealand.
The challenge
The location offered no access for vehicles and machinery such as cranes and trucks. Plus, the undergrowth as well as waterways at the location had to be protected. Therefore, using a helicopter to remove the trees safely was the only option.
The job
Prior to commencing the job, the site and trees were inspected to ensure no native long tailed bats were roosting in the trees.
We had eight highly skilled and experienced climbers involved in dismantling the trees which were then airlifted to a nearby landing site. Our climbers normally stayed up the trees all day. We also had two dogmen on site who were responsible for the communication with the helicopter pilot to safely direct him into the landing site and back to particular trees for lifting. They also coordinated with the arborists and the staff present on the landing site who were operating chippers, diggers and trucks.
In total, there were 170 lifts over 2 ½ days which amounts to approximately 170 tonnes.
We used a Sky Works helicopter and pilot (Euro copter AS 350 B3).
Resident feedback
After there were some residents with safety concerns prior to the job, we received feedback that it was very good to watch the precision, team work and skill levels of the team involved in the job.
