MARSDEN B - CONSTRUCTION DIVER
In 1974, Alister finished his engineering degree from Canterbury University and entered the workforce. His passion through his formative years was always activity relating to the sea, so when given the chance to work in coastal engineering and to become a certified construction diver he grabbed the opportunity.
Alister worked on several jobs such as repairs to the Timaru City outfall pipeline which had broken its back as it passed through Washdyke beach, profile surveying off Omaha Beach to plot erosion sand movements, laying a new outfall off Martins Bay just north of Auckland for the Snells Beach Algies Bay community and laying a new outfall pipeline off Waitara for New Plymouth.
The biggest job was supervising the laying of the 2.2m diameter concrete pipes to form the cooling water system for Marsden B Power Station. Alister was working for the consulting engineers, Morris & Wilson, while Wilkins and Davies were the contractors. After sheet piling through the beach and surf zone of this ocean beach, the pipes were laid from a jack up platform. Each pipe was only 3.5m long and they were inserted into the previous pipe and sealed with a rubber O-ring. Each pipe was mounted on rubber fenders to provide some flexibility, for the extra load when the trench was backfilled.
Most days for over a year they dived on the work face, checking jointing and support conditions, to ensure the integrity of the work. Detailed records needed to be kept of the work. Often they were working in little or no visibility, and often had to swim up the pipes which took a bit of getting used to.
As well as engineering, this period taught Alister a lot about occupational health and safety and to have a very healthy respect for the sea in all her moods.
He left this job to travel to Europe with it still incomplete. It was a challenging job and the project was finally completed over a year late.