Developers seek fast-tracking for facility they say will help relieve logistics bottleneck facing the region.
A $3 billion industrial precinct planned for development in Otago is set to provide a “big boost” for New Zealand’s primary industries while also future-proofing South Island freight logistics.
Dunedin City infrastructure services committee chair and NZ Land Transport regional transport committee representative Jim O’Malley said the precinct, located north of Milton, has been eight years in the wings.
“I am very excited about this. It was mooted largely because of the movement of timber and dairy exports, but also to future-proof South Island freight logistics.
“We have been working with the regional transport committee in negotiations with NZ Transport Association and NZ Land Transport.
“This opens a lot of industry space, including into the rural Clutha district, also serving Central Otago and Northern Southland as well eastern Otago and the Dunedin region.
Dunedin’s seaport is New Zealand’s sixth largest by export volumes and provides critical access to sea freight for Otago and Southland’s forestry, dairy and aquaculture sectors.
“This precinct will be a big boost for all primary industries,” O’Malley said.
The privately funded $3bn, 200 hectare Milburn Quadrant precinct, being developed by NZ’s largest industrial landowner, Calder Stewart, will include a 55ha inland port and connect directly to State Highway One and the South Island’s main trunk rail line.
The logistics facility will take thousands of heavy truck movements off the region’s roads, improving road safety and significantly cutting CO2 emissions and road maintenance costs.
Calder Stewart land and delivery manager Mark Johnston said the new regional infrastructure will act as a pressure relief valve to address storage capacity constraints at Port Chalmers with freight volumes from central and south Otago forecast to grow 30-40% over the next 10 years.
“Milburn is a shovel-ready, future-facing development that solves real capacity issues for our exporters.
“It’s fully privately funded, so it won’t burden ratepayers and offers the scale and connectivity our regional economy urgently needs.
“This region is heading into a logistics bottleneck. Without scalable inland port infrastructure, exporters will face rising costs, road congestion and lost opportunities.
“We estimate Milburn could eliminate over 10,000 heavy truck movements a year by shifting volume to rail.
“There is also a significant amount of farming land being converted into forestry in the lower South Island. These exports are bulky, seasonal and require staging and storage and cannot be stacked vertically like shipping containers.
“A larger site like Milburn can buffer this better than smaller, fragmented hubs.” Stage one of the project, a state of the art campus with offices and a 10,000 sqm steel fabrication facility at Revolution Hills, is already complete.
The company expects construction on the inland port to begin within the next two years subject to resource consent approvals.
The development could ultimately accommodate 400,000-600,000, 20 foot equivalent unit annually, significantly lifting the region’s export throughput.
In a first for the NZ market, all new buildings at Milburn Quadrant will include rooftop solar generation and, once complete, the development has the potential to generate up to 50MW of power, which could be used on site or distributed to the local community.
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